“What does not kill me, makes me stronger,” 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche famously wrote. Variations of that aphorism abound in literary, spiritual and, more recently, psychological texts. That…
Category: Humans
How scientists are shifting their search for links between diet and dementia
The internet is rife with advice for keeping the brain sharp as we age, and much of it is focused on the foods we eat. Headlines promise that oatmeal will…
This soft, electronic ‘nerve cooler’ could be a new way to relieve pain
A flexible electronic implant could one day make pain management a lot more chill. Created from materials that dissolve in the body, the device encircles nerves with an evaporative cooler.…
Six months in space leads to a decade’s worth of long-term bone loss
You might want to bring your dumbbells on that next spaceflight. During space missions lasting six months or longer, astronauts can experience bone loss equivalent to two decades of aging.…
New COVID-19 boosters could contain bits of the omicron variant
For all the coronavirus variants that have thrown pandemic curve balls — including alpha, beta, gamma and delta — COVID-19 vaccines have stayed the same. That could change this fall.…
A neck patch for athletes could help detect concussions early
A flexible sensor applied to the back of the neck could help researchers detect whiplash-induced concussions in athletes. The sensor, described June 23 in Scientific Reports, is about the size…
Here’s what we know right now about getting COVID-19 again
Not long before the end of the school year, my husband and I received an e-mail from our fifth-grader’s principal that may now be all-too-familiar to many parents. The subject…
Britons’ tools from 560,000 years ago have emerged from gravel pits
In the 1920s, laborers and amateur archaeologists at gravel quarry pits in southeastern England uncovered more than 300 ancient, sharp-edged oval tools. Researchers have long suspected that these hand axes…
Monkeypox is not a global health emergency for now, WHO says
Monkeypox is not yet a global public health emergency, the World Health Organization said June 25. The decision comes as the outbreak of the disease related to smallpox continues to…
5 misunderstandings of pregnancy biology that cloud the abortion debate
On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. By undoing the landmark 1973 decision that protected a person’s right to an abortion, the highest court in the…
