Human Quirks: Health & Medicine

May 22, 2016

Tiny Origami Robot To Operate Inside Stomach?

Emotions in the Age of Botox

Gut Microbiomes Run in Families:Twin Study

New Material Temporarily Tightens Skin

Latest Headlines

updated 5:07am EDT

Obesity Less Dangerous Than 40 Years Ago

May 10, 2016 — New research from Denmark involving more than 100,000 individuals suggests that the excess risk of premature death associated with obesity has decreased over the past 40 years. All-cause mortality ... read more

Does the Moon Affect Our Mood or Actions?

May 6, 2016 — While the full moon cannot turn people into werewolves, some people do accuse it of causing a bad night's sleep or creating physical and mental alterations. But is there any ... read more

Intestinal Worms Boost Immune System in a Surprising Way

May 5, 2016 — While studying worm infections, scientists have discovered a surprising ability of the immune system. The strange discovery has significant implications for our understanding ... read more

Yeast Infection Linked to Mental Illness

May 4, 2016 — In a study prompted in part by suggestions from people with mental illness, researchers found that a history of Candida yeast infections was more common in a group of men ... read more

Imodium Abuse: Anti-Diarrhea Medication Containing Loperamide Dangerous for Self-Treatment of Opiod Addiction

May 3, 2016 — The over-the-counter anti-diarrhea medication Imodium, or its key ingredient loperamide, is increasingly being abused by people attempting to ... read more

Personal Cooling Units on the Horizon

Apr. 28, 2016 — Firefighters entering burning buildings, athletes competing in the broiling sun and workers in foundries may eventually be able to carry their own, lightweight cooling units ... read more

Immuno-Psychiatry: When Your Body Makes Its Own 'Angel Dust'

Apr. 26, 2016 — A new study reports structural brain damage from an autoimmune encephalitis that impairs behavior in ways that are somewhat similar to the effects of "angel dust". The body sometimes makes substances ... read more

How Researchers Teach Bacteria New Behaviors

Apr. 25, 2016 — Researchers working in the field of synthetic biology use components that occur in nature and combine them in a new way. This is how bacteria acquire functions that they hadn’t previously ... read more

Bourbon or Rye? You Can't Tell the Difference, New Study Says

Apr. 22, 2016 — When asked to sort American whiskeys, consumers were more influenced by alcohol content, age at bottling and product brand, a food scientist ... read more

Mice Flown in Space Show Nascent Liver Damage, Research Shows

Apr. 20, 2016 — In a discovery with implications for long-term spaceflight and future missions to Mars, researchers have found that mice flown aboard the space shuttle Atlantis returned to ... read more

21 Years On: Surgery Returns Fla. Woman's Sight

Electric Fork Tricks Taste Buds Into Salty Sensation

Colombia's Most Obese Man 'jailed' In His Own Body

Astronaut Scott Kelly Is 2 Inches Taller Now Because SPACE

Five Ways Game of Thrones’ The Mountain’s Diet Can Make You Mighty

May 11, 2016 — Health and exercise scientists have analysed the daily diet of around 12,000 calories that helps Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, who plays “The Mountain” in hit television series Games of Thrones, ... read more

Is It Possible to Cry a River?

May 3, 2016 — Students examine plausibility of all the humans on Earth shedding enough tears to form a river - and fill an Olympic size swimming ... read more

Researchers Show 'Dirty Mice' Could Clean Up Immune System Research

Apr. 20, 2016 — Scientists have developed a new way to study mice that better mimics the immune system of adult humans and which could significantly improve ways to test potential therapeutics. The researchers ... read more

Worm Infection Counters Inflammatory Bowel Disease by Drastically Changing Gut Microbiome

Apr. 14, 2016 — Infection with worms counters inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) by triggering immune responses that change the mix of bacteria, or microbiome, in the ... read more

The Trouble With Drinking Guidelines: What, in the World, Is a Standard Drink?

Apr. 12, 2016 — The controversy over the UK's new safe drinking guidelines revealed how much people within a country can disagree about drinking. It turns out that countries disagree with each other, ... read more

Research Brings 'Smart Hands' Closer to Reality

Apr. 11, 2016 — Using your skin as a touchscreen has been brought a step closer after scientists successfully created tactile sensations on the palm using ultrasound sent through the ... read more

Viruses Work Together to Attack Their Hosts

Apr. 8, 2016 — Viruses work in groups to attack host cells more effectively, report scientists. The results of this study also show that natural selection “facilitates the teamwork of viruses in relation to their ... read more

Wisdom Is a Matter of Both Heart and Mind, Research Finds

Apr. 7, 2016 — The fluctuations of your heartbeat may affect your wisdom, according to new research. The study suggests that heart rate variation and thinking process work together to enable wise reasoning about ... read more

Methods Used to Create Textiles Also Could Help Manufacture Human Tissues

Apr. 7, 2016 — Tissue engineering is a process that uses novel biomaterials seeded with stem cells to grow and replace missing tissues. When certain types of materials are used, the 'scaffold' that are ... read more

Modern Men Lack Y Chromosome Genes from Neanderthals

Apr. 7, 2016 — The Neanderthal counterpart of the human Y chromosome, or male sex chromosome, appears to have died out. Why this happened is up for ... read more

Much Longer Survival for Heart Transplants Across Species

Apr. 6, 2016 — A new immune-suppressing therapy has led to the longest survival yet for a cross-species heart transplant, according to new research. The study involved transplanting pig hearts into ... read more

Move Over, Polar Bear Plunge: Ice Swimming Is Next Big Extreme Winter Water Sport

Apr. 5, 2016 — Hundreds of athletes around the globe are competing in one-mile ice swims. Performance and human physiological response in water 5 degrees Celsius or less has not been well-studied. Researchers will ... read more

3-D 'Mini-Retinas' Grown from Mouse and Human Stem Cells

Mar. 31, 2016 — Stem cell science has progressed so that researchers can now share recipes for making human retinas -- the part of the eye that is sensitive to light. Researchers now have another efficient way to ... read more

Psychotherapy for Depressed Rats Shows Genes Aren't Destiny

Mar. 29, 2016 — Genes are not destiny in determining whether a person will suffer from depression, reports a new study. Nurture can override nature. When rats genetically bred for depression received the equivalent ... read more

Conspicuous Consumption May Drive Fertility Down

Mar. 28, 2016 — A new mathematical model shows how fertility goes down as the cost of achieving social status goes up. The study authors developed a mathematical model showing that their argument is plausible from a ... read more

Human Ancestors Explored 'out of Africa' Despite Impaired Nasal Faculties

Mar. 24, 2016 — In humans inhaled air is conditioned poorly in the nasal cavity in comparison with primates, such as chimpanzees and macaques, according a recent study. Unlike our protruding external nose, which has ... read more

Modified Maggots Could Help Human Wound Healing

Mar. 23, 2016 — In a proof-of-concept study, researchers show that genetically engineered green bottle fly larvae can produce and secrete a human growth factor -- a molecule that helps promote cell growth and wound ... read more

Brad Pitt's and Fruit Flies' Cowlicks Controlled by Cancer Protein

Mar. 23, 2016 — What does Brad Pitt have in common with a fruit fly? His Hollywood hairstyles cover a prominent cowlick -- the swirl of hair that that is caused by a patterning mechanism also active in our ... read more

Using Frog Foam to Deliver Antibiotics

Mar. 23, 2016 — Scientists have shown that the foam made by Trinidadian frogs represents a new, non-toxic antibiotic delivery system that may help to prevent infections. Researchers have been analysing the frog ... read more

More Ancient Viruses Lurk in Our DNA Than We Thought

Mar. 22, 2016 — Think your DNA is all human? Think again. And a new discovery suggests it's even less human than scientists previously thought. Nineteen new pieces of non-human DNA -- left by viruses that first ... read more

Wednesday, May 11, 2016