Researchers have grown human skeletal muscle in the laboratory that, for the first time, contracts and responds just like native tissue to external stimuli such as electrical pulses, biochemical signals and pharmaceuticals. The development should soon allow researchers to test new drugs and study diseases in functioning human muscle outside of the human body.

The bat immune system is astonishingly tolerant of most pathogens — a trait that could pose risks to people, but that also offers clues to preventing human diseases of aging, including cancer. Evidence is mounting that bats can serve as reservoirs of many of the world’s deadliest viruses, including the pathogens behind Ebola, Marburg and related hemorrhagic fevers; acute respiratory syndromes like SARS and MERS; and even familiar villains like measles and mumps.

A new test could slash the wait time for diagnoses and eliminate ineffective prescriptions.

Take a walk through any pharmacy or natural health store, and you’ll find no shortage of products that will allegedly help you: from clarifying shampoo, to detoxifying teas and juices, and, at the more extreme end, supplements, enemas, and even colon cleanses. But before you succumb to this incredibly persistent and appealing notion, you should know that the idea of using some product to "detox" is gobbledygook.