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If you are getting forgetful as you get older, then scientists may have good news for you. They have found that phytochemical-rich foods, such as blueberries, are effective at reversing age-related deficits in memory.

Scientists have created a set of computer programs that use electronic medical records to help clinicians and public officials detect contagious illness and automatically report them to public health departments.

High cholesterol levels are considered to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease including stroke. Therefore, many cholesterol lowering drugs have been developed by pharmaceutical companies in recent years. One class of these drugs, statins, has been found to reduce the incidence of stroke and progression of Alzheimer's disease when prophylactically administered.

Researchers were able to control heart muscle function in a new way after discovering the previously unknown role of two enzymes in heart muscle contraction. Although in the early stages, the research provides fresh knowledge of how heart muscle functions and also holds early potential as a treatment for various heart diseases—including congestive heart failure—that is possibly less taxing on the heart than current regimens.

Early studies show that a new mucosal vaccine against anthrax has the potential to provide military personnel with more effective and efficient protection against a "popular" bioweapon, according to a new study. With the new vaccine, researchers sought to take two steps at once, fine-tuning its ingredients and delivering it by nose spray instead of injection.

Using a guinea pig model that can assess neural changes in offspring born to mothers given methamphetamine during an otherwise normal pregnancy, researchers provide new evidence for the cognitive damage of these drugs.

Male kidney cancer deaths have fallen by 13 percent across Europe since they peaked in the early 1990s and women have benefited from a 17 percent reduction. But the study of 32 countries, based on data from the World Health Organization, has revealed wide variations between countries.

Small molecules known as miRNAs, which are generated naturally by the body, regulate the conversion of genetic information into proteins. New data have now indicated that miRNAs can control the fertility of female mice by regulating the development and function of the corpus luteum, the structure that forms at the site of release of the fertilized egg and that is required to maintain pregnancy at the early stages.

Amid concern that recipients of certain blood transfusions may risk infection with a deadly protein responsible for the human form of mad cow disease, researchers now report development of a special filter that quickly and effectively removes the protein from blood.

By revealing the inner workings of a common cell-to-cell signaling system, biologists have uncovered new clues about mysterious and contentious creatures called cancer stem cells.