Medicine

Stem Cells Could Help Heal Broken Hearts

Even after recovery, heart attacks can leave a lasting mark on your ticker—scar tissue weakens the muscle and prevents it from functioning as well as it did before seizing up. A pioneering stem-cell procedure, however, could cut the damage in half. According to the results of a small safety trial by the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola Feb 14

The St. Valentine’s Day Rollerdisco Massacre of 2008 = Important Medical Research

In 2008, Liverpool University decided to commemorate Valentine’s Day with a festive rollerdisco party. Little did the organizers know this party would be immortalized in a keystone piece of medical research, the 2008 paper “The University Rollerdisco: An unusual cause of a major incident” in the journal Injury Extra. According to the researchers, that evening…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Feb 13

Cancer drug shown to reduce Alzheimer’s symptoms in mice by seventy-five percent

It’s rare to get any good news associated with reports of Alzheimer’s disease, but neuroscientists have just released word that one drug is dramatically reducing symptoms. It seems to do this by dissolving a protein that builds up in the brain — and it manages to create major improvements within days. Alzheimer’s, a progressive disease…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Feb 10

A US government program secretly injected people with plutonium

The horrors of the nuclear age, in terms of exploding reactors and nuclear bombs, are well known. Behind the well-publicized threat of mass death lies a secret history of nuclear projects being used to destroy individuals. In the late 1940s, United States citizens were injected with plutonium without their knowledge. Top image: AXL/Shutterstock.com In early…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Feb 10

Zinc could be a wonder drug after all, just not for the disease we thought

The effectiveness of zinc as a treatment for colds is hotly debated, but it appears the element might have a major role in saving lives — with a completely different disease. A new report published in BMC Medicine suggests that zinc supplements might significantly improve the survival rate of young children with pneumonia. Researchers at…

io9 Tim Barribeau Feb 10

Whoa, a Petri Dish That Has a Pulse

A heart won’t beat once it’s been ripped out of the chest Indiana Jones style. But disembodied heart cells, when nurtured in a petri dish, will beat on their own. Stem cells have been transformed into adult cells of almost every kind, so it’s not surprising to learn that stem cells have been isolated and…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Feb 9

Gonorrhea is becoming untreatable

Gonorrhea is the second-most commonly reported sexually transmitted disease in the United States. But no biggie, right? It’s not like it’s HIV or herpes — you know, one of those STDs that sticks with you for life. Just pop some antibiotics and you’re good to go, right? Wrong. SciAm’s Christine Gorman gives you the lowdown…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Feb 9

The Miraculous NASA Breakthrough That Could Save Millions of Lives (UPDATED)

There are no hospitals in space. The closest E.R. is back on Earth, and astronauts can’t exactly jump in a cab to get there. So what happens if the sun burps out a massive blast of radiation while an astronaut is space-amblin’ by? The NASA Biocapsule—made of carbon nanotubes—will be able to “diagnose” and instantly…

Health Brent Rose Feb 8

New Kinect Hack Could Help Relieve Phantom Limb Pain

Approximately 70 percent of amputees struggle with psychosomatically-induced chronic pain in their missing appendage, known as Phantom Limb Syndrome. This has traditionally been treated with Mirror Therapy but with only mixed success. A new system utilizing a Kinect and VR goggles could help bring patients some much needed relief. Phantom Limb sufferers often perceive their…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola Feb 8

Cancer is just as deadly as it was 50 years ago. Here’s why that’s about to change.

Why haven’t we cured cancer yet? It seems like almost every day, we hear about another miraculous advance in cancer treatment. Drugs that cause tumors to shrink, gene therapies, and even a possible vaccine. And yet, our loved ones keep dying of cancer. We spoke to cancer experts to find out why the death rate…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Feb 7

This is what it looks like when cancer gets smacked down by a T cell

This incredible video captures a showdown between cancer cells and the T cells that act as the shock troops for your immune system. That’s right – you’re actually watching a T cell defeat cancer. This was shot by University of Cambridge medical researcher Alex Ritter, and is 92 times faster than real time. So the…

io9 Annalee Newitz Feb 6

10 Reasons to go Back to Bed

It’s Monday. For most of us, that means it’s back to the grind — whether that grind be work, school, or some other scheduled obligation. Unfortunately for weekend warriors everywhere, these obligations typically require us to get up earlier than we’d choose if it were up to us. But sleep is important — and not…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Feb 6

How a 3D-Printed Jaw Let a Woman Eat Again

If dental hygiene isn’t high on your priorities, don’t worry: now you can just print a new set of teeth. Last year, an 83-year-old woman had her entire lower jaw replaced with a 3D printed replica. https://gizmodo.com/everything-you-need-to-keep-your-teeth-from-rotting-out-5880080/ The surgery, carried out by doctors from the University of Hasselt, Belgium, saw them replace the woman’s original,…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Feb 6

Need your jaw removed? Why don’t you just print out a new one?

That’s what an 83 year old woman in Belgium did. Her seriously infected jaw needed to be removed, but reconstructive surgery would have been too dangerous for such an elderly patient. That’s when the doctors fired up the 3D printer. The announcement comes from researchers at Belgium’s University of Hasselt, who say this represents the…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Feb 5

The Army’s New Individual First Aid Kit Will Save Life and Limb without Getting in the Line of Fire

The Army’s IFAK—Individual First Aid Kit—used to be built into a SAW ammo pouch. This was a terrible solution as the pouch would continually get caught on other equipment—not what you want in a fire-fight. But no longer! The US military has just overhauled this life-saving accessory. Seated on the hip, the old-style IFAK was…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola Feb 3

The Mini Crab Bot Will Crawl Down Your Throat to Cure Your Cancer

The famous Chili Crab dish from Singapore inspires more than just drooling. A pair of researchers have developed a robot with two tiny crab-like pincers that attacks stomach cancer via your mouth. Lawrence Ho, an enterologist at Singapore’s National University Hospital, and Louis Phee, associate professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological Institute, co-designed the robot to…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola Feb 3

How much caffeine are you eating every day, without realizing it?

90% of North Americans consume caffeine on a daily basis. When ingested by itself, caffeine is extremely bitter — not the type a flavor many of us want lingering on our taste buds. But some foods offer substantial amounts of caffeine, while others are packed with it synthetically. How many cups of coffee are you…

io9 Keith Veronese Feb 3

This Nine-Year-Old Girl Just Had Six of Her Organs Replaced—That’s a Record

When she was five, Alannah Shevenell’s doctors discovered the cause of her fever, weight loss, and distended belly—a sizable tumor spreading throughout her body. After two failed surgeries and rounds of chemo, her doctors had just one option left; a risky surgery to replace six of her cancerous organs. Shevenell’s surgery, which replaced her stomach,…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola Feb 2

Scientists Transform Deadly Plant Into Cancer Killing Smart Bomb

The ancient Greeks called the thapsia garganica plant “deadly carrot,” because their camels would eat it and quickly die. The Roman emperor Nero mixed it with frankincense to treat bruises. Until the early 20th century it was used in a plaster to treat rheumatism—the side effects, however, were barely worth the cure. But what happens…

Health Kristen Philipkoski Feb 2

According to the FDA, Your Stem Cells Are Now Drugs

In recent court filings, the Food and Drug Administration has asserted that stem cells—you know, the ones our bodies produce naturally—are in fact drugs and subject to its regulatory oversight. So does that make me a controlled substance? The bizarre controversy revolves around the FDA’s attempt to regulate the Centeno-Schultz Clinic in Colorado that performs…

Health Andrew Tarantola Feb 1

Stem Cells Could Help Heal Broken Hearts

The St. Valentine’s Day Rollerdisco Massacre of 2008 = Important Medical Research

Cancer drug shown to reduce Alzheimer’s symptoms in mice by seventy-five percent

A US government program secretly injected people with plutonium

Zinc could be a wonder drug after all, just not for the disease we thought

Whoa, a Petri Dish That Has a Pulse

Gonorrhea is becoming untreatable

The Miraculous NASA Breakthrough That Could Save Millions of Lives (UPDATED)

New Kinect Hack Could Help Relieve Phantom Limb Pain

Cancer is just as deadly as it was 50 years ago. Here’s why that’s about to change.

This is what it looks like when cancer gets smacked down by a T cell

10 Reasons to go Back to Bed

How a 3D-Printed Jaw Let a Woman Eat Again

Need your jaw removed? Why don’t you just print out a new one?

The Army’s New Individual First Aid Kit Will Save Life and Limb without Getting in the Line of Fire

The Mini Crab Bot Will Crawl Down Your Throat to Cure Your Cancer

How much caffeine are you eating every day, without realizing it?

This Nine-Year-Old Girl Just Had Six of Her Organs Replaced—That’s a Record

Scientists Transform Deadly Plant Into Cancer Killing Smart Bomb

According to the FDA, Your Stem Cells Are Now Drugs

Southwest Is About to Limit Power Banks on Flights

Damn, the ‘Power Rangers’ Reboot Could’ve Had Four Movies

The Live-Action ‘One Piece’ Team Wants to Go the Distance

‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’ Will Please Gross Horror Fans

Somehow Paramount’s ‘Avatar’ Movie Has Leaked, Too

The World Is Basically Begging for Another iPod

Anker’s EufyMake E1 Finally Brings Printers Out of the Dark Ages

OpenAI Says Elon Musk Is ‘Injecting Chaos’ with Recent Legal Maneuver

This Loud-Ass Party Speaker Almost Got Me High AF

Asus Zenbook A16 Review: Start Considering Snapdragon on PC, for Real

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HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

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The Best Gadgets of March 2026

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