Medicine

Henry’s Law explains why your knuckles crack

Find out how the cracking of knuckles works for the same reason deep sea divers have to take breaks as they ascend, soda fizzes, and water boils instantly in a vacuum. We already know, thanks to a sixty-year-long experiment by a proud IgNobel Winner, that knuckle cracking does not cause any harm. Donald Unger cracked…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jan 20

Do you reside somewhere on the autism spectrum? In the near future, you may not.

For the first time in seventeen years, the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (D.S.M.) is undergoing a significant revision. One of the mental conditions facing major emendations in its D.S.M. definition is autism. If the changes go through, a recent analysis suggests that the rate of official diagnosis for autism,…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jan 20

Could schizophrenia be a sleep disorder?

Schizophrenia is among the most damaging and least understood of all mental disorders. Now a seemingly minor symptom — the fact that many schizophrenia patients complain of sleeping problems — could actually provide a crucial key to unraveling the disease. At first glance, trouble sleeping might not seem like that big a deal, the sort…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jan 19

How sunlight, sex, and sneezes are all connected

Somewhere back in the vast recesses of time, staying alive required one to get things out of your nose so fast that a mere finger just wouldn’t do the job quick enough. Only total involuntary facial evacuation would keep your species struggling along. Nowadays, we don’t live in the same dangerous world that our ancestors…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jan 19

A broken arm changes your brain

If you’ve ever had your arm stuck in a cast, relearning how to write with your off arm may seem like an excruciating and lengthy experience — but in terms of how your brain works, it actually happens with lightning speed. With your primary writing arm out of commission, your brain rapidly rewires to shift…

io9 Tim Barribeau Jan 18

Man affected with massive tongue hasn’t closed his mouth for two decades

For 21 years, 34-year-old Wang Youping of China’s Shaanxi Province hasn’t been able to shut his mouth due to his giant tongue. The muscles in his 25-centimeter-long, 10-centimeter-wide, and 7-centimeter-thick tongue have grown such that the organ has squeezed aside his teeth and made shutting his mouth impossible. Explains The Mirror of his macroglossia: From…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Jan 18

Are certain cancer treatments actually making things worse?

A study published today in the journal Cancer Cell has put forward something terrifying — that one of our current way of fighting tumors might make them more deadly. The researchers examined anti-angiogenic therapies, or those treatments which cut off blood supplies to tumors, thus making them shrink in size. The scientists analyzed ways of…

io9 Tim Barribeau Jan 17

An Eyewitness Account Of The Most Awkward Urology Lecture Ever

At the 1983 Urodynamics Society conference in Las Vegas, pioneering urologist Sir Giles Skey Brindley delivered what was singularly the most uncomfortable lecture in the history of academia. What began as a presentation on the treatment of erectile dysfunction quickly transformed into an unwanted session of show-and-tell. In 2005, conference attendee Laurence Klotz recalled Brindley’s…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Jan 16

An MRI-Powered Robot Can Swim Through Your Guts

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing endoscopy, you’ll think there must be a better way to check out your insides than having a camera shoved up your ass. Now there is, and it’s robotic! Let’s get the best news over to you first: it’s also small. Phew. In fact, the little robot, refereed…

Health Jamie Condliffe Jan 16

Can suits that simulate cat purring keep astronauts healthy?

Is a little-known property of cat purrs the key to keeping astronauts healthy during long trips in space? Judge for yourself! Purring is one of the least objectionable sounds a cat can make. It’s much better than the common alternatives; hissing, meowing for attention, and that disturbing squelching sound they make when they’re gnawing at…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jan 14

10 Incredibly Strange Brain Disorders

You’re used to relying on your brain. Whatever else happens, your personal lump of gray matter will take in the world, and respond to it in a fluid and predictable way. But actually, whatever your brain does is made up of many successive mental steps — and if just one of those steps fails, you’ll…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jan 13

Nicotine patches won’t help you quit, but they might save your brains

People attempting the arduous task of quitting smoking often turn to “nicotine replacement therapies” like patches and gum. These help with the physical aspect of withdrawal and the whole “quitting the actual smoking” part. Well, that’s the theory anyway. According to a new study published in the journal Tobacco Control, these nicotine replacement therapies don’t…

io9 Tim Barribeau Jan 13

Are allergies for real?

Allergies were pretty much completely unknown until the beginning of the twentieth century, and allergic diseases have skyrocketed in the last twenty years, and well over half of all Americans are allergic to an airborne substance. What’s going on here? At first glance, that big spike in allergies might seem a bit unlikely — particularly…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jan 13

Smoking joints not so bad for your lungs, after all

Score another victory for the tokers in the audience. A study into the long-term effects of marijuana smoking on lung function has shown that it’s not nearly as bad as many have assumed. Despite having many of the same constituents as tobacco smoke, the long-term effects of marijuana smoking on breathing is poorly understood, which…

io9 Tim Barribeau Jan 12

Read a real-life medical report on three cases of Haitian zombies

Zombies may seem like the purview of AMC dramas nowadays, but in 1997, English medical journal The Lancet published an intriguing set of case studies detailing three reports of zombification in Haiti. What caused the dead to walk in these instances? Well, let’s just say reality is far less lurid than George Romero flicks. Here…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Jan 11

You have an excellent supply of stem cells right behind your eye

As we age, vision problems are unavoidable. Age-related macular degeneration breaks down a thin layer of cells in the back of your eye — the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) — on the way to causing vision loss. Recently published research from the Neural Stem Cell Institute in Rensselaer, New York, shows the RPE to have…

io9 Keith Veronese Jan 9

The CDC wants you to know that anal sex has gotten really popular among heterosexuals

The researchers at the United States Center for Disease Control track everything from possible pandemics to general health issues among Americans. And one of those “general health issues” turns out to be our sexual habits – for good reason, since this data can help epidemiologists track sexually transmitted diseases. But sometimes the data reveals a…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jan 5

A form of blindness where you can see everything, but recognize nothing

Most of us have had an experience like this: we turn our heads to the side in bed and see a strange shape. It has a weird line to it, and it’s an odd color, and it’s suspended in a strange way. We’re wary. We’re confused. Whatever we’re experiencing doesn’t ‘ring a bell,’ for us.…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jan 4

French company used industrial fuel additives in its breast implants

Thousands of women have had to get their breast implants removed after a French company, Poly Implant Prothese (PIP), admitted that they had used industrial grade silicone in the implants. Not only was this class of silicone not approved for medical use, but some of it also contained fuel additives. Basically, PIP pumped some plastic…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jan 3

The appendix might actually be the body’s bacteria storehouse

The appendix is probably the most famous of humanity’s vestigial organs, but it might not actually deserve the “vestigial” part of that title. The appendix may actually save vital bacteria for the body’s later use. The current scientific consensus is that the appendix was once useful when humans ate a lot of high-cellulose plants, but…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jan 2

Henry’s Law explains why your knuckles crack

Do you reside somewhere on the autism spectrum? In the near future, you may not.

Could schizophrenia be a sleep disorder?

How sunlight, sex, and sneezes are all connected

A broken arm changes your brain

Man affected with massive tongue hasn’t closed his mouth for two decades

Are certain cancer treatments actually making things worse?

An Eyewitness Account Of The Most Awkward Urology Lecture Ever

An MRI-Powered Robot Can Swim Through Your Guts

Can suits that simulate cat purring keep astronauts healthy?

10 Incredibly Strange Brain Disorders

Nicotine patches won’t help you quit, but they might save your brains

Are allergies for real?

Smoking joints not so bad for your lungs, after all

Read a real-life medical report on three cases of Haitian zombies

You have an excellent supply of stem cells right behind your eye

The CDC wants you to know that anal sex has gotten really popular among heterosexuals

A form of blindness where you can see everything, but recognize nothing

French company used industrial fuel additives in its breast implants

The appendix might actually be the body’s bacteria storehouse

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