Alison Bruzek

Biochemists aren't really known for their sense of humor. But we recently met one who was warm, inviting and downright hilarious. "When chemists don't know what something is, they call it a substance," quips Shirley Corriher.

Corriher is perhaps best known for authoring two books, Cookwise: The Hows and ...

How do Americans feel about Ebola and the U.S. response to the outbreak so far?

NPR and our partners at Truven Health Analytics asked more than 3,000 adults in a poll conducted online and by phone (mobile and landline) Oct. 1-15.

Nearly everyone — 97 percent — knew about the ...

Two entrepreneurs have developed new tricks to make food that's literally illuminating, using ingredients that are as natural and unprocessed as possible. It's just basic food chemistry, folks.

Basic information about Ebola isn't as clear as it probably could be.

A recent poll by the Harvard School of Public Health, for instance, found that 38 percent of Americans are worried that Ebola will infect them or a family member in the next year, despite assurances from officials ...

As a neurosurgeon in Connecticut, Dr. Katrina Firlik saw too many patients make the same mistakes, over and over again.

At her hospital in Greenwich she'd see patients with hemorrhagic strokes that could have been prevented. "They didn't take their hypertension medications for the last couple decades," she says.

Firlik ...

In the battle to stop Ebola's spread, health officials worldwide have been deploying thermometers in hopes of detecting the earliest symptoms among people who might be sick. The no-contact thermometer, already broadly used in some airports in Africa, has come to U.S. airports this week — now at New York's ...

When Ebola virus resurfaced in West Africa in December 2013, public health officials were hopeful that it could be contained, as it had been in past outbreaks.

But the virus continues to ravage communities in Africa and has now spread to the United States and Europe. The number of new ...

The Nobel Prize for chemistry just went to a team that discovered a better way to take a picture. Really.

Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell and William E. Moerner received about $1.1 million and a lifetime of adding "Nobel Prize winner" to their biographies for creating ...

Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, died Wednesday morning at Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. As relatives and friends grieve and plan an evening service for the 42-year-old man, public health officials are putting in action plans to safely manage ...

Thomas Duncan, the first person diagnosed with the Ebola virus in the United States, is in isolation in a Dallas hospital, and the family he stayed with is now in quarantine in an apartment complex north of downtown Dallas.

That means the family has been ordered not to leave their ...

Your dining companion may have more influence over your eating habits than you realize.

We've known that people often have friends with similar body weights, but new research suggests that dining with an overweight companion may make us more likely to eat more unhealthful food.

A study in ...

After confirming the first U.S. case of Ebola virus, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stepped up its public education efforts, including tweets like the one above about how Ebola is spread.

But we've still got questions, lots of questions. That's especially true for people who live ...

Here's something to make even the most carnivorous among us shudder: a burger that tastes something like human flesh.

It's not just the stuff of horror flicks anymore, thanks to two pioneering foodies out of London. For a publicity stunt to promote Season 5 of The Walking Dead, which premieres ...

As schools cut down on physical education and recess, kids are spending more time than ever in a desk. And while nerdy second-graders like me didn't ever consider arguing for more gym, there's increasing evidence that being active helps not just children's waistlines but their brains.

"If you consider the ...

You wake up feeling gross – stuffy and full of aches. A quick Google search of your symptoms confirms that yes, you probably have a cold and not the plague. But what if you were directed to a site that had a legitimate sounding name but wasn't really accurate at ...

The De Halve Maan Brewery prides itself on its family origins, its classic recipe, and the history of its beer, crafted carefully since 1856. But there's change brewing (pun intended) on the horizon: In 2015, its owners hope to open a pipeline of beer beneath the city streets of Bruges.

...

For those who count Don Draper among their TV loves (or love-to-hates), it comes as no surprise that drinking and smoking go hand in hand. Public health researchers have long known that smokers tend to drink, drinkers tend to smoke, and heavy smokers (see: nearly anyone on Mad Men) ...

For decades, OB-GYNs have offered prenatal tests to expectant moms to uncover potential issues, including Down syndrome, before they give birth. However, some tests, such as amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling, carry health risks, including miscarriage. For some women, the risks can be greater than the potential benefits from ...

If you haven't been DNA-sequencing your dinner lately, you've been missing out. In particular, we suggest examining those spongy, wild fungi before you lay them on your pizza.

Bryn Dentinger and Laura Suz, mycologists with the Royal Botanic Gardens in Surrey, England, were curious about what was ...

When you think of a dumpster diver, you might think of someone like this:

And while you wouldn't be totally wrong, you also wouldn't exactly be describing Maximus Thaler.

A 24-year-old graduate of Tufts University, Thaler is a semi-professional dumpster diver with a moral purpose. "At some point, I found ...