HS-LS1-3
Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence that feedback mechanisms maintain homeostasis.
- Health & Medicine
Ultrasound might become a new way to manage diabetes
Ultrasound turns on production of the hormone insulin in mice. Someday, it might help maintain healthy blood-sugar levels in people who were recently diagnosed with diabetes.
- Health & Medicine
Explainer: The benefits of phlegm, mucus and snot
There are many types of mucus in the body. They might seem gross, but these gloppy goos are the first line of defense against infection.
- Health & Medicine
Explainer: What is the vagus?
The vagus nerve runs from the brain all through the body. It controls many basic functions, including how fast the heart beats.
- Health & Medicine
Owww! World’s hottest chili leads to days of severe headaches
A man ate one of the hottest peppers in the world. About a minute later, his head began pounding. See why they didn’t permanently disappear for days!
- Health & Medicine
Obesity makes taste buds disappear — in mice, anyway
Mice that gained excessive weight on a high-fat diet also lost one in four taste buds.
- Health & Medicine
Explainer: What is a concussion?
A concussion is a severe type of head injury that can damage a brain for weeks to years — perhaps even a lifetime.
- Health & Medicine
Explainer: What is a hormone?
Various tissues secrete special chemicals, known as hormones. They travel, usually in blood, to a particular distant site where they tell certain cells it’s time to go to work.
- Animals
Scientists Say: Extremophile
Some species can survive high heat, freezing cold or other extreme environments. Scientists call these organisms extremophiles.
- Health & Medicine
Is your home chilly? This might just be healthy
Feeling mildly cold (or a bit too warm) forces the body to adjust what it’s doing to maintain a healthy temperature. And that can do a body good, data now show.
- Health & Medicine
Hibernation: Secrets of the big sleep
Mammals from bears to squirrels hibernate the winter away. Learning how they do it might one day help people mimic aspects of it to heal from brain injuries or voyage to Mars.
- Animals
Explainer: How brief can hibernation be?
Many animals frequently slow body functions and drop their temperatures — sometimes for just a day. Is that hibernation, or just torpor? Are the two even related? Scientists disagree.
- Animals
Scientists Say: Hibernation
Hibernation is more than a deep sleep. Animals that hibernate lower their body temperature and reduce their body activities for months.
