Captain David Matschke is well aware of the dangers he faces on the job. A firefighter for 32 years, he is trained to race to the scene of house fires, car crashes and even industrial accidents, breaking through windows and doors to evacuate occupants and routinely putting himself in harm’s way. But beyond fire itself, a study published today in the journal Environmental Science & Technology sheds new light on another, more insidious threat that may be putting firefighters’ health at risk: toxic chemicals in smoke.

Much of Professor Emeritus Richard Wurtman’s career in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences revolved around developing new treatments for diseases and conditions by modifying chemicals produced in the brain.

Bailey Bernknopf was born with four congenital heart defects.

She had her first surgery at five months old, followed by another at age 14 that had left doctors wondering if she would survive the night.

It’s a sound that can keep even the weariest among us from falling asleep: the high-pitched whine of a mosquito. This irritating buzz already makes us run, slap and slather on repellant. But if Stanford University researchers have their way, it may also prompt us to take out our cellphones and do a little science.

Air pollution is classified as carcinogenic to humans given its association with lung cancer, but there is little evidence for its association with cancer at other body sites. In a new large-scale prospective study led by the Barcelona Institute of Global Health (ISGlobal), an institution supported by the ”la Caixa” Foundation, and the American Cancer Society, researchers observed an association between some air pollutants and mortality from kidney, bladder and colorectal cancer. 

In the first ever study of its kind, Professor Jane Ogden and her researchers from the University of Surrey examined the impact of labelling food products as ‘snacks’ or ‘meals’. 

Caloric restriction diets have been associated with various health benefits, but their effects on the skin have not been previously demonstrated. Research conducted at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil shows that controlling calories helps mice live longer, although it reduces the reserves of fat in adipose tissue needed to keep the body warm.

Researchers at the University of Maryland and Duke University have designed a novel protein-sugar vaccine candidate that, in an animal model, stimulated an immune response against sugars that form a protective shield around HIV. The molecule could one day become part of a successful HIV vaccine.

A study by the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country has characterised the overweight or obese hypertensive population.

McMaster researchers are investigating how lead poisoning affected human health in the Roman Empire.

The research, jointly led by Tracy Prowse, an associate professor in McMaster's Department of Anthropology and Professor Maureen Carroll from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Archaeology, is the first study to investigate lead production and use in the Roman Empire, using archaeological and skeletal evidence from a specific site in Roman Italy.