Are All Our Organs Vital?
Even the appendix and tonsils are less expendable than we thought
Stories by Claudia Wallis
How Virtual Reality Will Transform Medicine
Anxiety disorders, addiction, acute pain and stroke rehabilitation are just a few of the areas where VR therapy is already in use
What Ails a Woman's Heart
The more we look, the more we find sex differences in cardiovascular disease
How to Cultivate a Warm Computer-Side Manner
There’s a right way for doctors to integrate technology into patient care
Why Oral Cancer Threatens Men
Researchers wrestle with rising rates of throat cancers caused by common papillomaviruses
How to Help Pain Patients Cut Back on Opioids
The search is on for safe, effective ways to taper the drugs for people in chronic pain
The So-Called Right to Try Law Gives Patients False Hope
A new law to let dying patients access unapproved drugs raises false hope
Ba-Boom! There Goes Your Hearing
New discoveries offer hope for noise-induced hearing loss
Extreme Flu? Weird Encephalitis? It May Be Your Genes
Subtle mutations can undermine our ability to fend off a specific bug
Why We Won't Miss Opioids
They are not the great all-purpose painkillers they've been cracked up to be
The Belly Fat Battle
A wider waist is dangerous for reasons we don’t fully grasp
Why Pancreatic Cancer Is on the Rise
Pancreatic cancer will soon be the second-biggest cause of cancer deaths
Osteoporosis: An Avoidable Crisis
Bone fractures are rife after age 50, so why aren’t we doing more to prevent them?
Talking with--Not Just to--Kids Powers How They Learn Language
Back-and-forth exchanges build the brain’s language center and verbal ability
How Fake Surgery Exposes Useless Treatments
It can reveal whether popular operations are actually effective
The Messy Facts about Diet and Inflammation
Can certain foods really help you fight heart disease, arthritis and dementia?
What Pot Really Does to the Teen Brain
How much should we worry?
Strict Targets for Cholesterol, Blood Pressure, and More Don't Always Make Sense
Doctors shift toward personalized goals for glucose, cholesterol, and more
How to Get Children with Autism to Sleep
Poor-quality sleep may heighten behaviors including hyperactivity, compulsions and aggressiveness
Is the U.S. Education System Producing a Society of “Smart Fools”?
One distinguished psychologist explains why he believes this is so and how to reverse course
