Category: 4. Health

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…

Researchers from the University of Utah, New York University and Stanford University are now demonstrating the potential for another option: gait retraining.

By making a…

In a new study, the researchers show the test can detect the virus that causes COVID-19 with pinpoint accuracy, clearly distinguishing it from other infections.

The new diagnostic device,…

In this week’s edition of The Prototype, we look at the risk of depending on AI to “think” for you, mass-producing satellites, a startup helping NASA avoid space junk, and more. To get The Prototype in your inbox, sign up here.

The percentage of U.S. adults that report consuming alcohol has fallen to a record low of 54%, according to a recent Gallup poll.

Gallup has been tracking trends in drinking behavior among Americans since 1939. The lowest percentage of alcohol consumption prior to this year was in 1958 when alcohol intake was reported at 55%.

For young Americans, the results are…

For almost 40 years, people who suspect they’ve been harmed by a vaccine have been able to turn to a little-known system called the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program – often simply called the vaccine court.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long been a critic of the vaccine court, calling it “biased” against compensating people, slow and unfair. He has said that he wants to “revolutionize” or “fix” this system.

I’m a scholar of law,…