Cancer

The Shell Norco refinery in Norco, Louisiana, Thursday, March 8, 2018.

A new interactive map can help assess carcinogenic emissions risk

Health & Medicine

The nonprofit investigative newsroom ProPublica recently created an interactive map that highlights the EPA’s failure to account for cumulative cancer risk for Americans who live near several industrial facilities.

Descendants of Henrietta Lacks, whose cells, known as HeLa cells, have been used in medical research without her permission, say a prayer with attorneys outside the federal courthouse in Baltimore

Henrietta Lacks’ biographer: ‘So much of science started with her cells’

Health & Medicine
Farmer Pepe Casanas poses with a scorpion near his armpit in Los Palacios, Cuba.

Scorpion venom? This Cuban farmer swears by it.

Health & Medicine
Organic vegetables in the supermarket

A new study strongly suggests eating a diet of organic foods can lower cancer rates

Health & Medicine
The Rumney Marsh, a haven to both birds and fish, sits in a highly industrial area north of Boston. For decades, the marsh's welfare has been in jeopardy due to its close proximity to an incinerator.

Residents worry Massachusetts waste incinerator is contaminating waterways

In a recent study, researchers found that naked mole rats appear to defy the traditional laws of aging.

Looking for the fountain of youth? Try looking in the tunnels inhabited by naked mole rats

Health

A naked mole rat may not be the most attractive creature in the Animal Kingdom — but they might take the prize for the most fascinating when it comes to their genetics.

Professor Ketan Patel works in the lab at MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, Britain, Jan. 2, 2018.

Alcohol damages stem cell DNA and increases cancer risk

Health

Working with mice in a laboratory, British scientists used chromosome analysis and DNA sequencing to examine the genetic damage caused by acetaldehyde, a harmful chemical produced when the body processes alcohol.

A medical worker explains a family planning method using the Intra Uterine device (IUD) to housewives in a local government health center in Navotas, Manila, March 3, 2011.

A new study finds IUDs dramatically reduce the risk of cervical cancer

Health

The risk of cervical cancer in women with IUDs was one-third lower than women without them, said the review in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, which included 16 previous studies spanning more than 12,000 women around the globe.

Maryam Mirzakhani

Iranian newspapers honor math ‘genius’ Maryam Mirzakhani — some with pictures of her without a hijab

Leaders

In some cases, newspapers even broke with tradition and portrayed Mirzakhani without her hair covered by a hijab — mandatory for women in public since the Islamic republic’s 1979 revolution.

Hematopoietic blood cells

Blood-forming stem cells likely hold the key to curing many types of disease

Medicine

Stem cells, the raw building blocks of our body that can form any type of cell, have opened up an exciting area of medicine. A rediscovery in the use of blood-forming stem cells may further accelerate the treatment of aggressive cancers and autoimmune diseases.