Health & Medicine

  1. Life

    A salty tail

    Just adding sodium can stimulate limb regrowth in tadpoles, a study finds, raising the possibility that human tissue might respond to relatively simple treatment.

    By Laura Sanders
  2. Health & Medicine

    How the brain chooses sides

    A new study reveals where and how people decide which hand to use for a simple task.

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  3. Health & Medicine

    Disease donations

    Sometimes organ donors share more than a functioning body part. They can unwittingly bestow quickly lethal infections. That’s what happened, beginning last November, according to a new case report.

    By Janet Raloff
  4. Health & Medicine

    Main malaria parasite came to humans from gorillas, not chimps

    Using DNA from fecal samples, researchers show that the infection was not passed to Homo sapiens by its closest primate relative.

    By Rachel Ehrenberg
  5. Health & Medicine

    Vital flaw

    Liver cells that inherit the wrong number of chromosomes often do just fine, and may even have some advantages.

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  6. Health & Medicine

    Enzyme might underlie some stroke damage

    Inhibiting NOX4 in mice limits brain injury, tests show.

    By Nathan Seppa
  7. Health & Medicine

    Obesity in children linked to common cold virus

    Exposure to adenovirus-36 may partly explain why kids are getting heavier, a new study suggests.

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  8. Health & Medicine

    Scottish kids’ asthma declined after smoking ban

    Hospitals report a drop in asthma emergencies among children since a law prohibiting lighting up in public buildings went into effect in 2006.

    By Nathan Seppa
  9. Life

    Environmental DNA modifications tied to obesity

    Chemical changes that affect gene activity could underlie many common conditions, a new study suggests.

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  10. Health & Medicine

    DNA-damaging disinfection by-products found in pool water

    A study detects subtle changes in swimmers’ cells after 40 minutes of laps.

    By Janet Raloff
  11. Health & Medicine

    Defining normal in the brain

    A new growth curve paves way for scans to be used to spot early signs of autism, schizophrenia or other disorders.

    By Laura Sanders
  12. Health & Medicine

    A cellular secret to long life

    Longevity may depend in part on histones, proteins that keep DNA neatly spooled in the cell’s nucleus and help regulate gene activity.

    By Tina Hesman Saey