Human Quirks: Health & Medicine

April 30, 2025

Top Headlines

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 approach enables better tissue contact, potentially ...

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 gene research -- could become a prime target for ...

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 auxiliary function. By maintaining basal levels of ...

Latest Headlines

updated 4:22pm EDT

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

RNA Origami: Artificial Cytoskeletons to Build Synthetic Cells

Mar. 17, 2025 — With the long-term goal of creating living cells from non-living components, scientists in the field of synthetic biology work with RNA origami. This tool uses the multifunctionality of the natural ...

Intranasal Herpes Infection May Produce Neurobehavioral Symptoms

Mar. 10, 2025 — A study finds that herpes infection through the nose can lead to anxiety, motor impairment and cognitive issues. The research shows that by exploiting a cellular enzyme, the virus can produce ...

Paralyzed Man Moves Robotic Arm With His Thoughts

Mar. 6, 2025 — Researchers have enabled a man who is paralyzed to control a robotic arm through a device that relays signals from his brain to a computer. He was able to grasp, move and drop objects just by ...

Feeling Is Believing: Bionic Hand 'Knows' What It's Touching, Grasps Like a Human

Mar. 5, 2025 — Engineers have developed a pioneering prosthetic hand that can grip plush toys, water bottles, and other everyday objects like a human, carefully conforming and adjusting its grasp to avoid damaging ...

The International Space Station Is Overly Sterile; Making It 'Dirtier' Could Improve Astronaut Health

Feb. 27, 2025 — Astronauts often experience immune dysfunction, skin rashes, and other inflammatory conditions while traveling in space. A new study suggests that these issues could be due to the excessively sterile ...

Humans Inherited Their Flexible Joints from the Earliest Jawed Fish

Feb. 25, 2025 — The efficient architecture of our joints, which allows our skeletons to be flexible and sturdy, originated among our most ancient jawed fish ancestors, according to a new ...

DNA Origami Suggests Route to Reusable, Multifunctional Biosensors

Feb. 24, 2025 — A team has used a process known as DNA origami to make electrochemical sensors that can quickly detect and measure ...

Viking Skulls Reveal Severe Morbidity

Feb. 21, 2025 — Sweden's Viking Age population appears to have suffered from severe oral and maxillofacial disease, sinus and ear infections, osteoarthritis, and much more. This is shown in a study in which ...

Scientists Decode Diet from Stool DNA -- No Questions Asked

Feb. 18, 2025 — Scientists have developed a breakthrough method to track diet using stool metagenomic data. This non-invasive, data-driven approach offers an objective alternative to traditional food diaries and ...

This Research Is Absolutely Nuts -- For Better Health Care

Feb. 17, 2025 — A nut used in herbal tea has become a hydrogel perfect for a variety of biomedical uses in new research. Scientists created a malva nut hydrogel for medical uses ranging from wound care to ECG ...

Sweet Taste Receptors in the Heart: A New Pathway for Cardiac Regulation

Feb. 17, 2025 — In a surprising discovery, scientists have found that the heart possesses 'sweet taste' receptors, similar to those on our tongues, and that stimulating these receptors with sweet ...

Biohybrid Hand Gestures With Human Muscles

Feb. 12, 2025 — A biohybrid hand which can move objects and do a scissor gesture has been created. The researchers used thin strings of lab-grown muscle tissue bundled into sushilike rolls to give the fingers enough ...

Scientists Develop Novel Self-Healing Electronic Skin for Health Monitoring

Feb. 12, 2025 — Researchers have achieved a breakthrough in wearable health technology by developing a novel self-healing electronic skin (E-Skin) that repairs itself in seconds after damage. This could potentially ...

International Shark Attack File Report: Unprovoked Shark Bites Plummeted in 2024

Feb. 11, 2025 — 2024 was an exceptionally calm year for shark bites. Worldwide, there were only 47 unprovoked attacks, down 22 from the previous year and well below the 10-year average of ...