Human Quirks: Health & Medicine

July 19, 2024

Top Headlines

Singing the Science: Using Karaoke to Examine Blushing

July 17, 2024 — A new collaboration explores the neural substrates of blushing in a MRI ...

Psilocybin Generates Psychedelic Experience by Disrupting Brain Network

July 17, 2024 — Researchers report that psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, destabilizes a critical network of brain areas involved in introspective thinking. The findings provide a neurobiological explanation for the drug's mind-bending ...

What Fat Cats on a Diet May Tell Us About Obesity in Humans

July 17, 2024 — Pet cats may be excellent animal models for the study of obesity origins and treatment in humans, a new study of feline gut microbes suggests -- and both species would likely get healthier in the research process, scientists ...

Enzyme-Powered 'Snot Bots' Help Deliver Drugs in Sticky Situations

July 17, 2024 — Snot might not be the first place you'd expect nanobots to be swimming around. But this slimy secretion exists in more places than just your nose and piles of dirty tissues -- it also lines and helps protect the lungs, stomach, intestines and eyes. ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:18pm EDT

New Way for Beneficial Microbes to Survive Extreme Conditions and Space Exploration

July 9, 2024 — Investigators sought to help figure out how to send materials like probiotics into space and to better treat a variety of gastrointestinal (GI) and ...

Muscle Machine: How Water Controls the Speed of Muscle Contraction

July 11, 2024 — The flow of water within a muscle fiber may dictate how quickly muscle can contract, according to a new ...

'A History of Contact': Geneticists Are Rewriting the Narrative of Neanderthals and Other Ancient Humans

July 11, 2024 — Using genomes from 2,000 living humans as well as three Neanderthals and one Denisovan, an international team mapped the gene flow between the ...

Eating Small Fish Whole Can Prolong Life Expectancy, a Japanese Study Finds

June 13, 2024 — A new study has found evidence linking the intake of whole-sized small fish with a reduced risk of all-cause and cancer mortality in Japanese ...

Two New Species of Psilocybe Mushrooms Discovered in Southern Africa

July 2, 2024 — In a new paper, researchers and citizen mycologists describe the two new species as Psilocybe ingeli and Psilocybe maluti. The paper also contains information on the traditional use of P. maluti by ...

Clever Clothes! Seams in Clothing Capture Body Movement

July 2, 2024 — Everyday clothing may soon be able to capture and record body movements according to new ...

Doctors Could Soon Use Facial Temperature for Early Diagnosis of Metabolic Diseases

July 2, 2024 — A colder nose and warmer cheeks may be a telltale sign of rising blood pressure. Researchers discovered that temperatures in different face regions ...

Creating Supranormal Hearing in Mice

June 28, 2024 — A new study has produced supranormal hearing in mice, while also supporting a hypothesis on the cause of hidden hearing loss in ...

Microrobot-Packed Pill Shows Promise for Treating Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Mice

June 26, 2024 — Engineers have developed a pill that releases microscopic robots, or microrobots, into the colon to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The ...

Moving Objects Precisely With Sound

June 25, 2024 — Researchers have succeeded in directing floating objects around an aquatic obstacle course using only soundwaves. Their novel, optics-inspired method holds great promise for biomedical applications ...

Earlier Headlines

Your Future Medications Could Be Personalized for You on a 3D Printer

June 25, 2024 — Scientists are helping to develop standards and safety protocols that would allow pharmacies to print drugs onsite at a dosage best for ...

Swimming Microrobots Deliver Cancer-Fighting Drugs to Metastatic Lung Tumors in Mice

June 12, 2024 — Engineers have developed microscopic robots, known as microrobots, capable of swimming through the lungs to deliver cancer-fighting medication directly to metastatic tumors. This approach has shown ...

Ingestible Microbiome Sampling Pill Technology Advances

June 12, 2024 — Significant progress has been made in the development of a small device, about the size of a vitamin pill, that can be swallowed and passed through the gastrointestinal tract to sample and help ...

To Heal Skin, Scientists Invent Living Bioelectronics

June 12, 2024 — Engineers have created a patch that combines sensors and bacteria to interact with the ...

Towards a New Era in Flexible Piezoelectric Sensors for Both Humans and Robots

June 12, 2024 — Flexible piezoelectric sensors are essential to monitor the motions of both humans and humanoid robots. However, existing designs are either are costly or have limited sensitivity. In a recent study, ...

AI-Powered Simulation Training Improves Human Performance in Robotic Exoskeletons

June 12, 2024 — Researchers have demonstrated a new method that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and computer simulations to train robotic exoskeletons to autonomously help users save energy while walking, ...

Would Astronauts' Kidneys Survive a Roundtrip to Mars?

June 11, 2024 — The structure and function of the kidneys is altered by space flight, with galactic radiation causing permanent damage that would jeopardise any mission to Mars, according to a new study led by ...

People Feel More Connected to 'Tweezer-Like' Bionic Tools That Don't Resemble Human Hands

June 6, 2024 — Some say the next step in human evolution will be the integration of technology with flesh. Now, researchers have used virtual reality to test whether humans can feel embodiment -- the sense that ...

Babies Use 'Helpless' Infant Period to Learn Powerful Foundation Models, Just Like ChatGPT

June 5, 2024 — Babies' brains are not as immature as previously thought, rather they are using the period of postnatal 'helplessness' to learn powerful foundation models similar to those underpinning ...

Could the World Famous Roman Baths Help Scientists Counter the Challenge of Antibiotic Resistance?

May 31, 2024 — A new study has uncovered a diverse array of microorganisms within the hot waters of the Roman Baths, regularly listed among the UK's most popular tourist attractions. Tests showed 15 of the ...

Scientists Invent 'Living Bioelectronics' That Can Sense and Heal Skin

May 30, 2024 — Reaserchers have created a prototype for what they call 'living bioelectronics': a combination of living cells, gel, and electronics that can integrate with living tissue. Tests in mice ...

Picture This: Snapping Photos of Our Food Could Be Good for Us

May 30, 2024 — Research reveals taking pictures of food isn't just content for our social media feeds, but could be the key to improving people's ...

Chicken Feathers to Deliver Chemotherapy Drugs and Repair Enzymes

May 29, 2024 — A new method of drug delivery using proline, an amino acid found in chicken feathers and skin tissue, could be used to limit the side effects of chemotherapy and repair important enzymes, new ...

Public Have No Difficulty Getting to Grips With an Extra Thumb, Study Finds

May 29, 2024 — Researchers have shown that members of the public have little trouble in learning very quickly how to use a third thumb -- a controllable, prosthetic extra thumb -- to pick up and manipulate objects. ...

Imperceptible Sensors Made from 'Electronic Spider Silk' Can Be Printed Directly on Human Skin

May 24, 2024 — Researchers have developed a method to make adaptive and eco-friendly sensors that can be directly and imperceptibly printed onto a wide range of biological surfaces, whether that's a finger or ...

Psychedelic Drug-Induced Hyperconnectivity in the Brain Helps Clarify Altered Subjective Experiences

May 23, 2024 — A new study shows that the use of psilocybin, a compound found in the widely known 'magic mushrooms,' initiates a pattern of hyperconnectivity in the brain linked to the ego-modifying ...

Robots' and Prosthetic Hands' Sense of Touch Could Be as Fast as Humans

May 15, 2024 — Research could pave the way for a prosthetic hand and robot to be able to feel touch like a human hand. The technology could also be used to help restore lost functionality to patients after a ...

Seeking Medical Insights in the Physics of Mucus

May 7, 2024 — Understanding how mucus changes, and what it changes in response to, can help diagnose illnesses and develop treatments. Researchers develop a system to grow mucus-producing intestinal cells and ...

Time Zones and Tiredness Strongly Influence NBA Results, Study of 25,000 Matches Shows

May 1, 2024 — The body clock has a significant impact on the performance of NBA players. Data shows vastly better win ratio for home teams from the Western Time Zone Area (PDT) when playing an EDT team, compared ...

One in Eight Grown-Ups Love Extreme Tartness

Apr. 29, 2024 — For most people, biting into a lemon would leave them puckered up and desperate to lose that sour flavor, but a new study revealed that roughly one in eight adults like intensely sour sensations. The ...