Contributor

B. David Zarley

Senior Staff Writer

Contact

[email protected]

B. David Zarley is a senior staff writer for Freethink, where he covers health and medicine, including infectious disease, psychedelic research, mental health, and the brain. A graduate of SUNY Fredonia, his work has also appeared in The Atlantic, The Verge, Jezebel, Frieze, Sports Illustrated, VICE, Paste Magazine, and numerous other publications. He lives in Chicago and can be reached via Signal by request. Send him story ideas!

Prosthetics

New amputation surgery technique may lead to better control of prosthetics

A new amputation surgery technique developed at MIT reconnects muscle pairings and may lead to better prosthetic control — and less pain.

B. David Zarley

Paleontology

Gators and guineafowl may help us understand how dinosaurs moved

Using x-ray 3D-imaging techniques, researchers are turning to gators and guineafowl to better understand how dinosaurs moved.

B. David Zarley

Sports

Electric flying car races get the green flag

Airspeeder is bringing electric flying car racing to the skies in 2021.

B. David Zarley

Brain

Brain mapping: Explained

The brain is a difficult place to work. How can brain mapping help open the black box between your ears?

B. David Zarley

Drugs

Oral ketamine treatment reduced suicidal thoughts: Pilot study

A new, small study in Australia suggests that oral ketamine treatment may help treat suicidal thoughts.

B. David Zarley

Virology

Can CRISPR engineer immunity to avian flu in chickens?

An outbreak of avian flu in chickens can mean millions of birds dead and billions of dollars lost. This startup wants to engineer flu-resistant poultry.

B. David Zarley

Public Health

Are we scratching the surface of what an old vaccination method can do?

Smallpox vaccine was administered by scratching the skin. Mice suggest this old-school method may work better against other respiratory viruses as well.

B. David Zarley

CRISPR

This company wants to use CRISPR to fix your celiac disease

Sufferers of celiac end up with some pretty lack-luster pastries. A startup thinks CRISPR can help.

B. David Zarley

Drugs

Friendly little mice are helping us understand the effects of LSD

Researchers at McGill have discovered the mechanisms behind the sociable effects of LSD in mice.

B. David Zarley

Outer Space

Icelandic rocks hold clues to Mars’ ancient climate

Water once flowed on Mars. But was ancient Mars’s climate hot and wet, or dry and glacial? Iceland may hold the answer.

B. David Zarley