In early 2022, malaria cases in the Ethiopian city of Dire Dawa surged, with more than 2,400 people sickened. The spike in infections was the work of an invasive mosquito…
Category: Health & Medicine
Need a fall read? ‘The Song of the Cell’ offers tales from biology and history
The Song of the CellSiddhartha MukherjeeScribner, $32.50 In the summer of 1960, doctors extracted “crimson sludge” from 6-year-old Barbara Lowry’s bones and gave it to her twin. That surgery, one…
What is long COVID and who’s at risk? This NIH project may find out
You may have heard the big long COVID news that came out recently: A Scottish study reported that about half of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 have not fully recovered six…
A study questioning colonoscopy screening’s benefits has big caveats
A recent study reported a smaller-than-expected benefit from screening colonoscopies. But the study has important caveats, gastroenterologists say, making it ripe for misinterpretation if that context isn’t included. The study…
Black Death immunity came at a cost to modern-day health
A genetic variant that appears to have boosted medieval Europeans’ ability to survive the Black Death centuries ago may contribute — albeit in a small way — to an inflammatory…
A swarm of sneaky omicron variants could cause a COVID-19 surge this fall
Fall and winter have not been kind to us over the last couple of years. In 2020, cases of COVID-19 began to climb in October. And at this time last…
Cooperative sperm outrun loners in the mating race
Even sperm gotta stick together. Bull sperm swim more effectively when in clusters, a new study shows, potentially offering insight into fertility in humans. In simulated reproductive tracts of animals…
Losing amphibians may be tied to spikes in human malaria cases
In the 1990s and 2000s, Costa Rica and Panama experienced spikes in malaria cases. The massive loss of amphibians in the region from a deadly fungal disease may have contributed…
‘Breathless’ explores COVID-19’s origins and other pandemic science
BreathlessDavid QuammenSimon & Schuster, $29.99 When COVID-19 burst onto the global stage in 2020, it was deadly and disruptive. In the first weeks of January, researchers identified the cause: A…
Genetics of human evolution wins 2022 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine
Establishing a new field of science to answer the question of what makes humans unique from our extinct relatives has earned Svante Pääbo the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. …
