What We Know About Diet and Weight Loss

NYTimes.com (Health) 12/10 6:52A GINA KOLATA

After decades of research, there are shockingly few firm conclusions.

Is Screen Time Bad for Kids’ Brains?

NYTimes.com (Health) 12/10 5:03A BENEDICT CAREY

A study featured on “60 Minutes” is sure to alarm parents. Here’s what scientists know, and don’t know, about the link between screens, behavior, and development.

Global Health: In Remote Villages, Surprising New Measures Save Children With Malaria

NYTimes.com (Health) 12/10 4:54A DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Malaria quickly kills toddlers. But rapid diagnostic tests, a new suppository drug and bicycle ambulances can buy enough time to get stricken children to hospitals.

MIND: Can We Really Inherit Trauma?

NYTimes.com (Health) 12/9 10:00P BENEDICT CAREY

Headlines suggest that the genetic marks of trauma can be passed from one generation to the next. But the evidence, at least in humans, is circumstantial at best.

The Checkup: Why Is Children’s Masturbation Such a Secret?

NYTimes.com (Health) 12/9 10:00P PERRI KLASS, M.D.

Parents and children have questions, but there is surprisingly little guidance available in the pediatric literature.

Hospital-Acquired Infections Are Declining

NYTimes.com (Health) 12/9 10:00P NICHOLAS BAKALAR

There were reductions in urinary and surgical infections, but not in pneumonia or C. diff infections.

Personal Health: How to Foster Empathy in Children

NYTimes.com (Health) 12/9 10:00P JANE E. BRODY

Research shows that we are each born with a given number of neurons that participate in an empathetic response. But early life experience shapes how we act on it.

What These Medical Journals Don’t Reveal: Top Doctors’ Ties to Industry

NYTimes.com (Health) 12/8 3:09A CHARLES ORNSTEIN and KATIE THOMA

Academic research publications rely on doctors to voluntarily disclose their payments from drug and health companies in a lax reporting system some say is broken.

Trilobites: Seeking Clues to Longevity in Lonesome George’s Genes

NYTimes.com (Health) 12/7 10:00P STEPH YIN

The giant tortoise lived for more than a century, carrying genes linked to a robust immune system, efficient DNA repair and resistance to cancer.

U.N. AIDS Agency Is in ‘State of Crisis’ and Needs New Leader, Report Says

NYTimes.com (Health) 12/7 9:18A NICK CUMMING-BRUCE

Experts accused Michel Sidibé, the agency’s chief, of having an autocratic style leading to “ethical blindness” on harassment and the abuse of power.

Six Michigan Doctors Charged in $464 Million Insurance and Opioid Scheme

NYTimes.com (Health) 12/7 7:56A LAURA M. HOLSON

Federal prosecutors said the doctors unnecessarily prescribed opioids to patients and sought to defraud insurance companies.

Matter: The Planet Has Seen Sudden Warming Before. It Wiped Out Almost Everything.

NYTimes.com (Health) 12/7 5:09A CARL ZIMMER

In some ways, the planet's worst mass extinction — 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian Period — may parallel climate change today.

The New Old Age: Older Americans Are Flocking to Medical Marijuana

NYTimes.com (Health) 12/7 4:05A PAULA SPAN

Oils, tinctures and salves — and sometimes old-fashioned buds — are increasingly common in seniors’ homes. Doctors warn that popularity has outstripped scientific evidence.

Q&A: Lizard Dreams May Not Be So Different From Your Own

NYTimes.com (Health) 12/7 3:51A C. CLAIBORNE RAY

Some species seem to experience a type of slumber resembling R.E.M. sleep, the dream state of humans.

P.M. Forni, Who Argued for ‘Choosing Civility,’ Dies at 67

NYTimes.com (Health) 12/7 3:24A NEIL GENZLINGER

In two books he wrote about rudeness and how to avoid it. He also started a program to encourage the practice of good manners.