robert bazell, nbc news, new york. >>> joining us now, dr.ine, a pediatrician based here in new york, she worked with the american academy of pediatrics and is a mother herself. thanks for being here this evening. this is difficult for parents to accept because there's almost a helpless feeling that it brings about. what should parents be looking for in their children in the early developmental years. >> early intervention really improved out. if you have a child that is 18 months old and doesn't make good eye contact and doesn't recognize their own name and respond to their own name, doesn't point to things, doesn't wave, doesn't interact with other children, then you want to talk to your pediatrician. all pediatricians are screening children for autism at the age of 18 months and two years, but as a parents, you can play a role in helping with the diagnosis. >> what is the big take away? what one thing stood out in your mind we should all take away from it? >> the big take away is there's an increase in identification of children with autis

robert bazell, nbc news, new york. >>> got a lot more to tell you about tonight. a controversial shooting case in florida. a teenager is dead. the question, was race a factor? >>> was it self-defense or an >>> was it self-defense or an unjustified overreaction? that's the central question raised by the recent shooting of a 17-year-old teenager in florida by a member of a neighborhood watch group. the shooter has not been arrested. and 911 recordings have just been released. we get the story from nbc's lily luciano. >> reporter: 17-year-old trayvon martin was walking to a family friend's home in a gated community when he was shot dead by a neighborhood watch captain. the shooter george zimmerman called police because the teen looked, quote, real suspicious. >> this guy looks like he's up to no good. >> reporter: he also told police the man was walking with his hand in his waist band. police told zimmerman not to pursue the teen. >> you following him? >> yeah. >> we don't need you to do that. >> reporter: he ignored the police and soon they engaged in some sort of a

report tonight on this potentially game-changing research from our chief science correspondent, robert bazell. >> we're going to do a laproscopic gastric bypass. >> doctors have long known that weight loss surgery can help treat type two diabeteses, but new research at the cleveland clinic has discovered something far more profound. >> it's pretty amazing. many of our patients within even hours of the operation, their blood sugar becomes normal. even before they have lost any weight at all. >> this study and another from the catholic university of rome show the blood sugar decrease lasted so far up to two years and could be permanent. doctors and scientists do not know why the weight lost surgery can have such dramatic effects, but suspect the procedure itself causes massive hormonal changes. >> a lot of research is going on about new operations that are even less invasive and more effective. >> the doctors put 150 patients with severe out of control diabetes in three groups. a third got the best drug therapies, a third got gastric banding, and a third got gastric bypass. both types of surger

we get details tonight from our chief science correspondent robert bazell. >> reporter: valerie espositos with a 42-year-old mother of three living with a death sentence. end stage melanoma throughout her body meant she was out of options. >> it went into the right lung, went into lymph nodes, the spleen, and at that point, the chemo didn't work. >> reporter: rick wilke also had stage 4 melanoma. both patients were taking a drug which treats advanced skin cancer by prompting the body's immune system to destroy it. when it works the results can be sensational. >> the nurses -- >> everybody was jumping up and down. >> everybody came into this tiny little room and gave us the good news. >> reporter: the drug only works in 10% to 20% of patients. when valerie esposito took it, her cancer continued to spread. one tumor was pushing up against her spine causing severe pain. doctors used radiation to treat it. >> look at what happens three months after the radiation. >> reporter: and what happened then was astonishing. these dark spots which is where cancer spread to the spleen, disappeared, alon

robert bazell, nbc news, new york. >>> got a lot more to tell you about tonight.versial shooting case in florida. a teenager is dead. the question, was race a factor? , how do you know which ones to follow? the equity summary score consolidates the ratings of up to 10 independent research providers into a single score that's weighted based on how accurate they've been in the past. i'm howard spielberg of fidelity investments. the equity summary score is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. get 200 free trades today and explore your next investing idea. helping strengthen our bones. caltrate delivers 1200 milligrams of calcium and 800 iu of vitamin d plus minerals. women need caltrate. caltrate helps women keep moving because women move the world. that make kids happy. and even fewer that make moms happy too. with wholesome noodles and bite sized chicken, nothing brings you together like chicken noodle soup from campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. why you fell in love with her in the first place. and why you still feel the same

robert bazell, nbc news, new york. >>> joining us now, dr.ine, aped pediatrician based here inw york, and he's a mother herself. good to have you here. what should parents be looking for in their children in the early developmental years. >> they're supposed to screen for signs of autism at 18 months and 24 months, but there are things parents can look out for as well. by 18 months, most children should be responding to their name. if your child doesn't respond when you call out their name, you want to seek medical attention for that. also, children at this age will be able to point to objects. they should wave bye-bye when someone leaves the room or when they're prompted. they tend not to tune out other people around them. this is when they're social and interacting. they should be interacting with other children as well, and this is also a time where children should be -- should be interested in children and also making eye contact with them. >> you can imagine certainly how difficult this is for parents to hear this kind of news, these kin

robert bazell has more. >> reporter: every day we make decisions about what to eat and drink.ems what is good for us one day is not the next. >> eating too much red meat. >> reporter: that's because research hasn't always been clear. >> in the late '70s people were told to avoid eggs or all fat if you could but there is no evidence, no data supporting that. >> reporter: now long-term research is steadily revealing that little decisions that we make actually carry a lot of weight. researchers at harvard university followed more than 40,000 men over 22 years and found those consuming just one 12 ounce sugar-sweetened drink a day increased their chance of having a heart attack by 20%. two sugary drinks 42% increase and three a day, 69%. >> it causes a spike in blood sugar and causes a big burst of insulin. if we do this day after day that is hanging around. not just a spike for a few hours. >> reporter: the american beverage association disagrees and in response to the study said drinking sweetened beverages does not cause an increased risk of heart disease adding these finding c

. >> robert bazell, thank you for squo joining us. >>> tonight, nearly a month after the death of trayvon martin, george zimmerman has not been charged with something, but now with new criminal investigations under way amid a nationwide uproar, the 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer is tonight being offered up in a new light. nbc's ron allen continues to work the story tonight from sanford, florida, and joins us now. sflon. >> good evening, lester. george zimmerman's attorney is trying to cast him as the victim. forced to fire in self-defense when attacked by trayvon martin. he's certainly not going to win that argument in the court of public opinion, but it also seems clear now that zimmerman is going to do everything possible to keep this case from ever getting to a court of law. >> we are! >> trayvon! >> while the daily drum beat of protests rages on and the demand for justice for trayvon martin continues to spread like wildfire, george zimmerman supporters step up their own public pushback. even a new more recent fot lphos appeared, obtained from this mortgage firm where he is o

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our chief science correspondent robert bazell has details for us. >> reporter: the pap test is the most successful cancer screening tool ever. it detects abnormal cervical cells that can be removed easily before they become cancer. the new recommendations from the u.s. preventive services task force say under most circumstances, women aged 21 to 65 need to test only once every three years. that goes up to five years if the woman gets a new test that also checks for hpv, the virus that causes cervical cancer. in countries where the test has been used widely since it became available in the 1940s, the incidents and death rate from cervical cancer has fallen as much as 80%. experts decided women need to get the test more often if they had a suspect test in the past. they need to talk to their doctors about this test and others that may require more frequently. >> bob bazell in our studios, thanks. >>> tsa said today it's going to go easier on older airline passengers. they announced a trial run of a program that will allows folks 75 and older to go through screening without removing their

our chief science correspondent robert bazell has more for us. >> in its annual report to the nation on cancer, the government finds that the overall death rate is falling, but not as much for women as for men. and the incidence of cancer continues to decline in men, but for women, it's leveled off. no one knows all of the reasons for the trends, but in a industry report, the government emphasized that obesity and lack of exercise are increasingly recognized as major risk factors for many kinds of cancer. a separate study out today concludes that fully half of all cancer deaths in the u.s. could be prevented. the biggest preventable cause, not surprisingly, remains tobacco, responsible for one third of cancer deaths. 189,000 a year. but obesity now accounts for one fifth or 114,000 deaths annually. many experts worry that the obesity epidemic threatens to wipe out many of the gains to control tobacco and better treat cancer. brian. >> much more on this study on bob's blog tonight on our website, nbcnightlynews.com. >>> as part of the political trail mix on top of revelations about sw

report tonight on this potentially game-changing research from our chief science correspondent, robert bazelle're going to do a lap laproscopic castric bypass. >> new research at the cleveland clinic has discovered something far more profound. >> it's pretty amazing. many of our patients within even hours of the operation, their blood sugar becomes normal. even before they have lost any weight at all. >> this study and another from the catholic university of rome show the blood sugar dereecreas lasted up to two years and could be permanent. they don't know why it could have such dramatic effects but suspect the surgery itself caused massive hormonal changes. >> a lot of research is going on about new operations that are even less invasive and more effective. >> the doctors put 150 patients with severe out of control dienss in three groups. a third gotgastic drug therapies, a thirst godgastic branding, and third got bypass surgeries. for the diebts treatment, the doctors have been given gastric bypass surgery to patients that are far less obese than the traditional candidates. >> 30-year-old l

. >>> our chief science reporter robert bazell will have more on this story coming up in about 15 minutesn "nbc nightly news" with brian williams. >>> a danger in your own home. every six minutes a child under the age of 5 is rushed to the emergency room for a stair-related injury. researchers say a quarter of those injuries involved babies that were being carried. experts say parents should put babies in play centers without wheels and should always keep stairs clear and free of objects. >>> i hope you enjoyed it while you can because it's not going to last, unfortunately. >> rain is coming. let's check in with meteorologist rob mayeda. >> we're looking at a seven-day forecast that has raindrops on every single day. today was the exception to the rule. today was the day to get outside. right now still pretty nice, but it is turning windy around the bay area. as we take you outside right now, there's a live hd look over downtown san francisco. you can see the clouds spilling into the west. and yes, the winds will be picking up. and that is just one of many weather headlines tonight. we'll

nbc news chief science and health correspondent robert bazell joins me now. robert, this is huge, obviously, and i was astonished when i heard the numbers last night. you did the piece for "nightly." it's one of the fastest growing epidemics in human history. it could cost more than $490 billion to treat by the year 2030. so obviously this is huge. tell us about these findings. >> two studies, one done at the cleveland clinic. these were people with severe out-of-control diabetes. that's important because most of those 26 million people can manage their diabetes with exercise, diet and medication. for those that are out of control, they divided them into three groups. one got the best medical care, one got gastric binding and the third got bypass. and the ones with bypass did the best. the two surgeries did far better than the medical treatment. and what was important about this, it's not to surprising that weight-loss surgery would lead to an improvement in type 2 diabetes because we know obesity is a major risk factor. but what was surprising is that a lot o

robert bazell, nbc news, new york. >>> doctors in maryland have performed what they say is the most extensivesplant ever. in addition to getting an entirely new face, the patient also received a new jaw, new teeth and a new tongue. >> he's moving his jaws, opening and closing his mouth. he's on a clear liquid diet. he can move his tongue, he can open and close his eyes. he's beginning to feel his face. he's actually looking in the mirror, shaving and brushing his teeth. which we never even expected. >> that was a doctor at the university of maryland medical center describing how the virginia man who received the new face is doing now. dr. steven hopping is joining us to talk about the new techniques that made this surgery possible. this was indeed breakthrough surgery. what's different though about this one? >> well pat, very exciting, right in our back yard. hats off to university of maryland for accomplishing this. the reason this is the most extensive, is that not only did they remove, did they transplant skin, but teeth, the jaw, they, you have to realize the pictures before this man had