With little more than a conventional photocopier and transparency film, anyone can build a functional microfluidic chip.

A curious contagious cancer, found in dogs, wolves and coyotes, can repair its own genetic mutations by adopting genes from its host animal, according to a new study in the journal Science .

The discovery of an ancient fossil, nicknamed ‘Mrs T’, has allowed scientists for the first time to sex pterodactyls – flying reptiles that lived alongside dinosaurs between 220-65 million years ago. Pterodactyls featured prominently in Spielberg’s Jurassic Park III and are a classic feature of many dinosaur movies where they are often depicted as giant flying reptiles with a crest

Fat appears to associate with some distinctive chemical changes in the DNA – a finding that may help explain why obesity can increase the risk for chronic problems such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, researchers report.

Ebola, a virus that causes deadly hemorrhagic fever in humans, has no known cure or vaccine. But a new study by University of Illinois at Chicago scientists has uncovered a family of small molecules which appear to bind to the virus’s outer protein coat and may inhibit its entry into human cells.

There is not enough evidence to recommend the widespread use of statins in people with no previous history of heart disease, according to a new Cochrane Systematic Review. Researchers say statins should be prescribed with caution in those at low risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). CVD is the most common cause of death, accounting for nearly a third of all deaths worldwide.

Johns Hopkins study shows residency redesign needed to ready doctors for outpatient care Doctors who have completed training in internal medicine are in general poorly prepared for jobs as primary care physicians, most notably lacking the knowledge to best care for patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol, new Johns Hopkins research suggests. The researchers also found, however,   that physicians who completed internal medicine residency programs at community hospitals were significantly better prepared to treat patients in an outpatient setting than physicians who trained at academic medical centers. One likely reason for the gaps in knowledge is the focus in medical training on inpatient care at the expense of outpatient care, the bread and butter of any physician, the researchers say.