Medicine

A drug that will make you a morally upright person

Yesterday the Guardian ran an intriguing article by Amelia Hill about the rise of drugs that could enhance our moral sensibilities. And by “moral,” what is generally meant is non-violent and empathetic to strangers, as well as future generations. Here’s a chunk of interesting observations from it: Researchers have become very interested in developing biomedical…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 5

How copper kills flesh-eating bacteria

Recently scientists staged a demonstration in which flesh-eating bacteria died off in droves when placed on a copper surface. Find out why copper engages in bactericide. Hospitals are necessary and efficient institutions meant to gather and train a variety of experts in order to serve any sick person who comes in. They’re also festering pits…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Apr 5

Mummies reveal Ancient Egyptian heart disease epidemic

Although Egyptian hieroglyphics depict a noble class that was forever beautiful and healthy, ancient records tell a far different story, of an aristocracy riddled with heart disease. And now preserved mummy hearts are revealing the full extent of the phenomenon. Egyptian doctors left papyrus records of the basic symptoms of angina, heart attacks, and congestive…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Apr 4

Degradable Nanoparticles Bludgeon Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

MRSA Cells With and Without Nanoparticles MRSA bacteria before, left, and after, right, incubation with a new biodegradable polymer nanoparticle. Cell destruction is clearly visible. The bottom two images are magniﬁed with respect to the top images. A new breed of biodegradable nanoparticles can glom on to drug-resistant bacteria, breaching their cell walls and leaking…

Tech News Rebecca Boyle - PopSci Apr 4

The scientific breakthrough that will turn cannabis into the new aspirin

Yesterday scientists announced that they’d discovered a way to harness the painkilling powers of the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, while eliminating the high. What this means is that a special, non-hallucinatory version of THC could become the new aspirin. Physiologist Li Zhang and colleagues discovered that THC targets several parts of the nervous system,…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 4

Hands-Free Faucets Actually Grosser Without You Having to Touch Them

Talk about irony. According to a study conducted at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, hands-free faucets have a significantly higher chance of playing home to bacteria like Legionella spp., which causes Legionnaire’s Disease. The reason is hands-free faucets have more components than traditional ones, and bacteria was found to thrive in these parts in particular.…

Tech News Kwame Opam Apr 2

Bite Down on a Stick: The History of Anesthesia

There was a time when all the pain alleviation involved in surgery was a little cotton wool in the surgeon’s ears to keep the screams of the patient from hurting them. Fortunately, things have changed. How did we get from biting down on a stick, to today’s modern, anesthetized operating rooms? Here’s the often weird…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Mar 31

The strange, sad history of the lobotomy

If you thought that scene in Sucker Punch where the doctor gave lobotomies with an ice pick was artistic exaggeration – well, it wasn’t. That’s exactly how Walter Freeman, a popularizer of lobotomies in the 1940s, performed thousands of operations. In the mid-twentieth century, the lobotomy was such a popular “cure” for mental illness that…

io9 Annalee Newitz Mar 30

“Bacterial dirigibles” bring us a steambiopunk disease-fighting future

Despite sounding like something you might think up in the final days of NaNoWriMo, bacterial dirigibles could be the next generation of disease fighters. Rather than creating a drug in a lab to be used as medicine, this new research proposes a way of repurposing bacteria as attack blimps against diseases. The bacteria are engineered…

io9 Tim Barribeau Mar 29

A wavelength of light that could fix heart problems – and deafness

We can hear the light and feel it in our hearts. It’s not just terrible poetry – it might be fact. Scientists have shown that infrared light can stimulate the muscles in your heart and inner ear. Researchers at the University of Utah have been spending long hours shooting infrared lasers at mouse heart cells…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Mar 29

Pediatricians Will Ask Kids about Facebook to Gauge Depression

Hello there, lad. Breathe in. Breathe out. Good! Now I’m going to take your temperature. Looks fine. Would you mind stepping on the scale? Hm. Okay, now how many Facebook friends do you have? Oh. Hm. I see. This scenario could soon be part of a kid’s routine checkup, according to new guidelines from the…

Social Media Sam Biddle Mar 28

Cancer-Detector the Size of a Dime Can Also Spot HIV

Last month’s handheld cancer-sniffing device (pictured) has already met its match in a tool that’s the size of a dime—a tool that can spot cancer, but also HIV. The engineers who invented the microfluidic device are hopeful it can be used in developing countries. https://gizmodo.com/200-handheld-scanner-detects-cancer-in-just-one-hour-5769366 The Harvard Medical School professor of biomedical engineering, Mehmet Toner,…

Health Kat Hannaford Mar 28

X-ray machines in 1896 needed ninety minutes and 1,500 times the radiation

The first X-ray machines needed patients to sit still for well over an hour, they doused people with 1500 times the amount of radiation as today’s machines, and the pictures were fuzzy at best. But they were still absolutely amazing. One of the very first medical X-ray machines was built in early 1896, mere weeks…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Mar 22

The worst statistics in the world

In an article published in the Cochrane Review, researchers have shown that people don’t really understand statistics. That’s not news, but now we have proof that our poor grasp of stats can be bad for our health. Statistics have a huge influence on a how effective people think drugs are – except, of course, it’s…

io9 Tim Barribeau Mar 18

Tooth-Hearing Aids Get Approval For Use in Europe

Sonitus Medical’s SoundBite hearing aid has been approved for use in Europe, but the Royal National Institute for Deaf People claim not everyone will be able to use it. The hearing aid is attached to the molar, and transmits sound through the jawbone. [BBC]

Tech News Kat Hannaford Mar 17

An Eco-Friendly Redesign for the Syringe

If you’ve ever had a blood test, you might recall how the used syringe gets its own personal waste-sheath, then is thrown in a larger bin. A Cambridge Consultants designer has given the syringe a green makeover, so it becomes its own packaging. If designer Serge Roux manages to bring the Syreen to life, it…

Tech News Kat Hannaford Mar 15

Cancerous tumors might be our oldest evolutionary ancestors

Cancer is one of the most difficult foes medical science has ever faced, but a controversial new idea might just show a way to victory. A group of scientists have evidence that cancer might be an evolutionary throwback to our most distant animal ancestor. Astrobiologists Charles Lineweaver of the Australian National University and Paul Davies…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Mar 14

Daylight Saving Time can be (mildly) hazardous to your health

Today, clocks throughout the United States jump forward an hour to mark the beginning of Daylight Saving Time. The economic and energy benefits of DST have been hotly debated for nearly a century, but does it pose a health risk? All our American readers (except those in Hawaii, Arizona, and various territories) skipped the hour…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Mar 13

How MMA Fighters Use Plastic Surgery to Bleed Less

For many MMA fighters, surgeon Frank Stile offers the ultimate combo: more fighting and less bleeding. Watching the blood drive known as the Ultimate Fighting Championship one evening in 2007, Las Vegas plastic surgeon Frank Stile sat talking to his guests about the unfortunate nature of cuts. Eventually, the question was posed: Wouldn’t it be…

Tech News Jake Rossen - Wired Mar 12

Tiny Endoscopy Camera is as Small as a Grain of Rice

At one cubic millimeter in size, this endoscope camera has got to be more palatable than the usual cameras used to peer into the human body. Developed in Germany, the prototype camera could go on sale as early as next year, but first researchers must ensure it can be affordable enough to be marketed as…

Health Kat Hannaford Mar 11

A drug that will make you a morally upright person

How copper kills flesh-eating bacteria

Mummies reveal Ancient Egyptian heart disease epidemic

Degradable Nanoparticles Bludgeon Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

The scientific breakthrough that will turn cannabis into the new aspirin

Hands-Free Faucets Actually Grosser Without You Having to Touch Them

Bite Down on a Stick: The History of Anesthesia

The strange, sad history of the lobotomy

“Bacterial dirigibles” bring us a steambiopunk disease-fighting future

A wavelength of light that could fix heart problems – and deafness

Pediatricians Will Ask Kids about Facebook to Gauge Depression

Cancer-Detector the Size of a Dime Can Also Spot HIV

X-ray machines in 1896 needed ninety minutes and 1,500 times the radiation

The worst statistics in the world

Tooth-Hearing Aids Get Approval For Use in Europe

An Eco-Friendly Redesign for the Syringe

Cancerous tumors might be our oldest evolutionary ancestors

Daylight Saving Time can be (mildly) hazardous to your health

How MMA Fighters Use Plastic Surgery to Bleed Less

Tiny Endoscopy Camera is as Small as a Grain of Rice

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

‘How Do We Make Sure That Claude Behaves Itself?’: Anthropic Invited 15 Christians for a Summit

See the Next ‘Hunger Games’ in This Trip Down Memory Lane

Indie Animation Is Having a Moment on YouTube

Trump’s World Liberty Financial Makes FTX-esque Move, Borrows Against Its Own Crypto Token

This Loud-Ass Party Speaker Almost Got Me High AF

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

Aqara Thermostat Hub W200 Review: Almost Better than My Ecobee

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

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

Let us help find what you are looking for...