Review

Doctors should stop prescribing antibiotics for the common cold, review advises

Antibiotics should not be prescribed to patients with the common cold because there is scant evidence they stop other infections, and the benefits do not outweigh the risks, according to a new systematic review of current evidence. "Antibiotics appear to have no benefit in the treatment of acute upper respiratory tract infections," conclude Dr. Bruce Arroll and Dr. Timothy Kenealy of the U...

Microbes under Greenland Ice may be preview of what scientists find under Mars' surface

A University of California, Berkeley, study of methane-producing bacteria frozen at the bottom of Greenland's two-mile thick ice sheet could help guide scientists searching for similar bacterial life on Mars. Methane is a greenhouse gas present in the atmospheres of both Earth and Mars. If a class of ancient microbes called Archaea are the source of Mars' methane, as some scientists have p...

UN review shows need to halt destructive fishing practice

A long-awaited report by the United Nations shows the need for an international moratorium on bottom-trawling and other destructive fishing practices that damage deep sea life, Conservation International (CI) said. The U.N. Division for Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea (DOALOS) reviewed measures to protect the vulnerable deep oceans of the high seas ?the 64 percent of ocean that lies beyo...

Federal testing for mad cow disease a failure, law review editor says

The U.S. Agriculture Department's mad cow disease-testing program is wholly inadequate and the agency's refusal to let processors do their own testing further undercuts the safety of American beef, a University of Illinois scholar writes. Eating meat from cattle infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, can cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a fatal human brain-wast...

Quantum dots reviewed -- Could these nanoparticles hold the cure to cancer?

The worlds of medical and biological research are abuzz with the promises offered by nanoparticles known as semiconductor quantum dots. These Quantum Dots (QDs) have unique optical and electronic properties that make them suitable for breakthrough treatments such as the detection and destruction of cancer cells. Just released on the nanotechnology website AZoNano, is a comprehensive r...

Rising skin cancer rates are more likely to affect wealthy people, says 12-year review

Researchers who looked at official cancer statistics for nearly 23,000 patients over a 12-year period, reported a 20...