Fecal transplants are being used more often to treat life-threatening bacterial infections. But the Food and Drug Administration worried that the still-experimental procedure put patients at risk. Now it is dropping plans to restrict transplants after doctors and patients complained.

Sarah Murnaghan, 10, has been moved to the adult waiting list for lung transplants. Murnaghan's parents are thrilled for their daughter, who's clinging to life. But a federal judge's ruling is also raising a number of concerns.

Some states have started requiring hospitals to screen their patients for the drug-resistant bacteria known as MRSA. But a study that tested different approaches to reducing infections found that screening first wasn't the most effective approach.

While studying microorganisms on humans is not new, tracking fungi is. In a census of sorts, scientists checked the skin of healthy volunteers. They found an expansive ecosystem of silent inhabitants.

Scientists in Oregon have achieved something that has eluded researchers for years. They have created stem cells that are tailored to individual patients, made from cloned embryos. That would open the door to treating many diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, spinal cord injuries and many others. But researchers face ethical dilemmas.

The achievement is a long-sought step toward harnessing the potential power of such cells to treat diseases. But the discovery raises ethical concerns because it brings researchers closer to cloning humans.

Instead of rinsing off the pacifier when it falls out of your baby's mouth, new research suggests that sucking it clean for them could help keep them from developing eczema and asthma. Researchers say the harmless bacteria in parents' saliva works by stimulating the babies' immune system.

When gut microbes break down certain foods like red meat and eggs, they produce a compound tied to risks for heart attack, stroke and death, a study found. The research could lead to new ways to prevent heart disease by shifting the mix of gut bacteria.

Researchers say they can measure how much pain someone is experiencing and even watch as prescription painkillers relieve it. The scanning technique could help doctors treat pain better, but the work is also fraught with questions about how the technology could interfere with the relationship between doctors and patients.

Robert G. Edwards, a British physiologist who won a Nobel Prize in 2010 for helping develop in vitro fertilization, died Wednesday. He was 87. Audie Cornish talks with Rob Stein about Edwards' work and the controversy that still surrounds the techniques he helped create.

Philosophers, poets and psychologists have long shared a fascination with dreams. Now Japanese scientists have scanned the brains of dreaming volunteers to create a lexicon of imagery that can be used to detect and decode dreams while a person sleeps.

More and more Americans are opting to live together before they get married. That's according to new federal data. And on average, cohabitations last about 22 months compared to 13 months in 1995.

About 1.2 million people die prematurely every year in China from exposure to outdoor air pollution. Smog has dogged the country as it grows at an explosive rate and burns huge quantities of fossil fuels. But there are signs that the government is beginning to take the issue more seriously.

Anthrax has long been considered one of the most likely weapons a bioterrorist might use. Some researchers think the vaccine should be tested on children to find out if it would be safe to use in an attack. But a presidential bioethics commission says that first, researchers will have to show that children would face no more than "minimal risk."

Nearly 70 percent of American drivers say they talked on their cell phones while driving at least once in the previous month, according to a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And about a third admitted to reading or sending texts or emails while driving.

Federal health officials warned that a dangerous group of superbugs has become increasingly common in hospitals throughout the past decade. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the bacteria are resistant to virtually all antibiotics, including the ones doctors use as a last-ditch option.

The new guidelines for treating childhood ear infections are intended to reduce unnecessary antibiotics use. They say doctors should look at the eardrum to make sure a child really has an ear infection, instead of relying on symptoms. And if the child doesn't have severe symptoms, see if the ear gets better on its own.

Technology now exists that makes it possible for doctors to decipher the entire genetic code of a newborn. Should it be done? What about fetuses in the womb? That's now a possibility, and it's stirring intense debate.

For the first time, scientists have created fertile eggs and healthy offspring using embryonic stem cells. The experiments in mice raise the possibility of artificial egg production and new infertility treatments for humans someday.

A woman over 40 who uses eggs donated by a younger woman has essentially the same chance of having a baby as she would have had in her 20s. That's according to a large new study that looked at the success rates of multiple IVF treatments for nearly 250,000 women across age groups.