Richard Harris

A scientist tested his peers' ability to pick which cancer experiments would pan out. They failed more often than not, which doesn't say much for intuition or efficiency in the scientific process.

About 5 percent of pregnant women infected with Zika in Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories last year had babies with birth defects, says the federal health agency. And the risk isn't over.

Some states dictate how doctors must treat this life-threatening reaction to infection, and early intervention is helping. But scientific evidence may be changing too rapidly for the rules to keep up.

A neuroscientist argues that our noses are more powerful than we think. Humans, he says, actually have a great sense of smell.

A federal task force says the risks of screening outweigh benefits. Many thyroid growths never develop into dangerous cancers, and overdiagnosis can lead people to have unnecessary surgery.

The hypercompetitive world of biomedical research occasionally drives scientists to cheat. More often, scientists make decisions that undercut their results. That can lead colleagues astray.

The National Academy of Sciences has toughened up its guidelines to call cutting corners, dubious statistics and not fully sharing research methods "detrimental" to science.

Most potential new drugs don't work when tested in people. It's a major disappointment and it drives up the cost of developing new drugs. One big reason is the use of animals in medical research.

The mayor held a brief news conference Friday to deny the allegations. He said the "untrue allegations" were painful to him and his husband, and said the person making the accusations is "troubled."

The bodywide inflammation known as sepsis kills about 300,000 people in U.S. hospitals each year. Promising treatments have come and gone, warn skeptical doctors, who call for rigorous research.

Researchers have long known behavior, environment and genetics play a role in cancer. A study in Science finds luck is also a major factor. Nearly two-thirds of cancer mutations arise randomly.

Research hasn't yet confirmed the early hints that a mix of IV vitamins and steroids might stop the fatal organ failure of sepsis. But an effective treatment for sepsis would be a really big deal.

The National Institutes of Health, which funds research in treatments and cures, could lose 20 percent of its budget under the administration's proposal. More money would go for addiction treatment.

Scientists hunting cures for cancer hope to find therapies with fewer side effects. But there's also new evidence that old-style chemotherapy sometimes helps gentler treatments work better.

Medical breakthroughs that were covered by newspapers were often later disproved by more comprehensive research, a study finds. That's a problem for scientists and journalists.

Data suggests that the rate of colon cancer among people under 50 is on the rise, but there are lots of possible explanations for that. Scientists say teasing out the truth will be tricky.

Increasingly, advocates for patients are in the room when big medical studies are designed. They demand answers to big questions: "Will the results of this study actually help anybody?"

Low levels of iron in the blood may indicate a serious but treatable medical condition if caught early, but patients in a testosterone trial were not informed, a bioethicist finds.

CRISPR technology is already worth billions of dollars, investors say. This ruling seems to affirm the biggest piece of the pie goes to the Broad, over patent rival University of California, Berkeley.

About a quarter of adults who think their hearing is fine actually have some hearing loss, according to the CDC. And many of them are in their 20s. Activities of daily living are often to blame.