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…
Category: Health & Medicine
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. …
Emily Jacobs wants to know how sex hormones sculpt the brain
When Emily Jacobs embarked on a career studying the brain in the early 2000s, a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, was having a moment. “Just like we…
Christopher Barnes is on a quest for a universal coronavirus vaccine
In January 2020, Caltech biochemist Pamela Bjorkman asked for volunteers to help work out the structures of immune proteins that attack a newly discovered coronavirus. The pathogen had emerged in…
Smruthi Karthikeyan turned to wastewater to get ahead of COVID-19
Environmental engineer Smruthi Karthikeyan had spent just a couple of days working in her new lab at the University of California, San Diego when the state instituted its first coronavirus…
