In yet another instance of science imitating science fiction, researchers are inching toward the sort of three-dimensional "telepresence" technology that Princess Leia used to contact Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars ...
Everyone knows about cancer. According to the World Health Organization eight million people died of one of the many forms of cancer 2007 and this number is expected to grow to more than 12 million by 2030...
A new malaria vaccine, a plan to immunize mosquitoes, and other "crazy" ideas have brightened prospects for vanquishing this killer
Debate continues about the efficacy of vaccinating teens against the sexually transmitted papillomavirus as rates of noncervical HPV cancers climbs
Resistant bacteria help their kin survive antibiotics, but at a cost
Physicist James Kakalios, author of The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics, wants people to know what quantum physics has done for them lately--and why it shouldn't take the rap for New Age self-realization hokum such as The Secret...
Like people, mice sometimes show signs of general confusion and memory loss after surgery. Common major (noncardiac) procedures, such as orthopedic operations, can lead to postsurgical cognitive decline in some seven to 26 percent of patients...
A new device allows paralyzed people to communicate with their noses
SAN DIEGO—The last sessions of TEDMED today offered some unusual windows into health and the individual from astronaut Scott Parazynski, author A.
Colonoscopies might beat out root canals as the most reviled commonplace medical procedure that many of us might expect to undergo. Nevertheless, the uncomfortable undertaking is currently one of the best ways to detect early signs of colorectal cancer, a disease that more than 142,000 Americans are diagnosed with each year—and one that kills more than 51,000...
SAN DIEGO—The machine–human connection ran like a titanium thread through several of today’s TEDMED sessions.* Hugh Herr of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab captivated the audience with his work on prosthetics...
Pancreatic cancer is notoriously deadly, killing some 95 percent of patients within five years of diagnosis. Actor Patrick Swayze died less than two years after he was diagnosed with the invasive disease...
Researchers are studying whether the presence of certain proteins in the blood could provide signs of the formative stage of a malignancy
NEW YORK—The immune system works hard to keep us well physically, but might it also be partly to blame for some mental illnesses?
"The immune system may play a significant role in the development of depression," Andrew Miller, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University School of Medicine, said Tuesday at a symposium on neuroscience and immunology at the New York Academy of Sciences...
The 1918 flu genome may help fight future outbreaks
About two thirds of the states use a combination of barbituric, paralytic and toxic agents for executions, despite a lack of scientific evidence supporting their effectiveness. Although the procedure may be subject to FDA approval, the agency has avoided any ruling on the cocktail's efficacy in delivering a merciful death...
SAN DIEGO—Not everything you try will work, but you need to try lots of ideas. That was advice here from Nathan Myhrvold, founder of Intellectual Ventures and former chief technology officer at Microsoft, on the opening evening of the TEDMED conference, held from October 27 through 29...
A Swedish study finds that 70-year-olds in 2000 did better on intelligence tests than 70-year-olds had done in 1971. Steve Mirsky reports.
Technological and analytical advances are helping to take environmental exposures the route of genetic profiles in predicting a person's disease risk with greater precision
Recycling used but still working pacemakers could help heart patients in developing countries. Cynthia Graber reports
