Getting glasses is something of a bittersweet life event. You can now see much better than you previously could, but keeping glasses clean and protecting them at all costs is definitely a bit of a pain. Contacts solved that problem to a degree, but not everyone can wear them and they can have some convenience …
A “no man left behind” approach is common among soldier on a battlefield, but the same is apparently true even for some of the smallest members of the animal kingdom. A new study reveals that a specific species of ant — the African Matabele ant, or Megaponera analis — has an impressively robust system of recovering …
Doctors in India have successfully removed what is being called the largest brain tumor ever to be operated on, freeing a mass of dangerous tissue that was nearly the size of the patient’s entire head. The operation, which took nearly seven hours to complete, took place earlier this month in Mumbai, and it appears as …
As the technology that powers medical implants grows more and more complex, researchers warn that they could become a prime target for cybersecurity intrusions. A new paper published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology focuses on the potential risk of medical implants like pacemakers to be hacked by individuals seeking to cause …
The human body can become damaged in a seemingly endless number of ways, but doctors have long known that brain trauma is particularly dire. It is not only devastating, but also hard to detect. Diagnosing an individual with a concussion is sometimes a shot in the dark even for trained medical professionals, as symptoms aren’t …
A pounding migraine headache is a pretty dreadful experience. Over-the-counter painkillers often come up well short of relieving the discomfort and sometimes the only thing you can do is close your eyes and hope that it’s gone when you wake up. An Arizona woman did just that, but when she woke up she got something …
Getting stung by an emerald cockroach wasp isn’t a fun time, especially if you’re one of the cockroaches that the wasp is notorious for hunting. A single sting can stop a roach in its tracks, with subsequent stings turning the insect into a zombie that follows orders solely from the wasp. Now, its powerful venom …
Meaningful progress in the battle against cancer can seem hard to come by, but new testing by researchers at Stanford might offer an incredible boost. A novel approach to killing off tumors has shown remarkable promise in mice, and even has the ability to completely clear out the cancer with nothing more than tiny injections …
Humans today live a lot longer than they used to. That’s great news, but as modern medical advances are giving patients second chances at living normal lives, end-of-life care continues to be a difficult thing to plan. Forecasting when someone will die is an extremely challenging and often uncomfortable thing, but Stanford researchers have trained …
If you have science fiction nightmares of a robot apocalypse you should probably just stop reading right now. For those of you still here, I have good(?) news! Scientists at Boston Children’s Hospital have invented a robot that can be implanted into the body where it pulls on organs in order to promote tissue growth …
