Medicine

Using Robot Skin Will Turn Any Forensics Team Into Batmen

The jelly-like thing you see above is called GelSight. It’s a synthetic rubber substance that can measure and visualize even microscopic surfaces, and it promises to revolutionize both forensics and medicine after some more study. GelSight was originally used to give robots a sense of touch. How it works is you simply apply it to…

Tech News Kwame Opam Aug 10

In the Hospital of the Future, babies were kept in plastic drawers

In the 1950s, Kaiser Permanente founders Henry Kaiser and Sidney Garfield unveiled their model for the Hospital of the Future. The most entertaining innovation was the baby cabinet, where new mothers could find their children stored like pairs of freshly folded socks. [Via Laughing Squid]

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Aug 9

Scientists create spermless males to fight the spread of malaria

A female mosquito will mate just once in her entire lifetime. After doing the deed, her drive to mate is turned off, and her drive to lay fertilized eggs is turned on. Now, scientists from Imperial College London have tricked female mosquitoes into wasting their one go at fertility by swapping out normal males with…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Aug 9

Yet another contender for the most cringeworthy medical paper ever published

From the British Medical Journal, Aug 27, 1949, where Dr. B.B. Rapackl describes a case he encountered in Poland in 1936. “The patient was admitted to hospital with acute cystitis. Cystoscopy confirmed this diagnosis, and to my great surprise revealed a blue-tinted twisted Christmas candle floating on top of the liquid (‘rivanol’) which had been…

io9 Martin Gardiner - Improbable Research Aug 6

Bear bile could save your baby’s life

There’s a laundry list of traditional medicine ingredients which are of dubious medical value, and are harvested brutally. However, one such traditional remedy might save lives — and thankfully it’s already been created synthetically in the lab. Bear bile was historically harvested from the internal organs of bears kept in tiny cages, and was deeply…

io9 Tim Barribeau Aug 5

Are Chinese Companies Selling Pills Made of Dead Babies?

I really hope this South Korean report is false: Chinese pharmaceutical companies are buying baby corpses from hospitals, grinding them into pills, and then selling them as stamina boosters. Feel free to gag uncontrollably now and then keep reading. According to the documentary created by South Korean SBS TV, the baby material comes from stillborn…

Tech News Sam Biddle Aug 5

Colonics can kill!

Today’s tale of alternative medicine with potentially deadly side effects is the occasionally popular but surprisingly dangerous colonic irrigation. For those of you not in the know, a colonic is like an enema, but rather than a small bag of water flushing out your rectum, it’s a large volume of water. Like 60 liters. And…

io9 Tim Barribeau Aug 5

What’s Actually In Viagra?

Wood pulp-materials to help the pills disintegrate. Lubricant so the pills don’t stick to the factory-robots when being created. Glue found in tile adhesive. Pigments found in cake icing and paint. WIRED looks at your boner’s origins. [WIRED UK]

Health Kat Hannaford Aug 5

Nose Jobs Have Come a Long Way

Oh, how we laughed at that Japanese vibrating-muzzle which promises to de-flare nostrils and give users the pert nose they always dreamed of. But back in ye olden German days, potato/saddle/duckbill/hook noses were being fixed by this scary contraption. Dug up by the Vintage Ads LiveJournal, the text under the pictorials apparently reads: “SUCH NOSE…

Health Kat Hannaford Aug 5

How America Battled Communism by Blasting Insects Full of DDT

The history of mankind’s battle against malaria has been long and largely ineffectual. The Fever looks at the rise of DDT in post-WWII America. For most of humankind’s history with malaria, political indiﬀerence, scientiﬁc controversy, and tightﬁstedness have reigned. The post–World War II development of a potent new compound called dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane—or simply DDT—changed all that.…

Tech News Sonia Shah Aug 4

A genetic condition that creates perfect thieves

Adermatoglyphia is an incredibly rare genetic condition that causes people to have no fingerprints. It’s been nicknamed “immigration delay disease” due to the trouble it causes at border crossings. Apart from making people with the mutation perfectly suited for a life of comic book crime, little has been known about the disease — until now.…

io9 Tim Barribeau Aug 4

Finally, a Cure for Just Generally Feeling Like Shit

I used to attribute that feeling of slight aching, fatigue, and general awfulness to life being terrible. But it turns out there’s a cure for common malaise. Hypochondriacs, this is your vindication! You’re just missing a brain chemical called orexin. Oregon Health and Science University’s pinpointed the cutoff of orexin while ill as the root…

Tech News Sam Biddle Aug 3

The NIH will not offer public access to information about its researchers’ financial ties

Scientists have long been required to list any and all conflicts of interest that could unduly influence the objectivity of their research — for example, they would need to reveal if a tobacco company funded research showing that smoking doesn’t cause cancer. However, this kind of information is not always readily accessible to members of…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Aug 3

Train Track Therapy Is The Latest Health Craze In Indonesia

Indonesians are heading to railroad tracks seeking electric therapy for their chronic ailments. This idea comes from the tale of a paralyzed Chinese man who went to the tracks to commit suicide and was miraculously cured. This story was retold hundreds of times and serves as inspiration for those who believe the railroad tracks are…

Tech News Kelly Aug 2

Credit Card-Sized Chip Detects 100% of AIDS Cases

If the global AIDS epidemic will ever be put down, letting people know they’re infected to begin will be a huge part of the solution. So how can it be better? Putting an AIDS clinic in a $1 card helps. The incredible mChip can diagnose both HIV and syphilis in 15 minutes, FastCo Incredible quality…

Health Sam Biddle Aug 2

Children of stressed-out moms age faster than their peers

New research out of UC Irvine shows that children born to women who experience unusual levels of psychological or social stress during pregnancy are more likely to show signs of accelerated aging than other children. The study’s results are the first to reveal the long-term impact of prenatal stress on cellular aging in human offspring,…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Aug 2

New York Hospital Trades Insurance Cards for Vein Scanners

Langone Medical Center in New York is streamlining the hospital check-in process with specialized scanners from Fujitsu that recognize the unique vein pattern of your palm. With these scanners, there’s no need to flash your insurance card or fill out long forms when you enter the hospital. You don’t even have to be conscious. Each…

Tech News Kelly Jul 28

The Government Will Pay Doctors $44,000 to Use an iPad

The Obama administration strongly desires that all medical records be electronic. There’s a much-lauded app called drchrono for the iPad which can make that transition happen. Logically, the government will toss up to $44,000 to any doctor willing to use it. TheNextWeb says that doctors who use the drchrono app, which has been certified for…

Tech News Adrian Covert Jul 28

New Liquid Biomaterial Can Rebuild Faces Without Surgery

Doctors are testing a new liquid polymer that can be injected under the skin, molded and sculpted, then set in place with a LED array. Ultimately intended for use around the face, it sounds like a plastic surgeon’s worst nightmare. According to Technology Review, the compound is made of substances that are already used in…

Tech News Adrian Covert Jul 28

Are Cancers Actually a Newly Evolved Parasitic Species?

Cancer patients may feel like they have alien creatures growing inside their bodies, robbing them of health and vigor. According to one cell biologist, they’re exactly right. The formation of cancers is really the evolution of a new parasitic species. Just as parasites do, cancer depends on its host for sustenance, which is why treatments…

Tech News Rebecca Boyle - PopSci Jul 27

Using Robot Skin Will Turn Any Forensics Team Into Batmen

In the Hospital of the Future, babies were kept in plastic drawers

Scientists create spermless males to fight the spread of malaria

Yet another contender for the most cringeworthy medical paper ever published

Bear bile could save your baby’s life

Are Chinese Companies Selling Pills Made of Dead Babies?

Colonics can kill!

What’s Actually In Viagra?

Nose Jobs Have Come a Long Way

How America Battled Communism by Blasting Insects Full of DDT

A genetic condition that creates perfect thieves

Finally, a Cure for Just Generally Feeling Like Shit

The NIH will not offer public access to information about its researchers’ financial ties

Train Track Therapy Is The Latest Health Craze In Indonesia

Credit Card-Sized Chip Detects 100% of AIDS Cases

Children of stressed-out moms age faster than their peers

New York Hospital Trades Insurance Cards for Vein Scanners

The Government Will Pay Doctors $44,000 to Use an iPad

New Liquid Biomaterial Can Rebuild Faces Without Surgery

Are Cancers Actually a Newly Evolved Parasitic Species?

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

Google Displayed Polymarket Bets as News ‘In Error,’ Google Says

‘Marvel Rivals’ Wants to Start Being More Than Just a Hero Shooter

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

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

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