Articles tagged as Health | Smithsonian Magazine

Scientists Are Searching Out “Genetic Superheroes” to Cure Diseases

Out of almost 600,000 people, 13 seem to have mutations that prevent deadly diseases from being expressed

April 13, 2016

The Age Suit at the Liberty Science Center lets users feel what it's like to get older.

Virtual reality could allow users to step into someone else’s shoes, experiencing things like having migraines or swapping genders

April 12, 2016

Rust Belt cities like Detroit had the greatest disparities in life expectancy between rich and poor.

The life expectancy gap between New York and Gary, Indiana is over four years

April 11, 2016

A spectrometer can determine the nutritional value and caloric content of single piece of fruit.

You May Soon Be Able to Scan a Piece of Fruit to Check Its Nutritional Value

That’s one of the ideas Target is testing as it explores how much of a competitive edge it gets from being transparent about food

April 11, 2016

Is yogurt the elixir of longevity? Not exactly.

A Science Lecture Accidentally Sparked a Global Craze for Yogurt

More than a century ago, a biologist’s remarks set people searching for yogurt as a cure for old age

April 11, 2016

New Research

Pig Heart Beat for Over Two Years in Baboon’s Belly

Researchers take big step forward in the quest to develop cross-species organ transplants

April 7, 2016

Designing Glasses That Fit Individuals With Down Syndrome

Optician Maria Dellapina started Specs4Us when her daughter struggled to find a pair of glasses that wouldn’t slip

April 6, 2016

The Lazarus Phenomenon, Explained: Why Sometimes, the Deceased Are Not Dead, Yet

What does CPR have to do with the curious case of clinically dead patients coming “back to life”?

March 31, 2016

New Research

NASA Scientists Are Trying to Make Medicine Onboard the ISS

Scientists are sending fungi to the space station to see what pharmaceuticals astronauts can brew

March 30, 2016

The Tribeca Film Festival injected even more controversy into the anti-vaccine "debate" when it decided to show a film by the movement's most polarizing figure.

The controversy shows the film isn’t immune to unfounded fears about vaccination

March 25, 2016

New Research

The Cure for Lower Back Pain? Mindfulness and Therapy

Mindfulness-based stress relief and cognitive behaviorial therapy work better than conventional treatments in patient trials

March 24, 2016

Maya Varma won $150,000 as one of the first place winners in the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search competition.

How a High School Senior Won $150,000 By Inventing a $35 Medical Device

When Maya Varma learned an expensive diagnostic tool is rare in the developing world, she decided to build her own

March 22, 2016

Pneumatics allow the material to change shape.

A New Material Could Make Medical Devices That Expand and Collapse

Harvard researchers develop a new origami-inspired material that changes shape

March 18, 2016

Smart Startup

Could This App Replace Your Doctor?

Babylon connects users with doctors for instant virtual consultations, and will soon use artificial intelligence for diagnosing illnesses

March 17, 2016

People planning to travel to high-elevation locations in Central and South America like Mexico City are breathing a sigh of relief.

It’s welcome news for anyone with travel plans

March 15, 2016

Mini-organs grow around the tiny scaffolds (lower left). The magnified image (right) shows the hair-thin channels that serve as blood vessels.

How a Tiny, “Beating” Human Heart Was Created in a Lab

The device, filled with human heart cells, could dramatically reduce the time it takes to test new drugs and end testing on animals

March 11, 2016

U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly (right) and his twin brother Mark attend a press conference ahead of NASA's "Year in Space" mission at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in 2015.

A Brief History of Twin Studies

As NASA dives into the data from astronaut twins, take a look back at the famous, and infamous, results we’ve seen from this popular research tool

March 4, 2016

New Research

Virus Genes in Human DNA May, Surprisingly, Help Us Fight Infections

Bits of ancient viral invaders woven into the human genome seem to boost our immune system

March 3, 2016

Scientists keep finding new ways the brain can be deceived.

A New Way to Trick the Brain and Beat Jet Lag

For all its complexity, the human brain is not hard to deceive. Here are four studies where scientists have learned more about duping it

March 3, 2016

Scott Kelly works on the International Space Station during a nearly eight-hour spacewalk in November 2015.

What Happens to the Human Body in Space?

Data from astronauts who spent 340 days in orbit will add to almost 55 years of research on how low gravity sends Earthlings for a loop

March 1, 2016