Two new studies in this week’s issue of the journal Science demonstrate that the scaling up of HIV antiretroviral treatments in the rural province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa has been worth the hefty price tag.

The emerging ability to detect changes in the brain linked to Alzheimer’s disease gives scientists the prospect of developing preventive measures for the devastating disorder, a leading specialist on the disease told a recent gathering at AAAS.

Dr. Reisa A. Sperling, director of the Center for Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment at the Harvard Medical School, said there has been some “very exciting research” recently which suggests that the preclinical process of Alzheimer’s typically is underway for 10 or even 20 years before detectable symptoms.

A mysterious and deadly cancer that has been plaguing populations of Tasmanian devils for more than a decade must have abandoned its original host long ago, essentially becoming a parasite of the devils, researchers say.