Researchers have finally deciphered a complete human genetic instruction book from cover to cover. The completion of the human genome has been announced a couple of times in the past,…
Category: Health & Medicine
‘Vagina Obscura’ shows how little is known about female biology
Vagina ObscuraRachel E. GrossW.W. Norton & Co., $30 More than 2,000 years ago, Hippocrates, the Greek physician often considered the father of modern medicine, identified what came to be known…
How I’ll decide when it’s time to ditch my mask
For weeks, I have been watching coronavirus cases drop across the United States. At the same time, cases were heading skyward in many places in Europe, Asia and Oceania. Those…
How gene therapy overcame high-profile failures
Gene therapy pioneer Richard Jude Samulski remembers when he avoided the words “gene therapy.” In the mid-2000s, he told people he worked on “biological nanoparticles,” even attempting to trademark the…
What do we mean by ‘COVID-19 changes your brain’?
Like all writers, I spend large chunks of my time looking for words. When it comes to the ultracomplicated and mysterious brain, I need words that capture nuance and uncertainties.…
A gene therapy for hemophilia boosts levels of a crucial clotting protein
A gene-based therapy is potentially a step closer to becoming a one-time treatment for men with hemophilia. The life-threatening genetic disorder hinders the body’s ability to form blood clots. In…
School mask mandates in the U.S. reduced coronavirus transmission
The verdict is, once again, in: Masking in schools is effective. During the COVID-19 pandemic’s delta variant wave, schools that required masking had approximately one-fourth the rates of in-school coronavirus…
50 years ago, oxygen was touted as a potential memory loss treatment
Retaining older people’s memory — Science News, March 18, 1972 In spite of the age-old yearning for the Fountain of Youth, there is a marked lack of research toward retaining…
Genetically modified mosquitoes could be tested in California soon
Genetically modified mosquitoes might soon be whining on both U.S. coasts. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved two more years of testing Oxitec’s genetically modified mosquitoes as living pest…
Some E. coli set off viral grenades inside nearby bacteria
Some bacteria can trigger unexploded viral grenades in neighboring bacteria’s DNA. Certain Escherichia coli bacteria, including some that live in human intestines, make a chemical called colibactin. That chemical awakens…
