Humans

Health & Medicine

The nose knows a trillion scents

There's a long-standing claim that people can identify 10,000 different odors. But a new study suggests that people can actually identify at least 10,000 times that many scents.

Health & Medicine

Intel STS finalist uses math to predict breast cancer spread

Intel STS finalist Esha Maiti developed a model to calculate the probability of cancer spreading to different areas of the body.

Health & Medicine

Some of chocolate’s health benefits may trace to ‘bugs’

Dark chocolate offers people a number of health benefits. A new study finds that the breakdown of chocolate by microbes in the human gut be behind some benefits.

Health & Medicine

The dangerous rise of electronic cigarettes

Electronic cigarettes were originally advertised as a way for smokers to wean themselves off of cigarettes. In fact, e-cigarettes are helping hook a whole new generation of young people on nicotine — an addiction that may transition back to tobacco.

Health & Medicine

Explainer: What is a hookah?

Many teens are turning to water pipes as a potentially safer alternative to conventional cigarettes. But they’d be wrong.

Health & Medicine

Explainer: What are e-cigarettes?

New battery-powered devices deliver nicotine, a dangerous and addictive drug.

Health & Medicine

Intel STS finalist uses math to help the blind

Intel Science Talent Search finalist Alec Arshavsky has built a computer program to help make sure people receive the right eye transplants to help reverse blindness.

Health & Medicine

Low protein, longer life — for some

Eating less protein can lengthen life and improve health. That’s the message from new studies in mice and in people.

Health & Medicine

Teen uncovers new weapons to stop Huntington’s disease

David Seong, an Intel Science Talent Search finalist, is studying how tiny pieces of genetic material might be used to lock up a dangerous protein in Huntington’s disease.

Computing

Teen wins $100,000 for flu advance

Forty talented high-school seniors competed in the 2014 Intel Science Talent Search this week, sharing $630,000 in prizes. Top prize went to a teen for his new approach to fighting flu.

Health & Medicine

Teen finds the ‘shape’ of our beating hearts

Kevin Lee used math to probe how the shape of a beating heart relates to electrical signals from the brain. He unveiled it at the 2014 Intel Science Talent Search.

Health & Medicine

Intel STS finalist finds new flu fighters

Intel Science Talent Search finalist Eric Chen used a computer simulation to narrow down chemical targets to fight influenza. The drugs that he identified could be the next big weapons against flu.