Category: 4. Health

A fundamental discovery is overturning decades of molecular biology. Thousands of previously “invisible” microproteins—tiny chains of fewer than 100 amino acids—can profoundly change human biology when mutated. These small proteins, once dismissed as genetic noise, are now recognized as determinants of phenotype. They…

This month alone, two large innovation giants have launched massive new initiatives in the pregnancy and fertility spaces, respectively.

The first announcement was by smart-ring maker Oura, which announced that the newest generation of its hardware will now be able to support the company’s newly designed “pregnancy insights experience,” enabling users to engage with a personalized pregnancy tracking tool. The ring will…

Neurosurgeons perform intricate surgeries on the brain, spine, and the different peripheral nerves as they course throughout the body. They meticulously open a patient’s skull to stop bleeding vessels, remove tumors with precision measured in…

When Dr. Elina Berglund Scherwitzl helped discover the Higgs boson at CERN in 2012—a breakthrough that later won the Nobel Prize in Physics—she thought she’d reached the…

Doctors can only practice medicine in states where they’re licensed. Then each insurer they work with needs to verify their credentials. It’s a messy and time-consuming process that costs more than $1 billion each year. Miss a deadline? Forget working with that insurer in that state till you’ve fixed the error. Misplaced a form required for the signoff process? Ditto.

Medallion’s Derek Lo figures that his software can cut through the…

Ask people how much they expect to change over the next 10 years, and most will say “not much.” Ask them how much they’ve changed in the past decade, and the answer flips. Regardless of age, the past always feels more transformative than the future.  

This blind spot has a name: the end-of-history illusion. Researchers have shown that people of all ages underestimate…

The new platform combines the bacteria’s tendency to find and attack tumors with the virus’s natural preference for infecting and…

In the mood for an action film? Try the one starring a human embryo implanting. It just dropped, and it’s gripping.

Scientists at the Institute…

My older brother recently had knee replacement surgery. He tried to get information from his orthopedic team about what it would cost. You see, he was about to sign up for Medicare (I told you: older brother) and wanted to know his out-of-pocket costs under different insurance plans.

No one on the healthcare team could help him. Even as medical professionals, they were too confused by the insurance system to figure out their…

These days, there are more things that you can do at home by yourself that you couldn’t do before such as sit in a business meeting without wearing any pants. Well, here’s another thing that previously wasn’t possible at home but now is: vaccinate yourself against the flu. Yep, if you are…