Imagine removing a branch of the U.S. government, say the Supreme Court. What are the myriad ways that such an upheaval might reshape people’s lives? Policy makers and researchers probably…
Category: Health & Medicine
Gene therapies for sickle cell disease come with hope and challenges
Today, it’s clear that our genes not only cause many diseases, but also hold potential cures. But that wasn’t always the case. It wasn’t until 1949 that scientists first found…
Chewing sugar-free gum reduced preterm births in a large study
Chewing a sugar-free gum daily reduced preterm births in a large study in Malawi. The oral intervention was inspired by past research linking poor oral health and preterm birth. The…
Omicron crushed delta in the U.S. These numbers show just how fast it happened
If it felt like omicron exploded with mind-boggling speed, a new look at the numbers backs that up. The highly contagious coronavirus variant achieved dominance in the United States in…
How one scientist aims to boost Black people’s representation in genetic datasets
Nearly two decades after researchers assembled the first genetic blueprint for human life, our understanding of our instruction manual has a dramatic and problematic bias: It’s based primarily on white…
Why being pregnant and unvaccinated against COVID-19 is a risky combo
Snow covered the storied field of Fenway Park in Boston when Kate Yohay, in the second trimester of her pregnancy, arrived. The ballpark had become a COVID-19 vaccination site, and…
Medical crowdfunding rarely helps those who need it most
Online crowdfunding for medical expenses raises less money than social media posts suggest and deepens health care inequities, a new study reports. The first large-scale assessment of medical crowdfunding in…
A deadly bacteria has been infecting children for more than 1,400 years
The tragic death of a 6-year-old boy in early medieval England has given scientists the earliest direct clue to the history of the pathogen Haemophilus influenzae type b. Dated to…
Genetically engineered immune cells have kept two people cancer-free for a decade
In 2010, two blood cancer patients received an experimental immunotherapy, and their cancers went into remission. Ten years later, the cancer-fighting immune cells used in the therapy were still around,…
