Human Quirks: Health & Medicine

June 9, 2025

Top Headlines

Burning for Beauty: How TikTok Skin Trends Are Harming Young Girls

June 9, 2025 — Teens are diving into intense skincare routines inspired by TikTok, often slathering on six or more products daily, sometimes over ten in just minutes, chasing beauty ideals that favor lighter, flawless skin. But new research warns this digital ...

5-Minute STI Test Poised to Transform Sexual Health Diagnostics

June 9, 2025 — A revolutionary STI test developed by UK-based Linear Diagnostics is on track to dramatically reduce the time it takes to detect infections like gonorrhea and chlamydia. Built on ultra-fast EXPAR DNA amplification technology, the platform can ...

Cannabis Use Among Seniors Surges 46% in Two Years--Study Reveals

June 7, 2025 — Cannabis use among older Americans has climbed dramatically, with 7% of adults 65 and older now reporting recent use. This rise isn't just in numbers but also in diversity older users today are more likely to be women, college-educated, and ...

Why Your Diet Might Be Making You Sad--Especially If You're a Man

June 7, 2025 — New research reveals a surprising downside to calorie-cutting diets: a link to higher levels of depressive symptoms, especially in men and those who are overweight. Despite popular beliefs that healthy eating boosts mental wellness, real-life ...

Could 'Pausing' Cell Death Be the Final Frontier in Medicine on Earth and Beyond?

May 29, 2025 — The process of necrosis, a form of cell death, may represent one of the most promising ways to change the course of human aging, disease and even space travel, according to a new ...

Nearly Five Million Seized Seahorses Just 'Tip of the Iceberg' in Global Wildlife Smuggling

May 28, 2025 — Close to five million smuggled seahorses worth an estimated CAD$29 million were seized by authorities over a 10-year span, according to a new study that warns the scale of the trade is far larger ...

An Artificial Protein That Moves Like Something Found in Nature

May 22, 2025 — Proteins catalyze life by changing shape when they interact with other molecules. The result is a muscle twitching, the perception of light, or a bit of energy extracted from food. The ability to engineer shapeshifting proteins opens new avenues for ...

Why After 2000 Years We Still Don't Know How Tickling Works

May 27, 2025 — How come you can't tickle yourself? And why can some people handle tickling perfectly fine while others scream their heads off? Neuroscientists argue that we should take tickle research more ...

A Dental Floss That Can Measure Stress

May 23, 2025 — Scientists create a floss pick that samples cortisol within saliva as a marker of stress and quantifies it with a built-in electrode. The system uses a polymer casting technology that can be adapted to capture a wide a range of markers, such as ...

Toothache from Eating Something Cold? Blame These Ancient Fish

May 21, 2025 — New research shows that dentine, the inner layer of teeth that transmits sensory information to nerves inside the pulp, first evolved as sensory tissue in the armored exoskeletons of ancient ...

Hand2: Positional Code That Allows Axolotls to Regrow Limbs Found

May 21, 2025 — With its fascinating ability to regrow entire limbs and internal organs, the Mexican axolotl is the ideal model for studying regeneration. Scientists have now found a factor that tells cells which part of the arm to regenerate -- and used it to ...

A New Technology for Extending the Shelf Life of Produce

May 21, 2025 — Researchers developed a way to extend the shelf life of vegetables by injecting them with melatonin using biodegradable ...

Latest Headlines

updated 1:45pm EDT

Common Supplement Reverses Premature Aging in Landmark Human Trial

June 9, 2025 — A rare genetic disorder called Werner syndrome causes premature aging and devastating health complications from an early age, yet treatment options have been lacking. New hope emerges from Chiba ...

Your Fingers Wrinkle in the Same Pattern Every Time You're in the Water for Too Long

May 12, 2025 — Your fingers wrinkle in the same pattern every time you're in the water for too long, according to new ...

3D Printing in Vivo Using Sound

May 8, 2025 — New technique for cell or drug delivery, localization of bioelectric materials, and wound healing uses ultrasound to activate printing within the ...

AI-Designed DNA Controls Genes in Healthy Mammalian Cells for First Time

May 8, 2025 — A recent study marks the first reported instance of generative AI designing synthetic molecules that can successfully control gene expression in healthy mammalian cells. As a proof-of-concept, the ...

Non-Inherited Genes Affect Children's Development

May 7, 2025 — Parents' genes -- even when not directly inherited by a child -- may play a role in their educational and mental health outcomes, finds a new ...

The Future of Brain Activity Monitoring May Look Like a Strand of Hair

May 2, 2025 — Researchers have created a hairlike device for long-term, non-invasive monitoring of the brain's electrical activity. The lightweight and flexible electrode attaches directly to the scalp and ...

The All-Female Korean Haenyeo Divers Show Genetic Adaptions to Cold Water Diving

May 2, 2025 — The Haenyeo, a group of all-female divers from the Korean island of Jeju, are renowned for their ability to dive in frigid waters without the aid of ...

New Research Reveals How Physiology-Inspired Networks Could Improve Political Decision-Making

May 1, 2025 — A new study has unveiled a groundbreaking framework for rethinking political decision-making -- drawing inspiration from how the human body maintains ...

Seasonal Changes Affect Alcohol Tolerance and Your Waistline

Apr. 30, 2025 — Researchers have found that drug effectiveness, alcohol tolerance, and carbohydrate metabolism change with the seasons. Their findings are based on a comprehensive seasonal gene expression map, which ...

Will the Vegetables of the Future Be Fortified Using Tiny Needles?

Apr. 29, 2025 — Researchers have shown they can inexpensively nanomanufacture silk microneedles to precisely fortify crops, monitor plant health, and detect soil ...

More Americans Are Using Psilocybin -- Especially Those With Mental Health Conditions, Study Shows

Apr. 21, 2025 — Use of psilocybin, the hallucinogenic chemical found in what is known as 'magic mushrooms,' has increased significantly nationwide since 2019, according to a new ...

Soft Brainstem Implant Delivers High-Resolution Hearing

Apr. 18, 2025 — A team has developed a soft, thin-film ABI. The device uses micrometer-scale platinum electrodes embedded in silicone, forming a pliable array just a fraction of a millimeter thick. This novel ...

Our DNA Is at Risk of Hacking, Warn Scientists

Apr. 16, 2025 — According to new research next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS) -- the same technology which is powering the development of tailor-made medicines, cancer diagnostics, infectious disease tracking, and ...

Do 'Optimistic' Versus 'Pessimistic' Medical Detection Dogs Perform Differently?

Apr. 9, 2025 — A new, exploratory study has revealed statistical links between the performance of medical detection dogs and their scores on behavioral and affective tests, finding that more 'optimistic' ...

Scientists Complete Largest Wiring Diagram and Functional Map of the Brain to Date

Apr. 9, 2025 — From a tiny sample of tissue no larger than a grain of sand, scientists have come within reach of a goal once thought unattainable: building a complete functional wiring diagram of a portion of the ...

Clockwork, Just for Antibiotic Resistance?

Apr. 7, 2025 — Could a gene regulatory network in gut microbes have evolved its elaborate and tightly regulated molecular machinery only to pump out antibiotics indiscriminately? Researchers show this is an ...

Revealing Capillaries and Cells in Living Organs With Ultrasound

Apr. 3, 2025 — While medical centers use ultrasound daily, so far this technology has not been capable of observing body tissues at the scale of cells. Physicists have now developed a microscopy technique based on ...

Estrogen and Progesterone Stimulate the Body to Make Opioids

Apr. 3, 2025 — Female hormones can suppress pain by making immune cells near the spinal cord produce opioids, a new study has found. This stops pain signals before they get to the brain. The discovery could help ...

Western Diet Causes Inflammation, Traditional African Food Protects

Apr. 3, 2025 — A switch of just two weeks from a traditional African diet to a Western diet causes inflammation, reduces the immune response to pathogens, and activates processes associated with lifestyle diseases. ...

Miso Made in Space Tastes Nuttier

Apr. 2, 2025 — Miso is a traditional Japanese condiment made by fermenting cooked soybeans and salt. Researchers successfully made miso on the International Space Station (ISS). They found that the miso smelled and ...

Cold Plunges Actually Change Your Cells

Mar. 28, 2025 — Cold water immersion for seven days significantly improves cellular resilience and autophagic function, helping cells manage stress better. This adaptation could enhance health and longevity, ...

Human Urine, a Valuable Resource as Fertilizer for Sustainable Urban Agriculture, Study Concludes

Mar. 27, 2025 — The reuse of human urine would allow for the production of sustainable fertilizers for urban agriculture, with significant environmental benefits, a new study concludes. The research evaluates the ...

Mini Rolling Robot Takes Virtual Biopsies

Mar. 26, 2025 — A tiny magnetic robot which can take 3D scans from deep within the body, that could revolutionize early cancer detection, has been developed by researchers. The team say this is the first time it has ...

Rare Disease Drug Nitisinone Makes Human Blood Deadly to Mosquitoes

Mar. 26, 2025 — A study found when patients take the drug nitisinone, their blood becomes deadly to ...

Postpartum Female Preference for Cooler Temperatures Linked to Brain Changes

Mar. 25, 2025 — Mothers experience major metabolic adaptations during pregnancy and lactation to support the development and growth of the new life. Although many metabolic changes have been studied, body ...

VR Crime Scene Tech

Mar. 25, 2025 — Researchers presented advances shaping the world of forensics, from research that could improve how forensic scientists estimate a person's age at death, to technology demos of CSIxR -- a ...

Scientists Engineer Starfish Cells to Shape-Shift in Response to Light

Mar. 24, 2025 — Scientists used light to control how a starfish egg cell jiggles and moves during its earliest stage of development. Their optical system could guide the design of synthetic, light-activated cells ...

Engineer Develops New Security Protocol to Protect Miniaturized Wireless Medical Implants from Cyberthreats

Mar. 20, 2025 — Scientists recently unveiled a first-of-its-kind authentication protocol for wireless, battery-free, ultraminiaturized implants that ensures these devices remain protected while still allowing ...

Innovative Infant Wearable Uses Artificial Intelligence for at-Home Assessments of Early Motor Development

Mar. 18, 2025 — The smart MAIJU jumpsuit offers a novel approach to at-home monitoring of infants' early motor development. The wearable device combines expertise in medicine, measuring technology and AI, ...

Feline Therapy: Study Suggests Cats Could Fill an Assistive Niche

Mar. 18, 2025 — For years, therapy dogs have ruled the world of animal-assisted services (AAS), offering stress relief to college students, hospital patients, and those in need of emotional support. But research ...