Biotech
Human history has been all but defined by death and disease, plague and pandemic. Advancements in 20th century medicine changed all of that. Now advancements in 21st century medicine promise to go even further. Could we bring about an end to disease? Reverse aging? Give hearing to the deaf and sight to the blind? The answer may be yes. And soon.
Featured
The next era of psychedelics may be precision-designed states of consciousness
A look inside Mindstate Design Labs’ effort to design drugs that reliably produce specific states of consciousness.
What is The Great Progression: 2025 to 2050?
We have a historic opportunity to harness AI and other transformative technologies in order to make a much better world in the next 25 years.
Progress happens because solutions create new problems to solve
Solutionism means fully accepting what’s in front of us and enthusiastically stepping up to meet the challenge.
Psychedelics & Mental Health
How to reclaim meaning in a changing world
What if the barrier to a fulfilled life isn’t technology, it’s culture?
The exciting research that may cure Parkinson’s
GeneCode is developing a drug it hopes won’t just alleviate Parkinson’s symptoms but also protect and restore patient’s neural health.
Biohacking
We’re able to create new creatures through gene editing. What’s stopping us?
The question isn’t whether we can sculpt new life. The question is what comes next.
Boosted Breeding and beyond: 3 tech trends that could end world hunger
A world without hunger is possible, and the development and deployment of new farming technologies could be one key to manifesting it.
New AI generates CRISPR proteins unlike any seen in nature
An AI that generates CRISPR proteins is opening the door to gene editors with capabilities beyond what we’ve found in nature.
Ray Kurzweil explains how AI makes radical life extension possible
Life expectancy gains in developed countries have slowed in recent decades, but AI may be poised to transform medicine as we know it.
Vaccines
Personalized cancer vaccines are having a moment
Personalized cancer vaccines were a recurring theme at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in 2024.
The threat of avian flu — and what we can do to stop it
Avian flu is infecting cows on US dairy farms, and now a person has caught it — but new research could help us avoid a bird flu pandemic.
One shot recreates younger immune systems, in mice
An antibody treatment designed to revitalize an aging immune system delivers “surprising” results in elderly mice.
More
Magnets pull these tiny medical robots deep into the brain
LA-based startup Bionaut Labs is developing micro-sized medical robots that are guided through the body by magnets.
How flu got milder since 1918 pandemic
The risk of death from influenza has declined over time, but globally, hundreds of thousands of people still die from the disease each year.
Newly discovered gut bacteria may be a culprit behind rheumatoid arthritis
This bacteria is found only in the intestines of people with rheumatoid arthritis, and not in the intestines of healthy people.
Watch a Neuralink robot insert electrodes into a dummy brain
During a livestreamed event, a Neuralink robot precisely inserted 64 electrode-packed threads into a dummy brain in just 15 minutes.
How to fight Covid with light
Some wavelengths of light in a range called far-UVC kill microbes in experiments and appear to be harmless to people.
The (robotic) doctor will see you now
Study finds patients are receptive to interacting with robots designed to evaluate symptoms in a contact-free way.
Exercise boosts the brain — and mental health
New research is revealing how physical activity can reduce and even ward off depression, anxiety and other psychological ailments.
New brain cancer vaccine completes clinical trial
Northwest Biotherapeutics reports that its new brain cancer vaccine can extend glioblastoma patients’ lives by months or even years.
The science of habits
Whether you’re trying to break a bad habit or start a good one, psychologists have some tips to get you started.
Deadly disease treated in the womb for the first time
In a medical first, doctors were able to prevent heart and muscle damage using enzyme replacement therapy.
New chemo pump for brain tumors could avoid side effects
A fully implantable chemo pump could help extend the lives of people with deadly brain tumors while minimizing treatment side effects.
UK study suggests single dose of monkeypox vaccine is 78% effective
A new analysis by the UK Health Security Agency has determined that one shot of a monkeypox vaccine is 78% effective at preventing infection.
$3.5 million treatment for hemophilia wins FDA approval
The FDA has approved biotech company CSL Behring’s Hemgenix, a hemophilia B treatment that costs $3.5 million per dose.
How college in prison is leading professors to rethink how they teach
College in prison reduces the chance of reoffending, but it also dramatically changes the perspective of the professors who teach them.
How you breathe affects your brain
A psychiatrist and neuroscientists investigate how breathing affect the brain and biological markers of stress and immune function.
Electrically stimulating the brain helps stop binge eating
Two people with binge eating disorder reported that deep brain stimulation helped them control their eating and lose weight in a small study.
When is the best time to exercise?
Though morning workouts may be optimal for circadian rhythms, afternoon exercise tends to be slightly more efficient.
New CRISPR cancer treatment tested in humans for first time
A new personalized CRISPR cancer treatment modifies the immune system’s T cells to help them recognize a specific patient’s tumor cells.
Good and bad memories are stored in different neurons, study finds
Positive and negative memories are stored in different parts of the brain, raising the possibility of therapeutic memory manipulation.
New fentanyl vaccine could help avoid relapses and overdoses
An in-development fentanyl vaccine that prevents the drug from entering the brain could one day help people avoid relapsing or overdosing.
Special Collection
Collection
The Science of Death
Explore the journey from life to death and beyond. Near-death experiences, death doulas, digital immortality, and more – join us for a thoughtful exploration of one life’s most intriguing and inevitable phenomena with stories from the frontlines of death.
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