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Lisa Jarvis
Brain adaptations during pregnancy may enhance efficiency rather than cause loss of function, similar to transformations seen during adolescence and menopause.
COMMENTARY
Nov 29, 2024
We’re finally starting to understand the pregnant brain
Brain adaptations during pregnancy may enhance efficiency rather than cause loss of function, similar to transformations seen during adolescence and menopause.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer known for his anti-science stances, lacks public health experience and has a history of promoting harmful conspiracy theories, such as anti-vaccine activism.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 17, 2024
RFK Jr.’s junk science will put every American at risk
His promotion of bizarre conspiracy theories could turn the government into an “accelerant for misinformation.”
The winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry are announced in Stockholm, Sweden, on Oct. 9. They are, as seen on the display screen, David Baker (left), of the University of Washington; Demis Hassabis (center) and John M. Jumper (right), both from Google DeepMind, U.K.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 15, 2024
Google's DeepMind Nobel Prize showcases AI’s medical potential
Google’s AlphaFold tool is already widely used by pharmaceutical researchers searching for groundbreaking new medicines.
A researcher holds a plate of nematodes in a lab at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston on Monday. American scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun won the Nobel Prize in Medicine the same day for their discovery of microRNA and its role in how genes are regulated.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 2024
Nobel Prize for medicine recognizes microRNA — and curiosity
Although microRNA's key role in regulating gene expression hasn't yet resulted in groundbreaking treatments, it may still significantly impact our health in the future.
A vaccine that can protect against six types of cancer is available: the human papillomavirus vaccine. Despite its proven effectiveness, many parents and others remain hesitant over its use.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 20, 2024
Boys need the HPV cancer vaccine as much as girls
The virus doesn’t only cause cervical cancer, it’s the culprit behind numerous other cancers
Researchers are still years away from understanding the actual impact of AI on addressing human diseases. But given the speed with which the technology is evolving, its increasingly looking like the impact could be vast.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 12, 2024
Inventing medicines is one of the most exciting uses of AI
AlphaFold has advanced significantly since its earlier version, offering static images of protein interactions.
The H5N1 bird flu virus, which has been found in cattle, is a pathogen that has loomed large in the minds of infectious disease experts for its potential to cause a deadly human pandemic.
COMMENTARY / World
May 9, 2024
The bird flu outbreak brings more questions than answers
This is a pathogen that has loomed large in the minds of infectious disease experts for its potential to cause a deadly human pandemic.
Studies have observed that patients eventually diagnosed with multiple sclerosis initially complain of common issues like anxiety, fatigue or bladder problems. Researcher may be on the road to developing a simple test that can definitively tell a patient if they have the disease.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2024
This multiple sclerosis discovery could be a breakthrough
Researchers have found evidence that neurons are being damaged years before the disease makes itself known.
A new study has found that women with long COVID had significantly lower levels of testosterone compared to those who had recovered from their infection.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2024
Sex differences could be key to the successful treatment of long COVID
New research links testosterone levels to the severity of long COVID in women.
As of April 4, the bird flu virus had been confirmed in more than a dozen herds across six U.S. states, with Kansas, Idaho, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio and Texas all reporting infected cows.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2024
Bird flu in cows demands vigilance, not panic
Bird flu had been confirmed in herds across six U.S. states, with Kansas, Idaho, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio and Texas all reporting infected cows.
Preliminary results from new research offer hope in the fight against glioblastoma, the terrible form of cancer that took the lives of Arizona Sen. John McCain and U.S. President Joe Biden’s son, Beau.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2024
This brain cancer breakthrough should excite you
Recent research shows progress in using the immune system to combat glioblastoma, a deadly form of brain cancer.
It turns out that the mutations that make some people vulnerable to the neurological condition once had a useful function, protecting their ancestors from pathogens.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2024
Ancient DNA could be hiding all kinds of health secrets
Ancient genomes are unlocking the past and may provide blueprint for the origin of diseases.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showed that 8.8 million people in the U.S. in 2022 were living with long COVID.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2024
A promising turn in the quest to treat long COVID
A new study doesn’t explain why the immune response is out of whack, but it is an important new piece to the vexing puzzle that is long COVID.
New research estimates that nearly 65,000 pregnancies have resulted from rape in the 14 states that imposed total abortion bans after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2024
Post-Roe America’s national shame: 65,000 forced pregnancies
New data has been filling in the picture of what access to reproductive health care looks like in the U.S. And the image forming is increasingly grim.
Smart chemotherapy is in the spotlight again as Big Pharma invests billions in next-generation cancer drugs.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 29, 2023
Targeted cancer drugs finally live up to the hype
The newfound understanding of how these cancer drugs work could lead to broader applications in treating various tumors
Abortion rights activists and counterprotesters demonstrate outside the U.S. Supreme Court in June on the first anniversary of the court ruling in the Dobbs vs. Women’s Health Organization case, overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion decision. 
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 8, 2023
U.S. abortions haven’t dropped since Dobbs ruling
The #WeCount project says the number of U.S. abortions increased by about 2,000 between June 2022 and June 2023 compared with the prior 12-month period.
A prescription injector for Ozempic, a weight loss drug
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2023
Ozempic cuts alcohol cravings. Liquor companies aren’t ready.
A survey conducted by Morgan Stanley’s AlphaWise research unit found that people consumed 62% less alcohol while taking weight loss drugs.
A new study defines some critical differences in certain biomarkers of people with long COVID.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2023
Long COVID is real. Now the evidence is piling up.
In what the researchers believe is a first, they did a detailed study of the differences between people with long COVID and those who are healthy.
Katalin Kariko (right) and Drew Weissman, the winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their discoveries enabling the development of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2023
Nobel for mRNA vaccines shows the power of perseverance
Decades of work by Nobel Prize winners Kariko and Weissman made the rapid development of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines possible.
Preliminary data suggests that updated COVID-19 boosters, which are matched to a previous variant known as XBB, could still offer protection against the new edition.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2023
New Pirola COVID-19 variant shows value of booster shots
Data suggests the updated COVID-19 boosters, which are matched to the XBB variant, could still offer decent protection against the new edition.

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People in cities across Japan will pop into their local convenience store for any number of products they believe will help them with a night of drinking.
Hangover cures are everywhere in Japan — but do they work?