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Science / Mind & Body

Art Meets Science

Do Our Brains Find Certain Shapes More Attractive Than Others?

A new exhibition in Washington, D.C., claims that humans have an affinity for curves—and there is scientific data to prove it

Simply by looking at geo-tagged tweets, an algorithm can track the spread of flu and predict which users are going to get sick.

Your Tweets Can Predict When You’ll Get the Flu

Simply by looking at geotagged tweets, an algorithm can track the spread of flu and predict which users are going to get sick

The brain scan on right shows Alzheimer’s damage.

How Lasers Could Be the Answer to Alzheimer’s

They’re now able to detect the clumps of toxic proteins that destroy the brain. One day they may be able to get rid of them

Can This Bracelet Actually Replace a Heater?

MIT students have developed Wristify, a wearable cooling and heating system designed to regulate body temperature and save on energy bills

A Romanian Scientist Claims to Have Developed Artificial Blood

A true blood substitute can be a major breakthrough that can save lives. Testing out a batch, however, can be a problem

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Why the Oral Contraceptive Is Just Known as “The Pill”

A new birth control method gave women unprecedented power and revolutionized daily life

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Watch a Tick Burrowing Into Skin in Microscopic Detail

Their highly specialized biting technique allows ticks to pierce skin with tiny harpoons and suck blood for days at a time

Superbugs are making public health experts very nervous.

What Will It Take to Wipe Out Superbugs?

Scientists are taking all kinds of approaches to try to stop the ominous threat from bacteria antibiotics can no longer kill

Everyone has a unique “fingerprint” of oral bacteria species, and new research shows that it correlates with genetic and ethnic factors.

Your Ethnicity Determines the Species of Bacteria That Live in Your Mouth

Everyone has a unique “fingerprint” of oral bacteria species, and new research shows that, in isolation, it can be used to predict your ethnicity

Scientists have identified a milk protein called Tenascin C that binds to HIV (the virus is shown here in green) and prevents it from injecting its DNA into human immune system cells (shown in purple, with pseudopodia in pink).

Discovered: A Natural Protein in Breast Milk That Fights HIV

Scientists have identified a milk protein called Tenascin C that binds to HIV and prevents it from injecting its DNA into human cells

The Perfect Way to Ripen Fruit and Other Ingenious Inventions Recognized by the Dyson Awards

Entries into the annual inventors competition include an Iron Man-inspired suit and a printer that fits in your bag

This “Death Watch” Allegedly Counts Down the Last Seconds of Your Life

A watch that predicts when its wearer will expire is proving popular with the masses. But why?

By altering levels of the naturally-occurring chemical kynurenic acid in the brain, scientists made marijuana’s active ingredient THC less pleasurable, leading monkeys to voluntarily consume 80 percent less of it.

Is This Chemical a Cure For Marijuana Addiction?

By altering levels of kynurenic acid in the brain, scientists made marijuana less pleasurable, leading monkeys to voluntarily consume 80 percent less of it

A new focus of hospitals is keeping you from ending up here.

How Hospitals are Trying to Keep You Out of the Hospital

With a big boost from supercomputers, hospitals are shifting more of their focus to identifying people who need their help staying healthy

Blizzident is similar to a mouth-guard, but it is lined with rows of bristles.

Checking the Claim: A 3-D Printed Toothbrush That Cleans Your Mouth in Six Seconds

A startup has developed a custom-fit tool that can brush the entire surface of your teeth all at once

Artist Nickolay Lamm’s depiction of a polar-grizzly hybrid

What Would a Cross Between a Polar Bear and a Grizzly Really Look Like?

As climate changes and Arctic sea ice melts, species shift habitats and may interbreed. Lamm digitally manipulates photographs to imagine these hybrids

Research in mice shows that heavy drinking triggers cellular changes that interfere with bone formation.

Why Binge Drinking Makes You More Likely to Break Your Bones

Research in mice shows that heavy drinking triggers cellular changes that interfere with bone formation

What is appropriate Google Glass behavior?

Will Google Glass Make Us Better People? Or Just Creepy?

Some think wearable tech is just the thing to help us break bad habits, others that it will let us invade privacy like never before

The computing power of an infant's brain still astounds.

Sleeping Babies Can Sense When Mommy and Daddy Are Fighting

The infant brain is even more impressionable than previously thought

These Tattoos Honor Lost, Not-So-Loved Species

To overcome how people tend to care only about cute endangered animals, Samantha Dempsey designed and distributed temporary tattoos of ugly extinct species

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