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Medicine

Newborns usually go through tests to determine whether they have hearing problems. Undiagnosed issues can delay developmental milestones.

The FDA Approves the First-Ever Gene Therapy for Deafness, Which Aims to Restore Hearing in Kids With a Rare Inherited Condition

The agency’s decision is based on results from a clinical trial in which the treatment improved hearing in 80 percent of the pediatric participants. However, Deaf community advocates worry about the push to cure hearing loss

Some cancer patients ring a bell to signal the end of their treatment and their return to normal life. But many would benefit from specialized long-term medical care to manage the ongoing effects of the disease and its treatments.

Cancer Survivors Are Living Longer but Still Have Complex Needs. That’s Why Doctors and Advocates Want Post-Treatment Care Plans

Survivors have a heightened risk of developing cardiovascular disease, pain, insomnia, psychosocial distress and new cancers. Many, patient advocates say, are not receiving adequate long-term care

More than 50 million people suffer from epilepsy around the world, making it one of the most common and severe neurological disorders globally.

These Young Innovators Have Created a ‘Fitbit’ to Predict Epileptic Seizures

Truman Pierson and Christopher Fitz are developing behind-the-ear EEG patches and an accompanying app that issues an alert if the user is at high risk for a seizure in the next hour

Scientists now think humans settled South America in three waves.

A New Big Database of DNA From Indigenous Americans Shakes Up Scientists’ Theories About Human Settlement of South America

Genomic data provides evidence for a previously unknown wave of migration, with Indigenous groups living in central and southern Mexico spreading into South America and the Caribbean starting around 1,300 years ago

The federal government is reclassifying medical marijuana as a less dangerous drug.

State-Licensed Medical Marijuana Has Been Reclassified as a Less-Dangerous Drug. Here’s What That Means

The move should make it easier for researchers to study the substance and give tax breaks to licensed medical marijuana dealers

The researchers studied neural activity in 16 participants with epilepsy who had electrodes in their brains.

We Use Many of the Same Brain Cells to See and to Imagine Objects, a Study Suggests. The Findings Provide a New Window Into Memory

While past research has hinted at an overlap in relevant brain regions, the new work drills down to the cellular level. The discovery could help improve treatments for memory disorders, such as dementia, and certain psychiatric conditions, like schizophrenia

The League for Spiritual Discovery, an LSD-based meditation center in New York City, in 1967

The First LSD Trip Was a Literal Bicycle Ride 83 Years Ago. Fans of the Psychedelic Celebrate the Occasion Every April 19

In 1943, a chemist in Switzerland synthesized a drug that alters consciousness. His discovery changed the study of medicine, psychiatry and biology—and became a central component of the counterculture movement

The hallucinogenic mushroom Psilocybe pelliculosa, which contains psilocybin

How Do Different Psychedelics Affect the Brain? Scientists Analyzed More Than 500 Neural Scans to Find Out

A new study suggests that four psychoactive compounds work in surprisingly similar ways, and that they break down the separation between how we think internally and how we perceive the outside world

The clitoris is larger than most people think, and much of the organ is internal.

Scientists Just Made the Most Complete Map of the Clitoris’s Sensory Nerve Network. Here’s What They Found

Cultural taboos around female sexuality have hindered research on the organ. But a new study provides pivotal insights that can inform important surgeries and health care

An artificially colored human B cell, the type of immune cell that caused all three autoimmune diseases in the patient

In a First, This Personalized Cell Therapy Treated Three Life-Threatening Autoimmune Diseases in One Patient

The patient was bedridden and needed daily blood transfusions, and she had tried nine different therapies that didn’t bring lasting effects. So, researchers modified some of her immune cells so they would attack her faulty cells

Tobacco plants make a lot of the amino acid tryptophan, the basis of many psychoactive compounds.

Scientists Engineered Tobacco Plants to Produce Five Mind-Altering Psychedelic Compounds

The substances have been used by Indigenous peoples for thousands of years, but they’ve recently become popular as possible therapeutics for mental health conditions

Becoming an expert birder might support brain health, according to a new study.

Becoming an Expert Birder Can Reshape Your Brain and Might Help Protect It From Aging, New Research Suggests

Compared with novices, seasoned birders had denser, more structurally complex brain regions involved with tasks like object identification, visual processing, attention and working memory

Researchers stimulated digital replicas of the patients' hearts with electrical signals to locate the sources of their irregular heartbeats.

Doctors Used ‘Digital Twins’ of Patients’ Hearts to Fix Their Irregular Heartbeats

A small clinical trial suggests the technology can help physicians perform life-saving surgeries more efficiently and safely

NASA astronaut Mike Fincke on January 15, when SpaceX Crew-11 splashed down, roughly one month ahead of schedule.

An Astronaut’s Sudden Inability to Speak Prompted the ISS’s First Medical Evacuation. Doctors Still Don’t Know What Caused the Issue

The individual who fell ill, NASA’s Mike Fincke, says the medical team is almost certain that the issue was related to being in space

Male reproductive cells, sperm, might struggle to reach and fertilize female reproductive cells, eggs, in microgravity, according to a new study.

Humans Might Struggle to Make Babies in Space. Sperm Gets Disoriented in Microgravity, a New Study Suggests

Simulated near-weightless conditions reduced human sperm’s navigational abilities

Ball pythons (shown), along with Burmese pythons, were studied in the new research.

Could Python Blood Lead to the Next Generation of Weight-Loss Drugs?

Researchers discovered an appetite-suppressing molecule in python blood. If one day turned into a medication, it might lack some of the common negative side effects of GLP-1s

The new variant has been detected in 25 states so far.

The ‘Cicada’ Variant of Covid-19 Is Spreading in the United States. Here’s What You Need to Know

Infection levels are still low in the country, but the highly mutated variant might be able to evade your body’s immune defenses acquired via vaccine or past infection

Researchers gathered bark from two species of trees—downy birch and silver birch—on public land in Germany. Then, they used it to produce birch tar via three extraction techniques.

New Research

Did Neanderthals Use Birch Bark Tar as an Antibiotic to Treat Wounds and Infections?

Scientists created samples of the black resin using three methods and tested their effectiveness against two common bacteria

While the cells can play the game, they’re not very good at it.

A Clump of Human Brain Cells on a Computer Chip Learned to Play the Nostalgic Video Game ‘Doom’

The technology could one day help researchers develop drugs and tailor treatments to individual patients

The perception of sleep is just as important as the quality of sleep.

Vivid Dreams Might Be Key to Feeling Well Rested When You Wake Up, According to a New Study

The findings could help explain the purpose of dreams and help physicians better treat people with sleep disorders

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