The almond-shaped lump on Brian Hill's throat didn't make sense to him. The doctor said it was a symptom of advanced oral cancer, but Hill had never smoked a cigarette or chewed a plug of tobacco, considered the main causes of the disease when he was diagnosed in 1997. So why was it there?

"Obesity can spread like a contagious disease," William Shatner's character says on the preview clip for tomorrow's episode of "Boston Legal."

The past couple of decades have yielded repeated - and lethal - reminders of how animals can make people sick. Think apes and AIDS, mosquitoes and West Nile virus.

Dr. Claes Dohlman, considered the "founder of modern corneal science," recently received the Laureate Recognition Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology for his contributions in restoring sight worldwide. And he won the Global Leadership Award from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, where he was chairman of the ophthalmology department. He was also chairman of the department at Harvard ...

Excerpts from the Globe's blog on the Boston-area medical community.

Since you're presumably young, you should use almost all of your limited time getting aerobic exercise like running, biking, or brisk walking, said William J. Evans, director of the Nutrition, Metabolism, and Exercise Laboratory at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. That's because "regular aerobic exercise increases life expectancy by decreasing the risk of a host of chronic diseases," ...

This is an interesting idea, but to see why it's a problem to implement we need to look at a little physics.

MONDAY, NOV. 12 Infectious cancers Harvard Medical School students continue their "Science in the News" seminar with a lecture about contagious cancers. At 6 p.m. in the Mildred Avenue Community Center in Mattapan. Repeated Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Armenise Amphitheater at the medical school. Tuesday, Nov. 13 Green history The Massachusetts Historical Society will sponsor a discussion about ...

Climate Change Microscopic ocean plants and animals may consume increasing amounts of carbon as oceans become more acidic, a new experiment carried out in the narrow fjords of Norway suggests. Scientists know that the world's oceans are becoming more acidic from the absorption of carbon dioxide from power plants, factories, and vehicles. Experiments have already shown that acidity could eat ...