Health
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Falls put older adults at increased risk of Alzheimer’s
Researchers found dementia more frequently diagnosed within one year of a fall, compared to other types of injuries
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‘Weekend warriors’ can cut risk of 264 diseases
Concentrated routines just as effective as regular weekly exercise in protecting against heart, digestive conditions as well as neurological illnesses
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Drug-free nasal spray blocks, neutralizes viruses, bacteria
In preclinical studies, spray offered nearly 100% protection from respiratory infections by COVID-19, influenza, viruses, and pneumonia-causing bacteria
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Using AI to repurpose existing drugs for treatment of rare diseases
Identifies possible therapies for thousands of diseases, including ones with no current treatments
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Suicide among female doctors gets a closer look
Epidemiologist discusses research, shrinking gap between rates of male, female physicians, what can be done
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To assess a smoker’s lung cancer risk, think years — not packs
Far more cases get caught when screening guidelines consider duration of habit regardless of intensity, study finds — especially among Black patients
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Study points to more targeted use of Ritalin
An area known as the putamen, located deep in the center of the brain, helps to control movement and attention. Harvard researchers believe that the putamen is involved in Attention…
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Researchers face up to liars
What category of people do you think would be best at detecting lies? It’s not Secret Service agents, or psychiatrists, or even mothers. Investigators working at Massachusetts General Hospital in…
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Public health researchers battle West Nile virus
West Nile encephalitis infection, carried by mosquitoes, can cause the brain to swell but rarely leads to death. Many people carry the virus with mild if any symptoms, but people…
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Potent cancer drugs made from sea squirts
In May 2000, researchers at Harvard University announced that they had succeeded in synthesizing a complex anti-tumor drug that is more powerful than any other known drug. The drug, ecteinascidin,…
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Birth of new brain cells induced in birds
Stem cells that are naturally present in the brains of finches were induced to replace lost cells and restore the birds’ ability to sing their distinctive song. “Our results represent…
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Understanding how fish swim
The pattern is hard to see at first because the movement seems to happen in the blink of an eye.
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Unlocking the mystery of artistic taste
“Unlike infants, who share innate preferences about shapes and colors, preschoolers already differ in their artistic tastes,” says Kim Sheridan, a doctoral student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.…
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Treating advanced lung cancer with light
Photodynamic, or light, therapy was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in December 1998. The FDA has also approved using lasers for treatment of advanced stages of cancer of…
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Shadow proteins in thymus may explain how immune system gets to know its own body
Researchers recently identified a protein that appears to work by turning on in the thymus, which lies beneath the breast bone, the production of a wide array of proteins from…
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Researchers switch cancer off and on in mice
An antibiotic added to the drinking water of mice stops the progress of leukemia. Harvard researcher Claudia Huettner cannot do the same thing in humans, unfortunately, but through such experiments…
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Oldest known flowering plants identified by genes
Flowering plants now number 250,000 different species, including virtually all the vegetables and grains we eat, as well as most of the food of the animals that we consume. “It’s…
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‘Take two aspirin and call me manana’
Harvard Medical School is attempting to bridge the language barriers that sometimes arise in medical settings. A set of three medical phrasebooks was first offered in 1999 in three different…
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Jolie-Pitt Foundation Donates $2 Million to Global Health Committee to Fight HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis in Ethiopia
The Global Health Committee (GHC) has announced it will receive $2 million dollars from the Jolie-Pitt Foundation to bring life-saving medicines to Ethiopians suffering from HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. The money…
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Paying attention to attention: How active is hyperactive?
McLean Hospital researcher Martin Teicher and his team believe that the surest way to separate youngsters who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) from those with other problems is to…
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Diving into the gene pool
Maryellen Ruvolo, professor of anthropology, specializes in the analysis of human and primate family trees using DNA data, a subfield of molecular evolution. She is probably best known for her…
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Electromagnets used in treating depression
Recent studies by Harvard researchers at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., have enlarged the body of knowledge about a promising, though still experimental, treatment for a variety of psychiatric disorders.…
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Aging Brains Lose Less Than Thought
It’s considered a dreaded inevitability of growing old—you lose thousands of brain cells every day. This idea has been a centerpiece of scientific dogma and popular lore for 40 years.…