Health & Medicine

  1. Neuroscience

    In mice, anxiety isn’t all in the head. It can start in the heart

    Scientists used optogenetics to raise the heartbeat of a mouse, making it anxious. The finding could offer a new angle for studying anxiety disorders.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    My mammogram revealed I have dense breasts. What does that mean?

    Nearly half of U.S. women have dense breasts. A new FDA rule makes notification of breast density national. Here’s the scoop on why.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    An antibody injection could one day help people with endometriosis

    An injectable antibody treatment that reduced signs of endometriosis in monkeys is now being tested in a Phase 1 clinical trial in people.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Bird flu can jump to mammals. Should we worry?

    Reports of bears and sea lions infected with H5N1 have sparked fears about the pandemic potential of bird flu. Experts are keeping a close eye on its spread.

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  5. Life

    ‘We Are Electric’ delivers the shocking story of bioelectricity

    Sally Adee’s new book spotlights the underexplored science of the body’s electricity and investigates how bioelectricity could advance medicine.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    Here’s how lemon juice may fend off kidney stones

    Lemon nanoparticles slowed formation of kidney stones in rats. If the sacs work the same way in people, they could help prevent the painful crystals.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Medicated eye drops may delay nearsightedness in children

    Myopia, or nearsightedness, is a growing global health threat. But a Hong Kong study found that medicated eye drops may delay its onset in children.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Trauma distorts our sense of time and self. A new therapy might help

    The therapy has helped veterans struggling with mental illness imagine their future selves.

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  9. Humans

    A new biomaterial heals heart attack damage in animals. Humans could be next

    If used right after a heart attack, this intravenously delivered biomaterial can preserve cardiac function. It could also treat traumatic brain injury.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    A gel cocktail uses the body’s sugars to ‘grow’ electrodes in living fish

    A chemical reaction with the body’s own sugars turned a gel cocktail into a conducting material inside zebrafish brains, hearts and tail fins.

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  11. Science & Society

    Lots of people feel burned out. But what is burnout exactly?

    Researchers disagree on how to define burnout, or if the phenomenon is really another name for depression. Helping people cope at work still matters.

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  12. Life

    Fungi don’t turn humans into zombies. But The Last of Us gets some science right

    Fungi like those in the post-apocalyptic TV show are real. But humans’ body temperature and brain chemistry may protect us from zombifying fungi.

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