Health

The future of fertility, from artificial wombs to AI-assisted IVF

A look back at the history of infertility treatments and ahead to the tech that could change everything we thought we knew about reproduction.

Kristin Houser

Overlay of hands and abstract patterns in purple and blue tones, symbolizing hope for Parkinson's cure.

Drugs

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.

Kevin Dickinson

A child sitting on a couch in a dimly lit room, holding and looking intently at a tablet, as if testing the Goldilocks hypothesis for the perfect screen brightness.

Mental Health

Beyond screen time: Rethinking kids’ tech use with the “Goldilocks hypothesis”

The “Goldilocks hypothesis” asks parents to think beyond screen time and consider the habits that teens build around technology use.

Kevin Dickinson

Drugs

Ketamine is as effective as ECT for depression, study shows

A trial of patients with treatment-resistant depression found ketamine to be at least as effective as electroconvulsive therapy.

B. David Zarley

an illustration of a patient receiving a lung transplant by four robotic arms

Surgery

Man receives donor lung through tiny 3-inch incision

The first fully robotic lung transplant was completed in Spain by surgeons using a robot and a brand-new access point.

Kristin Houser

Medicine

Gain-of-function research is more than just tweaking risky viruses

Gain-of-function experiments in the lab can help researchers get ahead of viruses naturally gaining the ability to infect people in the wild.

Anice Lowen and Seema Lakdawala

Public Health

The radical drop in maternal mortality was a public health miracle

In 1758 in Sweden, 1205 mothers died for every 100,000 live births, which was likely representative of the global maternal mortality rate.

Tony Morley

Food

Nope, coffee won’t give you extra energy

You might feel like coffee gives you the energy to get through the day – but chances are, you're not getting as much as you think.

Emma Beckett

an image of a person sleeping with colorful squiggles representing their brain activity

Neuroscience

Zapping the brain during sleep helps memories form

Brain stimulation during sleep appears to help with memory consolidation, suggesting a new way to treat people with memory disorders.

Kristin Houser

Neuroscience

Adult-made neurons mature longer, have unique functions

Neuroscientists don't know the degree to which adult brains generate new neurons, but adult-made neurons appear to have more "mature" functions.

Kevin Dickinson

an illustration of a cholesterol particle on a colorful background

CRISPR

CRISPR tool slashes bad cholesterol by 56% in monkeys

Tune Therapeutics has successfully lowered the cholesterol levels of monkeys using a version of CRISPR that doesn’t permanently alter DNA.

Kristin Houser

Neuroscience

Chronic pain can be objectively measured using brain signals

Even though pain is universal and we know it happens in the brain, we've never before had a way to objectively measure its intensity.

Prasad Shirvalkar

billboard saying fentanyl overdose is a leading killer

Medicine

New nasal spray aimed at reversing fentanyl overdoses is now approved

A new overdose-reversing spray that works fast but lasts longer has been approved by the FDA, and will be available by the fall at earliest.

B. David Zarley

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