Health & Medicine

  1. Microbes

    Gut bacteria may affect how well your medicines work

    Gut bacteria can chemically change the drugs people swallow. ID-ing a patient’s microbes might one day help doctors prescribe the most effective drugs.

    By Maria Temming
  2. Health & Medicine

    By the numbers: How infectious measles and other diseases spread

    A number called R0 measures how contagious an infectious disease is. It helps explain why measles is so dangerous.

    By Helen Thompson
  3. Health & Medicine

    Scientists Say: Obesogens

    The chemicals can change how the body stores fat or how often someone feels hungry — increasing the risk for obesity.

    By Bethany Brookshire
  4. Health & Medicine

    Bats are now the primary source of U.S. rabies deaths

    Although human rabies is not common in the United States, it still occurs. But here dogs are no longer the likely source of this oft-lethal infection: Bats are.

    By Carolyn Wilke
  5. Earth

    Antibiotics pollute many of the world’s rivers

    A survey of 165 rivers finds unsafe levels of antibiotics at one in six sites tested. Such pollution can leave germs resistant (unharmed) by the drugs.

    By Carolyn Wilke
  6. Health & Medicine

    Fighting spider-fear with a little Spider-Man

    Many people are afraid of spiders or ants. Watching a movie clip with the critters in it might help make people more comfortable with them, a new study shows.

    By Bethany Brookshire
  7. Health & Medicine

    Youthful rebellion leads some teens to eat better

    Once 8th graders learned how food advertisements have been developed to influence them, many rebelled — and started eating healthier.

    By Maureen O’Hagan
  8. Health & Medicine

    New risk from too much screentime

    Americans of all ages are sitting more, according to a new national survey. And health experts find that worrisome.

    By Mary Bates
  9. Health & Medicine

    Scientists Say: Myopia

    Myopia is nearsightedness, where people have trouble seeing far away objects. This happens if someone’s eyes are slightly oval, instead of perfect spheres.

    By Bethany Brookshire
  10. Health & Medicine

    Scientists Say: Neutrophil

    Neutrophils are the first cells to arrive when an infection takes hold. They can trap, eat and spew out chemicals that fight bad bacteria.

    By Bethany Brookshire
  11. Health & Medicine

    Geneticists get closer to knowing how mosquitoes sniff out our sweat

    Scientists have found that a protein in the antennae of some mosquitoes detects a chemical in human sweat.

    By Susan Milius
  12. Health & Medicine

    Sea urchins inspired a strong new medical staple

    Teens combined forces to study how a sea urchin spine might inspire a better medical staple.

    By Bethany Brookshire
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