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Scientists said Wednesday a new drug tested on monkeys provided an astonishingly effective shield against an animal version of the AIDS virus, a major gain in the quest for an HIV vaccine. Macaque monkeys given the drug were able to fend off high, repeated doses of the simian version of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), they reported in the journal Nature.

Science denial has real, societal consequences. Denial of the link between HIV and AIDS led to more than 330,000 premature deaths in South Africa. Denial of the link between smoking and cancer has caused millions of premature deaths. Thanks to vaccination denial, preventable diseases are making a comeback.

If thinking about the billions of bacteria taking up residence in and on your body gives you the willies, you probably won't find it comforting that humans are also full of viruses. These maligned microbes are actually intertwined in the very fibers of our being-about 8 percent of our genetic material is made up of absorbed forms of retroviruses, the viral family to which HIV, the pathogen that causes AIDS, belongs.

Bedbugs are a growing public health issue in the United States and around the world, but their resurgence in recent years may have been aided by humans who unwittingly helped the pests evolve numerous ways of thwarting a common insecticide, scientists say.

4:30 video View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-it-s-so...↵↵In 2008, something incredible happened: a man was cured of HIV. In over 70 million HIV cases, this was a first, and, so far, a last, and we don't yet understand exactly how he was cured. But if we can cure people of various diseases, like malaria and hepatitis C, why can't we cure HIV? Janet Iwasa examines the specific traits of the HIV virus that make it so difficult to cure.↵↵Lesson by Janet Iwasa, animation by Javier Saldeña.

Technical details aside, Crispr-Cas9 makes it easy, cheap, and fast to move genes around-any genes, in any living thing, from bacteria to people. "These are monumental moments in the history of biomedical research," Baltimore says. "They don't happen every day." Using the three-year-old technique, researchers have already reversed mutations that cause blindness, stopped cancer cells from multiplying, and made cells impervious to the virus that causes AIDS. Agronomists have rendered wheat invulnerable to killer fungi like powdery mildew, hinting at engineered staple crops that can feed a population of 9 billion on an ever-warmer planet. Bioengineers have used Crispr to alter the DNA of yeast so that it consumes plant matter and excretes ethanol, promising an end to reliance on petrochemicals. Startups devoted to Crispr have launched. International pharmaceutical and agricultural companies have spun up Crispr R&D. Two of the most powerful universities in the US are engaged in a vicious war over the basic patent.

This case study challenges students to differentiate between anecdotal evidence and science-based evidence related to human health. The case uses a "flipped" approach in which students watch two preparatory videos prior to attending class. The first video defines anecdotal evidence while the second characterizes the different categories of scientific studies that generate evidence that is not anecdotal. Students watch the videos, analyze scenarios for anecdotal evidence, and think about what types of evidence they use to make health-related decisions. When students meet in class, they work in groups to compare and contrast these different categories of scientific studies and classify actual research studies aided by a dichotomous key for distinguishing between different types of studies related to human health. Primarily designed for students in introductory general biology courses, the activity could also be useful for lower division nutrition, physiology, or non-major biology courses or any course where students need to differentiate between science and pseudoscience.

American Museum of Natural History Explore the natural world with Science Bulletins; our documentary Feature Stories, Data Visualizations, and News updates focus on recent discoveries and new technologies in astrophysics, Earth science, biodiversity, and human health and evolution.

Five people living with HIV are currently free of the detectable virus after taking part in a new vaccine-based therapy.  The patients are also not taking daily antiretroviral drugs, with one having been drug free for a total of seven months; a milestone moment in a move towards a future where HIV treatment doesn't require ART.

The UK's leading cancer charity yesterday welcomed work by British scientists who created a breed of genetically modified hens that can produce cancer-fighting medicines in their eggs. The research could slash the cost of producing drugs and potentially save the NHS millions of pounds.

HIV jumped from apes to humans at least four times, as evidenced by genetically distinct groups of the virus that have been detected: M, N, O, and P. While N and P have had little impact, M is responsible for the pandemic affecting millions of individuals, and O has infected another 100,000.

The projects you will find here have been curated by BIE and were gathered from online project libraries. These projects are meant to inspire your own ideas or may be adapted to fit the needs of your classroom.

Extensive lessons from hands on inquiry lab at University of Rochester, developed/written with research funds.

Hans Rosling unveils data visuals that untangle the complex risk factors of one of the world's deadliest (and most misunderstood) diseases: HIV. By following the data, he suggests a surprising key to ending the epidemic.

In the blood of a survivor of the recent Ebola outbreak, a team of researchers has discovered a number of antibodies that seem to successfully combat the deadly virus in mice. The findings, published in the journal Science, may help point scientists in the right direction for developing a vaccine that could protect against the disease.

Gut microbes-the collection of bacteria and other organisms that inhabit our intestines-have been shown to play a role in a wide variety of conditions from asthma to obesity. But researchers still don't know precisely how they contribute to obesity. To gain a better understanding, a team led by physiologist Mirko Trajkovski from the University of Geneva in Switzerland has been following up on any leads he can to learn about the link between these microbes and metabolism. Trajkovski knew from past research that getting rid of some gut bacteria in mice makes them less able to maintain their internal body temperature in the cold. He wondered whether there might be a connection between gut microbes, external temperature, and weight control.