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Medicine

Cool Finds

In Sweden the Blood Bank Will Text You When Your Blood is Used

Stockholm’s blood bank uses text messages and Facebook posts to remind donors to give again

These 15th-century female musicians are clearly in grave medical danger.

Cool Finds

Some 19th-Century Physicians Thought Music Could Infect the Brain

When it comes to music in the brain, medicine has come a long way

A ward in Carver Hospital in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War. One key innovation during this period was the division of hospitals into wards based on disease.

Six Ways the Civil War Changed American Medicine

150 years ago, the historic conflict forced doctors to get creative and to reframe the way they thought about medicine

Beth Ripley holds a 3D printed heart in her hands at the National Maker Faire last weekend in Washington, D.C.

The Innovative Spirit

Doctors Can Study 3D Printed Models of Your Organs Before Surgery

In a new era of personalized medicine, advanced models are better preparing surgeons for what they will encounter in the operating room

Ask Smithsonian 2017

Does Dieting Actually Make Your Stomach Shrink?

Not exactly, says science—stretchiness and psychology seem to play bigger roles than size in determining how much a person can eat

IBM Watson Makes Things Elementary, Indeed

The cognitive computing system makes for an ideal sidekick—in museums, kitchens, hospitals and classrooms

A Harvard Student’s App Could Bring 911 Into the Future

With just one click, RapidSOS sends GPS and medical information to emergency dispatchers

CellScope automatically detects and quantifies infection by parasitic worms in a drop of blood.

This Smartphone Microscope Uses Video to Spot Moving Parasites

A team of Berkeley bioengineers has created CellScope, a mobile phone attachment that can quickly test blood for tropical diseases

University of Vermont engineering student Joseph Maser gazes down at the prototype of the inflatable airlock for space stations and vehicles that he and three other students built.

Made by College Seniors, These Seven Products Give Us a Glimpse Into the Future

Engineering students at universities across the country took these projects from sketch to reality in one year

New Research

Scientists Are Stopping Malaria With Viagra

Viagra can help boost the spleen’s ability to filter out infected blood cells

New Research

Most Surgery Outcomes Aren’t Tracked

New analysis finds only 153 clinical registries nationwide

New Research

Researchers Come Closer to Making Everyone a Universal Blood Donor

The approach uses an enzyme to snip off the parts of blood cells that can prove problematic

New Research

Most Countries Have No Plans For When Antibiotics Stop Working

World Health Organization sounds the alarm on “one of the biggest threats to the future of global health”

Light micrograph of a two-celled human zygote (the earliest stages of the embryo)

New Research

Gene Editing in Human Embryos Ignites Controversy

Chinese researchers have published the results of using a new gene-editing tool on human embryos

An X-ray of the knee bone.

We’re Not That Far From Being Able to Grow Human Bones in a Lab

The company EpiBone could be on the verge of a major breakthrough

Human cortical neurons in the brain.

The Quest to Upload Your Mind Into the Digital Space

The idea is about as science fiction as it gets. But surprising progress in neuroscience has some entrepreneurs ready to press “send”

This device makes it possible to communicate with your mind.

This Stroke of Genius Could Allow You to Write With Your Brain

Not Impossible Labs has developed a breakthrough approach to communication

This is a close mimic of the coral snake, but the real version has a singular venom.

Decoding the Deadly Secret of Snake Venom

The world’s animals have developed an incredible variety of venoms. But how?

Soon, Your Doctor Could Print a Human Organ on Demand

At a laboratory in North Carolina, scientists are working furiously to create a future in which replacement organs come from a machine

Why Brain-to-Brain Communication Is No Longer Unthinkable

Exploring uncharted territory, neuroscientists are making strides with human subjects who can “talk” directly by using their minds

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