A prescribed set of hospital-wide patient-safety programs can lead to rapid improvements in the "culture of safety" even in a large, complex, academic medical center, according to a new study by safety experts at Johns Hopkins.

A new community-based study by UC Davis researchers has found that children with developmental disabilities in Southeast-Asian-American families face significant obstacles to receiving intervention services. Barriers include lack of accurate information, language difficulties, lack of trust and limited outreach.

Some people feel loneliness most acutely during the holidays, and a new AARP The Magazine survey, published in the current issue, found that millions of older Americans suffer from chronic loneliness.

Dupuytren's (pronounced DOO-pwee-trens) disease or contracture is an abnormal, progressive thickening of the fascia of the hand (the layer underneath the skin). The disease is inherited, and a patient’s children have at least a 50 percent chance of carrying the abnormal gene. The severity of the disease, however, may vary greatly (new patients are often unaware of any family members having...

Winter weather is no excuse to avoid outdoor exercise with your dog, says a Purdue University veterinarian.

Beneficiaries of the DREAM Act, a bill that would grant certain undocumented students and military service members permanent residency in the U.S. and provide a path to citizenship, could contribute trillions to the nation's economy over the next four decades, according to a new study by researchers at UCLA's North American Integration and Development Center.

A bacterium that uses arsenic in place of phosphorus breaks a golden rule of life on Earth, widening the scope of a hunt for life on other planets.

AP - Scientists have discovered a strange bacteria that can use arsenic as one of its nutrients.

AFP - NASA will announce later Thursday an explosive finding in the search for new life forms on Earth and beyond, a discovery that shifts what scientists consider necessary for life to...

File/Toshifumi Kitamura)" border="0" />AFP - A Japanese whaling ship left port Thursday for Antarctic waters for the annual hunt of the giant sea mammals, Greenpeace said, forecasting this year's whaling operation may be curtailed...

The electric Chevrolet Volt will be rolled out to Canadian dealers in Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, Oshawa, Ottawa, Vancouver and Victoria in August 2011.

Reuters - The White House oil spill commission on Thursday challenged offshore drillers to step up their safety standards and detailed a proposal calling for creation of an independent self-regulating industry group.

The Canadian specialty fruit company, Okanagan, has a way to modify the genetics of apples and prevent them from browning. The company licensed the technology from Australian researchers, who pioneered it in potatoes, and is asking the USDA for approval ...

The atmosphere of a relatively nearby extrasolar planet - just three times bigger than Earth - has been measured in a pioneering experiment.

The discovery of a strange bacteria that can use arsenic as one of its nutrients widens the scope for finding new forms of life on Earth and possibly beyond. While researchers discovered the unusual bacteria here on Earth, they say it shows that life has possibilities beyond the major elements that have been considered essential. "This organism has dual capability. It can grow with either...

The difficult financial straits of European nations are starting to have an impact on...

Trips that researchers at the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) accepted from nonfederal sponsors...

Why aren't psychics keeping America safe from terrorism? Because they can't.

Lake temperatures are rising much faster than air temperatures in many places around the world, and the fate of freshwater species hangs in the balance....

Can't afford the hundreds of thousands of dollars it costs for a ticket to space? There is another way.

You can sign up for the "do not call" registry to keep marketers from calling you, and now the Federal Trade Commission is proposing a similar option for the web. On Wednesday, the agency proposed a "do not track" mechanism that would be universally offered to online users as part of a larger framework to protect privacy online. Marketers are increasingly tracking users' web-surfing habits, a...

The oil industry has protested a decision to reverse plans to allow drilling in the eastern gulf and along the Atlantic Seaboard, but it is uncertain how large the reserves actually are.

SPACE.com - NASA officials will meet today (Dec. 2) to discuss whether the space shuttle Discovery will be ready for one last launch later this month, or must wait until 2011 to fly, following more than a month of delays and repair work.