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January 6, 2012 The vaccine protected 80 percent of monkeys from infection with SIV, the simian version of HIV. By comparison, an experimental HIV vaccine was 31 percent effective in protecting people against infection in a large-scale study unveiled in 2009.

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December 29, 2011 Surgeons make full-face transplants a reality for people with severely disfigured faces. Three such operations were performed successfully in Boston this year, a turning point in the field.

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December 22, 2011 The journal Science has withdrawn a study from 2009 that suggested an obscure virus causes chronic fatigue syndrome. The findings raised patients' hopes for effective treatments. But scientists who raced to confirm the viral link failed to do so.

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December 21, 2011 In a landmark decision, an expert panel that advises the government on research security says key details of work on the contagiousness of flu viruses should not be published openly. I

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December 6, 2011 Bedbugs' eagerness to mate with their kin is one reason their populations have taken off so dramatically, new research suggests. Inbreeding comes naturally to them, and it doesn't seem to hurt their offspring much, as is the case with most other creatures.

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November 17, 2011 At a recent conference, a Dutch scientist said he'd made bird flu virus highly contagious between ferrets — the animal model used to study human flu infection. Just five mutations did the trick. Security experts fear publishing the work could spur development of new weapons.

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November 14, 2011 In a country with a rampant obesity epidemic, many patients say their doctors don't spend enough time talking with them about losing weight. But doctors often complain that when they do bring up the issue, nothing changes.

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November 10, 2011 The drug, given by injection, isn't going to be on pharmacy shelves anytime soon. But it has now been seen to work in five different species — from mice to monkeys. A human test of the drug is set to begin soon.

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October 31, 2011 Most people who lose weight end up gaining it back — and it's not just a matter of willpower. In fact, once we begin to shed those first few pounds, says one expert, "the biology really kicks in and tries to resist the weight loss."

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October 27, 2011 Willpower will only take you so far, in case you haven't run that experiment yourself. Turns out our bodies have a fuel gauge, not entirely unlike the gas gauge in our cars, that tell us when it's time to tank up on food. Dieting can make the gauge go haywire.

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October 21, 2011 Contrary to what you may have heard, more Facebook friends hasn't been proved to make your brain bigger. Check out what researchers actually found in a new study.

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October 20, 2011 Teen drivers have fewer accidents as they gain experience. But that doesn't mean they are cutting down on dangerous habits like taking sharp turns and braking quickly, research shows.

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October 20, 2011 A new study documents significant fluctuations in the IQs of a group of British teenagers. The findings bolster the theory that the IQ test isn't a measure of a person's "fixed" intellectual capacity but rather, a gauge of acquired knowledge that progresses in fits and starts.

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October 19, 2011 Teenage boys and girls who watch a lot of TV shape their attitudes toward sex differently. Mom may have something to do with that, according to a new study.

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October 13, 2011 While the results are a technical tour de force, the researchers did not find any genetic feature that could explain why the Black Death was so virulent. In fact, the germ behind the medieval plague isn't much different from the one that causes bubonic plague today.

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