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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.
Our perception does not always reflect reality, as evidenced by numerous studies. The information sent by the eyes to the brain is processed and contains many short-cuts and assumptions which makes things more optimized, but also leads to biases. One study, for instance, found that people who are overweight will judge an object as being farther than it really is. This suggests that physical characteristics -- people who thought they were overweight, but weren't in fact, did not share this bias -- plays a major role in defining perception.
The day has come and passed, but the impact could be felt for a long time; that thrilling date, the memories created and the carbon emissions will linger long after Valentine’s day has passed. According to a survey by the National Retail Federation, 36 percent of Americans (58% men; 16% women) will buy flowers for […]
Creating artificial blood vessels is a pivotal aspect of reconstructive medicine. However, time and time again this has proven very tricky to accomplish. Now, a researcher believes he has found the key: weaving blood vessels with cotton candy machines. Traditionally, researchers would allow cultured cells to spontaneously develop capillary systems of their own. This process can […]
Today, some people are freezing their bodies or heads at death in hopes of future cures for what ails them. Alas, these people are likely gone forever because the damage to the brain is far too critical. With this in mind, despite an enthusiastic decade in the '80s for cryonics, the field has been rarely touched by serious scientists. A group of researchers may spark interest again after they report freezing rabbit and pig brains, then returning them from preservation apparently in mint condition as if they were never iced. This lends hope that just maybe it would be possible to do the same for human brains just before the person dies, and thaw it in proper working condition when the tech is there to revive them.
Nature, the Lancet and many other medical publishers and researchers have announced that all Zika-related scientific articles will be published freely in the wake of the recent outbreak. “We announce that Nature journals will make all papers relating to Zika virus free to access until further notice,” a statement reads. “Nature journals will also now encourage […]
People with very low levels of physical activity may have smaller brains later in life, a new study found.
Police departments all over the world use tasers to pacify aggressive criminals. The stun gun ejects two wires at high speed that hook to the body of a person and send a 50,000 volt current, stunning the target. It certainly hurts, and the physical damage might take a while to heal. Researchers investigated, however, the psychological and cognitive effects of getting stunned with a taser. Their findings suggest those who get tasered experience short-term cognitive decline to the point of borderline dementia. This can last for a full hour, during which the victim might be unable to understand questioning by police properly and could interfere with their Miranda Rights, the "right to remain silent".
Researchers have made a stronger case for the negative effects of paracetamol on pregnant women. It was already documented that prenatal paracetamol consumption is associated with asthma; now, a team has shown that this is not because the underlying condition for which the drug was taken. Paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen and often sold under the […]
Vaccines are arguably one of the most impactful medical developments ever. According to the CDC, vaccines given to infants and young children over the past two decades will prevent 322 million illnesses, 21 million hospitalizations and 732,000 deaths over the course of their lifetimes. If that's not impressive, a group of researchers put this into another perspective that almost all people seem to appreciate: money. Their findings suggest that though it costs a lot to research new vaccines, manufacture and implement them, the return of investment is absolutely stunning. Pharmaceutical companies make a nice profit, but the bulk goes to society.
A new study examined the way gene families evolve from ancestral genes, finding the original genes were promiscuous in that they had a wider range of function than the later descendant genes, which often evolved to be more selective in their effects.
A previous study found that Vikings suffered from massive worm infestations, and this may be the key to an inherited predisposition to emphysema and other lung conditions.
Sighing is a fundamental biological reflex that's a lot more important than most people care to think. We don't just sigh when we're in a position of weariness or relief, but quite regularly for no particular reason -- about 12 times an hour.
The discovery of green fluorescent proteins heralded a revolution in cell biology, enabling researchers to monitor cellular processes by applying themselves to a variety of protein and enzyme targets. Over the years, they’ve enabled thousands of successful experiments, triggering events that ultimately saved many lives. In 1961, Osamu Shimomura and Frank Johnson, working at the Friday Harbor […]
The transplant community has established a new committee to address the recent Zika virus outbreak, and protect organ transplant patients from the potential dangers of the virus.
Scientists have found that by adding slight variations in the practice routine, you can keep your brain more active and facilitate the learning process.
A new study has found a way to increase the lifespan of mice by up to 35%, by simply removing the defunct cells that stop dividing and accumulate in old age.
It's a horrific disease, but one that may be going to the history books soon.
A few months after it was proposed, the law was approved in December and it's now official.
Scottish researchers have found a way to make cancer cells get "addicted" to self-destruction.
If you can see a person or an animal, then it is possible to be seen back. It's a basic caveat they train in the military when discussing camouflage. What's more, if you suspect you're being seen, you must minimize your movements. This level of abstraction was thought to be unique to humans. It's been recently shown that ravens too are capable of imagining someone is spying on them and take greater care hiding their food, as reported in Nature Communications.
Researchers looked at the long-term exposure of marijuana on cognitive skills. Current users showed poorer cognitive ability across all the mediums the researchers tested. What was interesting is that among those who reported not using marijuana anymore, but used to, there was a pattern that suggested poorer verbal memory, which the ability to remember words. For every five year of cumulative marijuana use (365 days of smoking pot x 5), one in two people on average remembered one word fewer out of a list of fifteen.
