Medicine

Crossing Your Fingers Could Reduce Pain (No Lie)

Researchers find the spatial arrangement of our digits affects the sensations they feel

Gold Nanoparticles Can Remote Control the Brain

It’s just the latest twist in nanotech that is using gold as medicine

A digital scan of a human kidney and pelvis.

Medical Holograms Are Now Part of the Surgeon's Toolkit

Technology hitting the market will help doctors examine heart conditions or check for colon cancer without breaking the skin

How a Stinging Swarm of Bees Can Save a Life

Bee venom might be a potent medicine

In Mozambique, rats, like this one shown, have been used to detect land mines. Now they're being put to work to aid the fight against tuberculosis.

Mozambique has “Kitten-Sized” Rats Trained to Sniff Out Tuberculosis

Highly trained rodents are helping doctors better diagnose TB in a region hard hit by the deadly disease

The patient, in a rare moment of calm.

Cats Get Breast Cancer Too, and There's a Lot We Can Learn From It

Understanding aggressive tumors in pets may lead to better treatments for the nastiest forms of the disease in people

What’s Causing This Village’s Weird Sleeping Sickness Epidemic?

About a quarter of residents in a small town in Kazakhstan have fallen into a deep sleep for days at a time—and no one knows why

Marijuana buds are often two to three times as potent as they were 30 years ago.

Modern Marijuana Is Often Laced With Heavy Metals and Fungus

Medical and recreational marijuana use is increasingly legal—but do consumers know what they're smoking?

Members of the Xhosa tribe, like the young initiates seen here in Khayelitsha, are among the South African groups that practice ritual circumcision. The affiliation of the young man who received a transplant is not known.

The Trickiest Part of a Penis Transplant? Finding a Donor

The doctors who announced the first successful procedure last week had a particularly difficult time finding willing organ donors

The iTBra by Cyrcadia Health aims to screen for breast cancer in a new way, but still requires much testing.

Could a Bra Actually Detect Breast Cancer?

Using thermodynamic sensors, the iTBra could one day screen for breast cancer, but experts are wary

1,800 Studies Later, Scientists Conclude Homeopathy Doesn’t Work

A major Australian study debunks homeopathy—again

Bordetella phage BPP-1.

New Drawings Show the Strange Beauty of Phages, the Bacteria Slayers

Phage viruses rearrange genes, prey on bacteria and maintain microbial diversity. Can we harness them to do our bidding?

A lithograph depicting an ancient Egyptian physician treating a patient for lockjaw. In the village of Deir el-Medina, this man may have still been paid while missing work.

Some Ancient Egyptians Had State-Sponsored Healthcare

Craftsmen who built royal tombs enjoyed sick days, designated physicians and rationed medicine—all paid by the state

New York saw 4,500 annual cases by 1907. Mallon was linked to 47, and 3 deaths.

The Frightening Legacy of Typhoid Mary

With concerns about infectious disease in the news, a look back at history's most famous carrier

Is That Pill a Placebo? This Program Can Tell, Even If You Can't

A new algorithm could make it faster and less expensive to develop new painkillers

Imagining the future of artificial hearts.

Help for the Brokenhearted: Wearable, Biosynthetic and 'Beatless' Artificial Hearts

Cow-machine hybrids and continuous-flow technologies are helping people survive devastating heart failure

Don't try this at home.

Healers Once Prescribed Chocolate Like Aspirin

From ancient Mesoamerica to Renaissance Europe, the modern confectionary treat has medical roots

Dabbling around for a meal.

Ducks Help Explain How We Feel All the Feels

Highly sensitive nerves in duck bills are offering clues to the way we experience the sense of touch

Trained in CPR? This Life-Saving App Could Make You a Superhero

When someone is experiencing cardiac arrest, PulsePoint sends alerts to CPR-certified invidividuals nearby

One of the HIV-prevention medications, a pill called Truvada

A Setback for HIV Prevention Trial: Getting People To Take the Medicine

Women didn’t take their preventative medications, even those proven to work, for fear of side effects

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