Health & Medicine
- Computing
Video games level up life skills
A new study shows that playing video games can sharpen important life skills, including communication, adaptability and resourcefulness.
- Genetics
Genes may predict how well the flu vaccine will work in young people
The activity of nine genes predicted how well people 35 and under would respond to the flu vaccine.
- Health & Medicine
Tiny spongelike machines sop up blood sugar
Diabetes disrupts the body’s ability to control blood sugar levels. So researchers invented a tiny plastic machine that could do the job.
- Health & Medicine
The five-second rule: Designing an experiment
Is it true that food is still clean if it’s picked up off the floor before five seconds have passed? To find out, we designed an experiment to give us data.
- Health & Medicine
The five-second rule: Growing germs for science
Is it true that food dropped on the floor and picked up after five seconds is clean? To find out, we’re building an incubator and allowing any hitchhiking germs to grow.
- Health & Medicine
The five-second rule: Myth busted?
We’ve done an experiment to test the five-second rule. Now it’s time to analyze the data. Be forewarned: They’re not appetizing.
- Health & Medicine
The five-second rule: Microbes can’t count
A good scientific study compares results to what other scientists have done. These scientists have all debunked the five-second rule.
- Brain
Brains may need flexible networks to learn well
New data suggest that brain cells may learn best when they are able to easily make and break off communications with neighbors — or distant brain regions.
- Ecosystems
As trees come down, some hidden homes are disappearing
Animals such as frogs, toucans and possums live in tree hollows. But as people have cut down trees, a wildlife housing shortage has developed in some places.
- Genetics
Molecular scissors fix disease-causing flaw in human embryos
Researchers moved closer to being able to fix gene-edited embryos in people. They removed a flawed gene that causes heart failure
- Brain
Brain’s immune system can play role in weight gain
Weight isn’t just calories in, calories out. When mice eat a fatty diet, immune cells in their brains become inflamed. That makes the animals gain more weight.
- Health & Medicine
Racial discrimination may aggravate asthma, study finds
Kids who suffer racial discrimination are more likely to develop a hard-to-treat form of asthma. New data suggest the stress of bigotry can affect the immune system, potentially making the disease worse.
