Medicine

Simply Counting Births and Deaths Could Solve Health Inequity in Africa

In Africa, only four countries record more than 75% of their births and deaths. This creates an unequal system and impacts on how governments plan for these citizens. For many African countries and especially among poorer communities, when people die there is no trace in any official legal record or statistic. It is common for…

Health Samuel Oti Oct 2

Chemically Freezing Sperm Tails Could Be the Key to a Reversible Male Contraceptive

As sperm swim they transform chemical energy into motion, the way a car’s engine uses gas to propel you down the road. Like that engine, the process is complicated—if just one part stops working, the whole system can grind to a halt. This idea might lead to a contraceptive for men that’s reversible. In a…

Tech News Diane Kelly Oct 1

Struck By a Duck: The Strangest Codes in the US Medical Billing System

When you go to the doctor, there’s a medical code that determines how your treatment gets billed. Getting treated for urban rabies? Well, that’s distinct from woods-based sylvatic rabies, and your invoice will reflect that. Until today, the system in the US was the same one we used in the 1970s. But there’s a new…

Tech News Kate Knibbs Oct 1

Thousands of Medical Devices Are Open to Hacking Over the Internet

Security researchers claim that at least 68,000 medical systems — like MRI scanners and infusion systems — from a “large, unnamed US health group” are accessible online for hackers to attack. Researchers Scott Erven and Mark Collao explained at hacking conference Derbyco that they were able to access the interfaces of many medical devices using…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Oct 1

Do You Really Need to Take Painkillers Only After Food?

It’s long been thought that anti-inflammatory painkillers need to be taken at the same time as food to protect the stomach. But a handbook for doctors has recently moved away from this advice. Medical media recently reported that a clinicians’ reference handbook had changed advice on how to take the painkiller ibuprofen – commonly sold…

Health Ian Musgrave Oct 1

Here’s Why The First Patient To Receive Penicillin Didn’t Survive

Antibiotics are something that, today, are taken for granted. This wasn’t always the case. The first patient to get antibiotics shows us how an incredibly minor injury can go bad, and how the road to antibiotic use wasn’t smooth even when scientists knew it worked. The first person to get penicillin wasn’t the first patient…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 30

This 3D Printer Creates Structures in Gel and Could Help Build Organs

3D printing is changing the way we build things—but what if the end-product can’t support its own weight until it’s finished? Scientists have developed a way to overcome that problem, by surrounding the whole thing with gel. This new 3D printing technique, developed by researchers from University of Florida in Gainesville, prints objects in an…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Sep 30

This Trippy Image Could Help Us Treat Meningitis Better

It may look like a sci-fi space scene or a Fear and Loathing out-take, but this image, which shows a a zebrafish larva infected with meningitis, could help researchers develop new treatments for the disease. In the image, you can see the Cryptococcal meningitis organism as red dots in the brain of the zebrafish larva,…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Sep 29

Burning Mouth Syndrome Is Real, But We Don’t Know Why

The symptoms of Burning Mouth Syndrome are pretty much summed up by the name. The cause is still a mystery. So is the fact that the syndrome stops whenever you fall asleep. Imagine the pain in your lips, tongue, and gums just after you’ve swallowed a mouthful of scalding coffee. Now imagine it lasting for…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 28

Ig Nobel Informal Lectures Give Winners a Chance to Explain Themselves

The Ig Nobel awards ceremony is a marvelous spectacle encrusted with tradition. But if you really want to know how the winners did their work and why, you need to go to the Ig informal lectures, held at MIT the Saturday after the awards. The event lets winners present a short lecture to explain the…

Tech News Diane Kelly Sep 24

This Is the Most Beautiful View of Poop You’re Ever Going to See

Poop is sometimes considered a little taboo, but it can tell you a lot about your health and potentially even save your life. And, if these images are anything to go by, it can even look beautiful, too. These images were created by Dr Nicola Fawcett from the University of Oxford as a submission for…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Sep 24

How Starving Cancer Cells of Sugar Could Be the Best Way to Attack Them

All the cells in our bodies are programmed to die. As they get older, our cells accumulate toxic molecules that make them sick. In response, they eventually break down and die, clearing the way for new, healthy cells to grow. This “programmed cell death” is a natural and essential part of our wellbeing. Every day,…

Tech News Concetta Bubici and Salvatore Papa Sep 24

Paraplegic Man Walks Using Own Legs With Brain Signals Re-Routed to Knees

A team of scientists has successfully re-routed the signals from a paraplegic man’s brain to his knees, allowing him to walk using his own legs for the first time in five years. The Guardian reports that researchers from the University of California at Irvine have developed a system that captures brain waves using an electroencephalogram…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Sep 24

Uber Launches Carpooling Service — First in China, Then Around the World

Uber has launched a new service that it’s calling UberCommute: a tool that allows people who are driving long distances to pick up extra travellers and share the cost of the trip with them. The new Uber service will initially be available just in Chengdu, China — in fact, the company points out that it’s…

Health Jamie Condliffe Sep 23

Why Some Boys in the Dominican Republic Don’t Grow Penises Until Puberty

Countdown to Life: The Extraordinary Making of You, a new BBC series focused on how our prenatal development shapes our lives, has brought new attention to a group of seemingly sex-swapping people in the Dominican Republic. In an article for the BBC Magazine, Michael Mosely talks to families with children that were brought up as…

Tech News Diane Kelly Sep 22

Don’t Stop Having Sex Just Because You Had a Heart Attack

Although the sex-induced heart attack is a staple of fiction (I’m looking at you, Downton Abbey), in real life it’s quite rare. That’s reinforced by a study from Dietrich Rothenbacher and his research team at Germany’s Ulm University, which found that only a tiny fraction of patients (0.7%) said they were having sex in the…

Health Diane Kelly Sep 22

You Probably Can’t Tell Your Toes Apart Without Looking at Them

You may think you know your body well—but you likely don’t know your toes as well as you may hope. A new study reveals that most people can’t tell their toes apart without looking at them. Researchers at the University of Oxford had people close their eyes while testers gently prodded at their toes. While…

Health Jamie Condliffe Sep 22

Just How Safe Is Laser Eye Surgery?

The offers began arriving by email in January: a chance at clearer vision for the special price of US$299 per eye. Over the next four months, I received 20 ads from the same company – each offering the same deal for the “safe, FDA approved” surgery. “Individual results will vary,” each ad said in the…

Health Bryn Nelson - Mosaic Sep 21

The 25th Ig Nobel Awards Were The Greatest Moment In The History of (Silly) Science

For years, the Ig Nobel Awards have been famous for celebrating the most offbeat and ludicrous forms of scientific discovery. And last night, I was lucky enough to attend the 2015 Ig Nobel ceremony, because a friend was the proud winner of an Ig Nobel. This year was the 25th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize…

Tech News Diane Kelly Sep 18

Can Scientists Create a One-Click Shop For Cancer Treatments?

What if there were a vast library of crowd-sourced samples of rare cancers, and scientists could order them simply using ‘one-click shopping’? At the end of the 1990s, none of the world’s pharmaceutical companies were working on therapies to treat brain tumours in children. It wasn’t a profitable market; brain tumours are rare in comparison…

Health Alex O’Brien - Mosaic Sep 18

Simply Counting Births and Deaths Could Solve Health Inequity in Africa

Chemically Freezing Sperm Tails Could Be the Key to a Reversible Male Contraceptive

Struck By a Duck: The Strangest Codes in the US Medical Billing System

Thousands of Medical Devices Are Open to Hacking Over the Internet

Do You Really Need to Take Painkillers Only After Food?

Here’s Why The First Patient To Receive Penicillin Didn’t Survive

This 3D Printer Creates Structures in Gel and Could Help Build Organs

This Trippy Image Could Help Us Treat Meningitis Better

Burning Mouth Syndrome Is Real, But We Don’t Know Why

Ig Nobel Informal Lectures Give Winners a Chance to Explain Themselves

This Is the Most Beautiful View of Poop You’re Ever Going to See

How Starving Cancer Cells of Sugar Could Be the Best Way to Attack Them

Paraplegic Man Walks Using Own Legs With Brain Signals Re-Routed to Knees

Uber Launches Carpooling Service — First in China, Then Around the World

Why Some Boys in the Dominican Republic Don’t Grow Penises Until Puberty

Don’t Stop Having Sex Just Because You Had a Heart Attack

You Probably Can’t Tell Your Toes Apart Without Looking at Them

Just How Safe Is Laser Eye Surgery?

The 25th Ig Nobel Awards Were The Greatest Moment In The History of (Silly) Science

Can Scientists Create a One-Click Shop For Cancer Treatments?

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