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Imagine spending half of your day chewing food like our cousins, the chimpanzees. You'd never get anything done. Strikingly, human teeth have evolved to become smaller over the past million years or so. This begs the question: how did we become such efficient eaters? There are two answers. For one, human ancestors started eating higher quality food (meat) and, secondly, they employed food processing. By applying tool use to anything outside slicing and cutting meat, these early ancestors may have opened the flood gates of innovation.
Mechanical engineers at Brigham Young University are combining the versatility of origami with mechanical know-how to produce the smallest surgical tools.
Looks matter a lot. One recent research suggests that short men and overweight women earn on average £1,500 ($2,100) less per year than taller men and slim women, respectively.
A series of experiments surprisingly found that sudden insight may yield more correct solutions than gradual, methodical thinking.
Researchers found a positive association between the amount of time spent playing video games and children's mental health as well as their mental and social aptitudes.
Mindset and learning go hand in hand. It's important to be confident in one's own abilities to learn new skills and meet goals. Overconfidence, however, can also hinder learning according to Washington State University researcher Joyce Ehrlinger.
Anxious people may be more prone to associate neutral environmental cues with emotional experiences. Psychologists call this over-generalization, and research into the matter might explain why a seemingly minor event can sometimes unleash a full blown anxiety episode. We might also learn more about the wiring of the anxious brain which fires in different patterns than the 'normal' brain.
A study made by researchers at Forida Atlantic University and Cleveland State University assessed the effects of paid sick leave, or lack thereof, had on employees' health. Those who didn't have this benefit were at a much greater risk of forgoing medical care, either to treat or prevent an illness or injury.
A meta-analysis of 29 previous studies has confirmed what many researchers were already suspecting: depression affects the entire body.
The bad intentions that precede doing harm to someone are visible in the brain, researchers claim.
One study estimates that over the next 35 years, nine African countries would have to spend $98 billion to $261 billion to buy drugs and prevent infections.
A new study confirms previous findings: the best way to fight peanut allergy is by consuming peanuts as an infant.
While they are often causes of embarrassment, varicose veins are more than just a cosmetic problem. They are also potentially indicative of significant health problems as well. They are often a sign of circulatory disease. Thankfully, severe varicose veins and their related problems are not particularly common and there are methods that you can use to treat […]
Awesome? Undoubtedly. Useful? Well, according to Kagome, which claims to be Japan's largest supplier of ketchup and tomato juice, people taking part in the Tokyo marathon really need this.
Scientists have known for quite a while that obesity increases the chances of colon cancer, but hey were unable to figure out why.
These predatory amoebas are usually very good at finding enough to eat by themselves, but when food is short they do something astonishing.
A new study of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), a deadly fungus which affects amphibians worldwide, found that it spreads by making males' mating calls more attractive to females. The pathogen alters the reproductive habits of different species of amphibians, explaining why frogs and related species continue to disappear across the globe.
Researchers found that the app misses high blood pressure in 8 out of 10 cases, giving patients a false sense of security.
Ignored for centuries, this vegetable might be slowly making a comeback in England.
A new study has mapped the genetic variations responsible for differences in the distribution, shape and colour of facial and scalp hair.
How long marijuana, cocaine, LSD, and other drugs stay in your urine, hair or blood.
Scientists in China have created a platform for generating sperm cells that could one day treat male infertility - in other words, they've created sperm in a dish.
President Obama will mark the start of a year-long precision medicine trial with a summit at the White House. 170 people are involved in the program, which aims to enroll 79,000 volunteer participants by the end of this year to supply personal data that will eventually be used to improve health and treat disease. Precision medicine is […]
A new gene-snipping enzyme was successful in removing strands of HIV genetic material in mice trials. If the enzyme can prove its reliability in human trials it might revolutionize how we fight the virus forever.
Research shows that those who exercise stand a far better chance of not getting getting cancer. Those who did get cancer, but recovered, can delay or completely avert cancer from showing up again by putting in hours in the gym.
Medicine has developed hugely when it comes to treating burn victims.
Out-of-towners using marijuana in Colorado are at a higher risk to end up in the emergency room, according to a new study.
Doctors are seeing a massive rise in the demands for the so-called vaginal seeding procedure, despite no evidence that this actually helps. Also called ‘microbirthing’, the process involves taking a swab from the mother’s vagina and rubbing it over the baby’s mouth, eyes, face and skin shortly after a C-section birth. The idea is that […]
A new paper from New York University researchers suggests that most people do hear an internal voice while they’re reading. The insights from this analysis lend some support to theories that say auditory hallucinations are inner voices that are incorrectly identified as not belonging to the self. So when you read something do you “hear” […]
The voracious reputation of sharks might soon change as marine biologists uncover that most coral reef sharks eat pray smaller than a cheeseburger.
A laboratory study on rats found that the animals that breathed Beijing's notoriously polluted air gained weight and showed sighs of cardio-respiratory and metabolic dysfunctions after three to eight weeks of exposure.
According to a 2009 report, around "60 percent of Americans live in areas where air pollution has reached unhealthy levels that can make people sick"
Two major oil spills in the course of only one month are threatening Amazonian wildlife and local communities. Peru’s General Directorate of Environmental Health issued a water quality emergency last Wednesday, but critics voice that this is a tad late -- more than three weeks since the first spill spewed more than 2,000 barrels in the regions of Amazonas and Loreto. Shockingly, a third spill has been reported by the local media in Peru, but this has been refuted by the the oil company responsible for the pipelines.
A new study confirms the the effectiveness of a HPV vaccine introduced almost a decade ago in the US; the virus' prevalence in teenage girls is down by almost two thirds. Even for women in their early 20s, the group with the lowest vaccination rates, infections have been reduced by more than a third.
A new report revealed the unhealthy sleeping habits of Americans: 65% the country's population sleeps 7 hours or more, and even less get the recommended 8 hours.
While there is a full scientific consensus that homeopathy is a pseudoscience many people still believe in it.
In the new technique, nanotechnology is used to determine whether a specific target nucleic acid sequence exists within a mixture, and to quantify it if it does through a simple electronic signature.
University of Toronto researchers have developed a molecular delivery system to administer chemotherapy drugs with as little collateral damage as possible.
Beer, liquor and wine lovers - rejoice!
Getting a solid 7-8 hours of sleep at night is vital for a healthy life. A new study confirms that, reporting that missing out on sleep or oversleeping severely increases the chance of a stroke. Researchers conducted an analysis of the health of 288,888 adults (77 percent white; nearly half 45 or older) who participated in […]
Here's one more benefit of exercise (as if we needed more): it can help you fight cancer.
Some antibiotics (including common ones) may cause serious brain disruption and other serious problems according to a new study. The study found a connection between the drugs and delirium (a disruption in brain functions that may be accompanied by hallucinations and agitation). Antibiotics are not the first drugs suspected of causing this but the fact that […]
Nearly half the world's population, close to some 5 billion people, will develop myopia by 2050 according to a study recently published in the journal Ophthalmology. The paper also estimates that one-fifth of these people will have a significantly increased risk of becoming permanently blind from the condition if recent trends continue.
The evidence is pilling up that fish grown in hatcheries are very different from those in the wild. A new study found that after only one generation, hatchery salmon have significant genetic changes. A fish hatchery is a “place for artificial breeding, hatching and rearing through the early life stages of animals, finfish and shellfish in […]
When you think about it from a biological point of view....Menopause doesn't make that much sense, does it?
In what has the potential to be a paradigm shift, doctors report extraordinary progress in treating patients with a severe, terminally form of leukaemia.
Generally regarded as a pseudoscientific treatment, acupuncture has proven itself quite effective, at least at alleviating pain.
Organic animal products seem to be significantly healthier than their non-organic counterparts.
A rare kind of aphasia, abbreviated PPA, leaves people at a loss for words. Patients blabber and stutter, seemingly unable to communicate. Often times families think their diseased relatives and loved ones have Alzheimer's. Because primary progressive aphasia is so rare and unknown, even doctors often misdiagnose the disease. Upon closer inspection though, the PPA patient clearly is able to understand questions and reason . It's just they simply can't verbally use words. At a recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, PPA has been put in the center of discussion to raise awareness but also share some of the most promising therapies.
It seems medicine is prepared to enter a new age - an age in which not only can we fix bones, cartilage and muscles, but also create new ones.
