Health

Dyslexia affects up to 17 percent of American schoolchildren. Researchers now believe it may be caused by difficulty in the brain rewiring itself.

Dyslexia May Be the Brain Struggling to Adapt

The learning disorder may be less a problem with language processing, and more a problem with the brain rewiring itself

Hamblin's new book uses illustrations to help explain how the human body works—and sometimes doesn't work.

The Millennial’s Doctor Releases a Handbook on Bodies

Radiologist and <em>Atlantic</em> editor James Hamblin provides the answers we'd hear "If Our Bodies Could Talk"

Your breath might be bad, but it's also amazing.

Your Breath Does More Than Repulse—It Can Also Tell Doctors Whether You Have Cancer

An artificial “nose” could be the next tool for diagnosing illnesses from cancer to Crohn's disease

Violence can spread like an epidemic among impressionable teenagers, according to new research.

Violence Among Teens Can Spread Like a Disease, Study Finds

Surveys of thousands of American teens add evidence to the theory that violence spreads in communities like a contagion

How do you know when urine too deep?

Once a Year, Scientific Journals Try to Be Funny. Not Everyone Gets the Joke

Holiday editions add a much-needed dose of humor to boring journal-ese. But is entertaining readers worth the risk of misleading them?

Flickering images can induce seizures in people with epilepsy.

Why Do Flashing Images Cause Seizures?

For people with epilepsy, a flashing screen can be more than a passing annoyance

The Pokémon GO Craze Had Health Benefits—For a Little While

Though avid players walked about 11 extra minutes per day, the boost only lasted around six weeks

A bonfire of elephant ivory burns in Kenya's Nairobi National Park in July 1989.

Wondering What a Bonfire Does to Your Lungs? We Answer Your Burning Questions

Setting large piles of stuff aflame can have significant environmental and human health impacts

Caesarean Births Could Be Affecting Human Evolution

But it’s too soon to know for sure

A new study on pilots' mental health suggests the skies may not be that friendly after all.

Think Your Job Is Depressing? Try Being an Airline Pilot

New study suggests pilots are more depressed than the average American

Students of design at the Berlin Weissensee School of Art have prototyped a new device that tracks gestures in an amputated limb and translates them to computer commands.

This Digital Prosthesis Could Help Amputees Control Computers

Designers are developing a new device that tracks gestures in an amputated limb and translates them to computer commands, like scroll and click

This Device Could Revolutionize How Malaria Is Detected Around the World

The Magneto-Optical Detector (MOD) combines magnets and laser light to determine, in less than a minute, if a drop of blood contains malaria parasites

U.S. Life Expectancy Drops for the First Time in 23 Years

While it only decreased by 0.1 percent overall, eight of the top ten causes of death all saw increases in 2015

It isn't pretty, but it made history.

Someone Paid $46,000 for a Bunch of Mold

Its discovery was an accident, but this scientific sample changed the course of medicine forever

There have been 38 facial transplants worldwide to date. Not all have survived.

Saving Face: How One Pioneering Surgeon Is Pushing the Limits of Facial Transplants

His reconstructed faces have tongues that taste and eyelids that blink. But will they withstand the test of time?

Tamara Schwent and Kevin Curtis, PhD from Sirenas bringing in samples from the deep sea. This was a joint expedition with Chapman Expeditions and the Carmabi Research Station.

Will the Next Big Cancer Drug Come From the Ocean?

A California startup “bioprospects” for sponges, algae and other organisms whose chemistry may be useful to the world of medicine

Hair removal is personal—but it may be time to bring science to the party.

Bare Down There? New Study Suggests You’re More Susceptible to STIs

Your pubic preferences could be linked to your sexual health

An early cotton-candy machine.

People at the 1904 World's Fair Paid Half the Price of Admission for a Box of Cotton Candy

Celebrating cotton candy's sugary, innovative goodness

An Inca skull from the Cuzco region of Peru, showing four healed trepanations. The new review focuses on the practice in ancient China.

Drilling Deep: How Ancient Chinese Surgeons Opened Skulls and Minds

A new review finds evidence that the Chinese performed trepanation more than 3,500 years ago

Researchers gave capsules containing psilocybin to cancer patients with terminal cancer—and witnessed spectacular results.

Could Magic Mushrooms One Day Help Cancer Patients Face Down Death?

Two new studies show the promise of psilocybin for patients with anxiety and depression

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