Medicine

Alexander Niculescu and his colleagues at Indiana University have found a way to identify, with more than 90 percent accuracy, patients who will have suicidal thoughts in the next year.

A Blood Test and App May Help Identify Patients at Risk of Suicide

With blood biomarkers and a questionnaire, researchers at Indiana University claim they can pinpoint patients who will have suicidal thoughts within a year

On August 29, 1985, Michael Drummond became the sixth person, and the youngest, to be implanted with an artificial heart.

Thirty Years Ago, an Artificial Heart Helped Save a Grocery Store Manager

The Smithsonian, home to the Jarvik 7 and a host of modern chest-pumping technologies, has a lot of (artificial) heart

The Future of 3D-Printed Pills

Now that the FDA has approved Spritam, an anti-seizure drug and the first 3D-printed pill, what's next?

Head lice crawl across a nit comb and into your nightmares.

Lice That Can Resist Drugs Have Infested Half the States in the U.S.

Mutated pests that can survive common drugstore treatments have been found in at least 25 states so far

Leaf-cutter ants tending a fungus garden in Guadaloupe

Future Antibiotics for Humans Could Come From Ant Fungus Gardens

A unique symbiotic relationship exists between leaf-cutter ants, fungi and bacteria

A paralyzed subject moves his legs with the help of transcutaneous stimulation.

Five Paralyzed Men Move Their Legs Again in a UCLA Study

As electrodes on the skin stimulated their spines, the study participants made "step-like" motions

Sweetgrass, a possible anti-mosquito agent.

This Sweet-Smelling Herb Can Ward Away Mosquitoes

Traditionally used by some Native American peoples, sweetgrass contains chemicals known to repel pesky bugs

Cadavers Are Teaching Doctors to Be More Empathetic

By getting to know the person behind the cadaver, new doctors are honing the skills they'll use on living patients

Yeast, a multipurpose microbe.

A Genetically Modified Yeast Turns Sugar Into Painkillers

Stanford scientists have engineered a strain of yeast that can produce opiates on its own

An actor, playing the role of a vaccine against Ebola, performs at a school in Abidja, Ivory Coast, last September

Experimental Ebola Vaccine Gives 100 Percent Protection in Trial

An unusual trial design helped prove the vaccine safe and effective in less than a year

Injectible contraceptives give women options.

A New Report Identifies 30 Technologies That Will Save Lives in the Next 15 Years

A panel of 60 health experts creates a short list of easy-to-use devices and treatments that could dramatically improve global health

How much do you know about your kidneys?

Top Five Myths About Human Kidneys

From limiting alcohol consumption to detoxing, many misconceptions circulate about how to keep your kidneys healthy

The small, bright yellow dots are lipid cells within subcutaneous fat tissue, which can be used as natural lasers.

Living Cells Armed With Tiny Lasers May Help Fight Disease

The biological light sources may one day help researchers see deeper into the body's microscopic workings

Malaria infected blood cells (blue)

The First Malaria Vaccine Could Be Released Soon

The vaccine isn’t as effective as hoped however, and needs several more approvals

The Scanadu Scout is just one of the many devices that attempt to act like a real-life tricorder

A List of All the Times People Have Tried to Build a Working Tricorder

Star Trek-style scanning has been a bit more complicated than expected

A veteran visits the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. in 1988.

Over a Quarter-Million Vietnam War Veterans Still Have PTSD

Forty years after the war's end, twice as many vets with combat-related PTSD are getting worse as those who are improving

Brain-to-brain interfaces may soon be a therapeutic technique.

Linking Multiple Minds Could Help Damaged Brains Heal

Monkeys and rats hooked up as "brainets" may lead to innovative treatments for Parkinson's, paralysis and more

A SmartSpecs user looks at a magazine; the laptop screen shows his view.

These Glasses Could Help the Blind See

Developed by Oxford scientists, SmartSpecs capture real time images and enhance the contrast for legally blind users

Crystalized acetaminophen, the drug in Tylenol

When This Photographer Got Sick, He Started Taking Beautiful Photos of Painkillers and Tears

The extreme closeups were one way for the photographer to understand what he was taking

A scanning electron micrograph of Yersinia pestis bacteria

These Two Mutations Turned Not-so-Deadly Bacteria Into the Plague

The ancestor of the bacterium responsible for the Black Plague isn’t nearly as deadly

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