Medical Science
A woman sits in a courtroom and looks across the room at a man accused of murder. She says she is certain. Not fairly sure. Not probably sure. Certain. The problem is that when police first tested her memory, she could not identify him. Then investigators hypnotized her. More than
Food
For decades, one of the most familiar stories about human evolution has gone something like this: our ancestors started eating more meat, gained access to concentrated protein and fat, and suddenly had enough energy to build much larger brains. A major new analysis published in Science argues that this story
Medical Science
Long before rhinoplasty became associated with celebrities, beauty trends and cosmetic clinics, reconstructing a nose could mean restoring something much more fundamental: a person’s identity. More than two thousand years ago, Indian medical literature described techniques for rebuilding damaged noses using living skin transferred from another part of the
Medical Science
Compounds extracted from the leaves of a Brazilian tree have shown powerful activity against SARS-CoV-2 in laboratory experiments, blocking the virus at several stages of infection. The discovery is scientifically promising, but headlines claiming that a tree extract can “destroy COVID-19” leave out a crucial detail: the
Medical Science
Plague is often imagined as a medieval horror that disappeared with plague doctors and crowded European cities. It did not. The bacterium Yersinia pestis still circulates among wild rodents and fleas, causing human infections in several parts of the world. Antibiotics can cure the disease when treatment begins quickly, but
Medical Science
Psychiatric diagnoses can appear strikingly different on the surface. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is associated with differences in attention, impulsivity and activity regulation. Anorexia nervosa involves restrictive eating, intense fear of weight gain and disturbances in body image. Schizophrenia can alter perception and thinking, while depression is often dominated by
Medical Science
Your birth certificate records how many years you have been alive. Your cells may keep another kind of record. Across the human genome, tiny chemical marks change in surprisingly predictable patterns as we grow, mature, and age. By measuring a carefully selected set of these marks, scientists can estimate the
Health
For people living with long COVID, fatigue can be far more severe than ordinary tiredness. It may affect concentration, mobility, employment, household tasks and even the ability to hold a conversation without becoming exhausted. A major UK clinical trial has now found that two inexpensive, commonly used treatments may provide
Medical Science
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Lipfendra, also known by its generic name enlicitide, as the first oral medication to block PCSK9—a biological target previously addressed only through injectable cholesterol-lowering treatments. The once-daily tablet is approved alongside diet and exercise to reduce low-density
Health
A virus carried by nearly every adult may help explain why the immune system turns against the body in lupus. Epstein-Barr virus, commonly called EBV, is best known as the leading cause of infectious mononucleosis, or “mono.” Many people acquire it during childhood without noticeable symptoms. Others develop fever,
Medical Science
Anxiety is usually explained through neurons, neurotransmitters, hormones, and the brain circuits that process danger. New research in mice adds another important participant to that picture: the brain’s resident immune cells. Scientists have found evidence that two developmentally distinct populations of microglia can exert opposing effects on anxiety-like
Health
A tiny white worm may be living inside hundreds of millions of people around the world—and many of them will never know. The parasite is Enterobius vermicularis, commonly known as the pinworm or threadworm. It lives primarily in the human intestine, spreads easily between people, and has developed a