Latest Science News

 
Keeping Pace with Humans: Urban Evolution

Keeping Pace with Humans: Urban Evolution

A select few species evolve fast enough to keep pace with and survive human impacts.
Brain Imaging Techniques Provide Answers About Vegetative Patients

Brain Imaging Techniques Provide Answers About Vegetative Patients

Scientists are testing a variety of brain imaging techniques on unconscious patients in hopes of learning more about their diagnosis. The technologies are helping researchers make more accurate predictions about who is likely to regain consciousness.
New Parkinsons Drug Shows Positive Results in Rat Study

New Parkinsons Drug Shows Positive Results in Rat Study

The seven to ten million people suffering from Parkinson’s can attest that the diagnosis is a harrowing one, foreshadowing an ever-changing cocktail of drugs, symptoms, and side effects for life. But, a new drug may have changed that- for rats at least.

A Hospital Lab that Never Sleeps

Even as automated technology, like a “lab on a chip,” threatens the efficacy of fully-staffed hospital labs like the one at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the medical technologists […] More

Features

Replanting the Tree of Life

Replanting the Tree of Life

Fossils may be set in stone, but our understanding of evolution changes daily. The advent of DNA sequencing has altered the animal tree of life from a simple ladder to a complex web, which constantly shifts with new information.
Betting Seed: How Birds Give in to Gambling

Betting Seed: How Birds Give in to Gambling

Humans may not be the only animals hypnotized by the chance to win big. New research shows that birds, as well as some other animals, are just as susceptible to going for the jackpot.
Tonsillectomies: No Longer a Routine Solution

Tonsillectomies: No Longer a Routine Solution

By their heyday in 1965, over 1.2 million tonsillectomies were performed in the United States. By 1986, that number fell to a quarter of that. And the decline of this once-popular procedure reflects a much larger revolution in medical practice.
A Visit to the Autopsy Suite

A Visit to the Autopsy Suite

In a time when many hospitals have given up their autopsy services to save money, Dr. Stone continues to grow the Massachusetts General Hospital autopsy suite.

Explainers

 
Do Americans really have to refrigerate their eggs?

Do Americans really have to refrigerate their eggs?

In many countries eggs aren't refrigerated, but that doesn't mean Americans should follow suit.
So you want to be a stool donor? - Infographic

So you want to be a stool donor? - Infographic

While doctors treat most clostridium difficile gut infections with repeat rounds of antibiotics, stubborn cases call for unconventional treatment--fecal matter transplant. OpenBiome of Medford, Mass, is collecting stool donations from prescreened donors and sending them to hospitals across the country.
The Blame Game: Adrenaline Edition

The Blame Game: Adrenaline Edition

In the wake of the controversy surrounding Richard Sherman's comments following NFC championship game, the Seattle receiver blamed his action on adrenaline. But can adrenaline make you say things you don't mean?