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Disease

Psychiatric neurosurgery, originally known as psychosurgery, involves operating on the brain to alter its function.

What Does the Future Hold for Psychiatric Brain Surgery?

For some patients, removing brain tissue can help treat OCD and other disorders. But ethical concerns remain

A cell culture plate with pluripotent stem cells, which can differentiate into any kind of cell in the body.

Stem Cell Therapies Could Treat Parkinson’s Disease by Rebuilding Lost Circuitry in the Brain, Studies Suggest

Two small clinical trials tested the safety of injecting stem cells into the brains of Parkinson’s patients and found no adverse effects

Researchers suggest fire-footed rope squirrels might be a "reservoir species" for mpox, capable of harboring and spreading the virus without becoming sick. Here, one is photographed in Kibale National Park, Uganda.

Squirrels, Not Monkeys, May Be the Animal Source of Mpox, Researchers Suggest

A preliminary study traces an mpox outbreak in a group of Ivory Coast monkeys to the fire-footed squirrel, indicating the rodent may be a natural reservoir for the virus

Illustration of a human cancer cell

How Do Cancer Cells Migrate to New Tissues and Take Hold?

Scientists are looking for answers about how these confounding trips, known as metastases, occur throughout the human body

A record number of sandhill cranes gathered in Nebraska in mid-March during their annual spring migration.

Record-High 736,000 Sandhill Cranes Flock to Nebraska During Spring Migration Peak—With No Signs of Bird Flu, Despite Concerns

After more than 1,500 of the lanky birds died in Indiana, wildlife biologists in Nebraska were on high alert for the virus—but so far, the visiting birds seem happy and healthy

The city of Potosí rests at high altitude in Bolivia.

Can Researchers Find Remedies for the Problems Created by High-Altitude Pregnancies?

In people not adapted to life at altitude, the sparse oxygen can impair fetal growth, causing issues that can last a lifetime

One of the toilets featured a granite slab with a hole in it and two stepping stones on either side.

Archaeologists Unearth 1,300-Year-Old Flush Toilets at a Palace Complex in South Korea

One of the toilets, likely used by the crown prince and his court ladies, may have drained directly into a nearby river

Researchers studied the impact of extreme heat on older adults' "epigenetic clocks," which measure aging-related changes to DNA.

Extreme Heat Could Make Older Adults Age Faster by Altering Their DNA, Study Finds

Researchers compared genetic markers of aging to daily temperature records in areas across the United States and found that elderly people exposed to more hot days showed more rapid biological aging

Written in 1777, the letter from George Washington is expected to sell for $150,000.

You Can Buy a Rare Letter by George Washington Written at a Crucial Turning Point in the Revolutionary War

In the optimistic missive, Washington extols the revolutionary spirit of the American people—even in defeat—and makes a rare reference to the experimental smallpox inoculation that helped prevent outbreaks

Doctors at NYU Langone Health recently performed a transplant surgery using a gene-edited pig kidney. The patient, Towana Looney, is now more than two months out from surgery and recovering well,

FDA Approves Transplant Trials for Gene-Edited Pig Kidneys

Two biotechnology companies will begin testing the procedures in patients suffering from kidney failure

Arthur Ashe playing tennis against Dennis Ralston in 1964

On This Day in History

The Death of a Sports Legend on This Day in 1993 Changed How Americans Viewed AIDS

Tennis star Arthur Ashe achieved many firsts as a Black athlete. In the months leading up to his death, he thrust AIDS advocacy into the mainstream

Togo and his owner, musher Leonhard Seppala, in 1927

Discover Alaska

This Heroic Dog Raced Across the Frozen Alaskan Wilderness to Deliver Life-Saving Medicine—but His Contributions Were Long Overlooked

Togo, not Balto, was the driving force behind the 1925 Serum Run to Nome, which found teams of mushers and sled dogs delivering antitoxin to children suffering from diphtheria

President Donald Trump holds up an executive order. He signed dozens of executive orders on his first day in office, undoing many of his predecessor’s policies.

President Trump Orders the U.S. to Exit the World Health Organization and Paris Climate Agreement on His First Day in Office

The actions will take effect in a year, reinstating withdrawals he had set in motion during his first term

A vast mosaic of cells, some that are identical and some that are slightly different, make up the human body.

Why Is Every Human Being Riddled With Genetic Errors?

Your body is a collection of cells carrying thousands of genetic mistakes accrued over a lifetime—many harmless, some bad and at least a few that may be good for you

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia.

U.S. Dementia Cases Are Poised to Rise to One Million Each Year by 2060, According to New Projections

As the American population ages, a new study finds the average lifetime risk of dementia for adults over 55 is around 42 percent—a higher rate than previously thought

U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry shocked Americans by announcing that cigarette smoking is a major cause of lung cancer, throat cancer and chronic bronchitis.

On This Day in History

When the U.S. Surgeon General Shocked Americans by Announcing That Smoking Kills

The 1964 disclosure marked the first time many smokers had heard about the health dangers of tobacco

The world’s first Covid-19 human challenge study was born in early 2021.

What Have We Learned From Intentionally Infecting People With Covid-19?

Challenge trials help researchers study immune responses. Skeptics still doubt the approach is worth the risks

Jimmy Carter tries to comfort 6-year-old Ruhama Issah at Savelugu Hospital in Ghana as a Carter Center technical assistant dresses Issah's Guinea worm wound. In May 2010, Ghana reported its last case of Guinea worm disease and announced it had stopped transmission a year later.

Jimmy Carter Worked to Eradicate the Vicious Guinea Worm Parasite, Slashing Cases by the Millions

The 39th U.S. president aimed to quash the debilitating water-based infection before he died. Through the Carter Center’s work, he came tantalizingly close, lowering the number of yearly cases from 3.5 million to just 14

The U.S. has reported 66 human cases of H5N1 bird flu since March 2024, but a recent death of a Louisiana resident marks the country’s first fatality from the virus.

Officials Report the First Human Death From Bird Flu in the U.S. Here’s What to Know About the Virus

The death of a Louisiana resident who was over the age of 65 signals that future H5N1 infections are not guaranteed to be mild, health experts say

From these upper hip bones, researchers extracted an ancient genome of the bacteria that causes syphilis.

Ancient DNA Offers Crucial Hints to the Origin of Syphilis, a Decades-Long Mystery That Has Divided Scientists

Researchers found evidence that early versions of syphilis-causing bacteria existed in the Americas long before the arrival of Columbus

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