Health & Medicine

  1. Health & Medicine

    Microplastics are in our bodies. Here’s why we don’t know the health risks

    Researchers are racing to try to understand how much humans are exposed and what levels are toxic.

    By Anne Pinto-Rodrigues
  2. Health & Medicine

    How raccoon dog DNA fits into the COVID-19 origins debate

    Did the virus that causes COVID-19 come from animals or a lab? Evidence hints at animals. Either way, we should be prepping for the next pandemic.

    By Erin Garcia de Jesús
  3. Health & Medicine

    A hormone shot helped drunk mice sober up quickly

    Drunk mice injected with the hormone FGF21 woke up and regained their balance faster than inebriated mice that did not receive the shot.

    By Freda Kreier
  4. Health & Medicine

    Sleeping sickness is nearing elimination. An experimental drug could help

    Clinical trials of acoziborole are under way in sub-Saharan Africa, where sleeping sickness is endemic.

    By Meghan Rosen
  5. Health & Medicine

    U.S. cases of a deadly fungus nearly doubled in recent years

    Though numbers are still small, clinical cases of Candida auris in the jumped 95 percent from 2020 to 2021, a CDC survey finds.

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  6. Health & Medicine

    Maternal deaths in the U.S. keep climbing

    New U.S. data show that as maternal deaths rise, a large gap between the maternal mortality rate of Black women compared with white women persists.

    By Aimee Cunningham
  7. 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.

    By Bethany Brookshire
  8. 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.

    By Aimee Cunningham
  9. 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.

    By Meghan Rosen
  10. 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.

    By Erin Garcia de Jesús
  11. 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.

    By Meghan Rosen
  12. 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.

    By Meghan Rosen