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Science / Mind & Body

Seawater contains hundreds of viruses, revealed with dye in the flask on the right. Most are harmless, but some microbes living under the sea and amid the sand aren't.

Eight Diseases To Watch Out For At the Beach

Forget sharks: These potentially deadly pathogens and parasites can lurk in sand and sea

Google hosts its fourth-annual science fair. Shown here, the 2013 winners.

Google Thinks These 18 Teenagers Will Change the World

The global finalists of this year’s Google Science Fair take on cyberbullying countermeasures, tar sands cleanup and wearable tech

Scientists are looking to restore memory by stimulating neurons deep in the brain.

Tech Watch

Could Implants in the Brain Revive Memory?

The Defense Department is funding research to see if “neuroprosthetics” implanted in the brain can heal damaged memory.

At the time of his death on May 9, 2014, Alexander Imich was the world's oldest man.

Keeping Track of the Oldest People in the World

The Gerontology Research Group catalogues on all of the world’s confirmed supercentenarians, or persons over 110 years old

Skulls of the genus Homo, including two from Homo erectus on the right

New Research

Ability to Adapt Gave Early Humans the Edge Over Other Hominins

Features thought to be characteristic of early Homo lineages actually evolved before Homo arose. Rather, our flexible nature defines us

How Scientists Are Using Games to Unlock the Body’s Mysteries

They’re not just for kids anymore

The mind-controlled exoskeleton developed by Miguel Nicolelis and his colleagues will allow a paralyzed teenager to make the ceremonial first kick of the 2014 World Cup.

World Cup 2014

Mind-Controlled Technology Extends Beyond Exoskeletons

A wearable robot controlled by brain waves will take center stage at the World Cup this week, but it’s not the only mind-controlled tech out there

Computer illustration of red blood cells in a blood vessel.

Your Blood Type is a Lot More Complicated Than You Think

There are millions of varieties—and a global network to help share them

In her seminal rose diagram, Florence Nightingale demonstrated that far more soldiers died from preventable epidemic diseases (blue) than from wounds inflicted on the battlefield (red) or other causes (black) during the Crimean War (1853-56). “She did this with a very specific purpose of driving through all sorts of military reforms in military hospitals subsequent to the Crimean War," says Kieniewicz.

Art Meets Science

Infographics Through the Ages Highlight the Visual Beauty of Science

An exhibit at the British Library focuses on the aesthetic appeal of 400 years of scientific data

A hyper realistic reconstruction of an Australopithecus africanus based on cast of the skull STS5 (nicknamed "Mrs Ples") discovered in 1947 in Sterkfontein, South Africa. The fossil STS5 is between 2.1 and 2.7 million years old.

Art Meets Science

Paleoartist Brings Human Evolution to Life

For Elisabeth Daynès, sculpting ancient humans and their ancestors is both an art and a science

A cluster of variola viruses viewed under an electron microscope. Strains of the variola virus cause smallpox disease.

Should We Destroy Our Last Living Samples of the Virus That Causes Smallpox?

Later this month, the World Health Organization will decide whether or not to get rid of two live virus repositories in the United States and Russia

Breast cancer cells dividing.

Could A Genome-Savvy Computer Help Change The Way We Treat Cancer?

The pilot is one of several doctors are using to target treatment to the way cells mutate instead of to the part of the body in which tumors grow

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center will soon replace the blood of trauma patients with cold saline solution to slow down the cell's metabolism to where there's no signs of brain activity, nor pulse.

This Radical Treatment Pushes Victims to the Brink of Death in Order to Save Their Lives

Researchers are putting trauma patients in a state between life and death with a technique known in movies as “suspended animation”

An Iraq war veteran with PTSD has trouble with motivation.

Will Scientists Soon be Able to Erase Our Most Traumatic Memories?

PTSD treatments could soon extend beyond therapy

Adrian Sugar (seated second from left) and his surgical team during the facial rebuild operation at Morriston Hospital. The team reconstructed 29-year-old Stephen Power's face using models and implants from a 3D printer.

Tech Watch

How 3D Printing Helped Repair This Man’s Face

In a landmark procedure, surgeons used 3D printing techniques to restore a patient’s facial likeness after a horrific injury

Scientists made synthetic version of a chromosome found in brewer's yeast, pictured above, a fungus commonly used to make beer.

New Research

Scientists Build a Yeast Chromosome From Scratch. Next Up? Designer Genomes

Creating synthetic organisms with specially-tailored genomes is a long way off, but the first synthetic eukaryotic chromosome is a big step forward

Five Health Benefits of Standing Desks

Spending more of your day standing could reduce the risk of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer

Zebrafish embryo

Art Meets Science

A Scan of a Mechanical Heart Pump Fitted in a Live Human and Other Eerily Beautiful Scientific Images

From a photo of a tick biting flesh to a closeup of a kidney stone, the 18 winners of the 2014 Wellcome Image Awards highlight objects we don’t usually see

A new process is giving human voices to people with speech disabilities.

Tech Watch

How to Build a Human Voice

Using sounds from “donors,” scientists are constructing personalized voices for those who can’t speak

New Research

The Human Nose Can Distinguish Between One Trillion Different Smells

New research says our olfactory system is far more sensitive than we thought

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