The mosquito-borne virus that causes Rift Valley fever may severely injure human fetuses if contracted by mothers during pregnancy, according to new research. In a study published last month in the journal Science Advances, researchers used infected rats and human fetal tissue to discover how the virus targets the placenta. Results showed that the virus…
They are patients with diseases that mystify doctors, people whose symptoms are dismissed as psychosomatic, who have been given misdiagnosis upon misdiagnosis. They have confounded experts and have exhausted every hope save one. And so they wind up in the Undiagnosed Diseases Network, a federally funded project that now includes 12 clinical centers, including one…
Deborah Westbrook, a lifelong resident of Detroit, would love a tree in front of her home. “With a green tree in front of my house,” she said, “and me looking at the green leaves, knowing that the tree and sun were mixing together to give off the oxygen we breathe? I would be proud. A…
THE BREAKTHROUGHImmunotherapy and the Race to Cure CancerBy Charles GraeberIllustrated. 302 pp. Twelve. $28. If someone were to give cancer a human face, it would probably be that of an archvillain in a comic book series — a master of evil who can adapt at will to any attack, lurking lethally in the shadows, shifting…
Image CreditVictoria Roberts Q. Do animals play games? If so, why? A. Many immature mammals practice hunting and fighting skills in preparation for the real thing. Anyone who has raised a litter of kittens has observed their almost continuous cycles of pursuit and evasion, capture and attempted evisceration, and sometimes even a mock version of…
Acne is the most common skin condition in the United States, but its exact causes are poorly understood. A new study uncovers how a common acne drug alters the balance of bacteria in our skin. How does a change in the skin microbiome improve acne? Isotretinoin (brand name Accutane) is commonly used to treat severe…
Pain control in infants and children has come a long way over the past few decades. Experts know how to provide appropriate anesthesia when children need surgery and understand the ways that even very young children express distress when they’re hurting afterward. There is a lot of evidence about reducing the pain and anxiety that…
Acne appeared sporadically at first when Sophia Steinberg was in the eighth grade, but within two years she said her face, chest and back were covered with embarrassing lesions of cystic acne. “I was very self-conscious, deeply insecure and anxious,” Sophia, a Brooklyn high school student, told me. “I would wake up ashamed for my…
Image Making time to exercise, like many good things in life, can be hard to accomplish unless it’s on autopilot. CreditDavid Swanson/The Philadelphia Inquirer, via Associated Press A $100 billion dollar health care package was proposed by congressional Republicans this past summer, and afterward endorsed by some Democrats. It aims to save money by encouraging…
Imagine being held up at gunpoint. Do you trust you could remember the perpetrator’s face? The gun? Or would you have a better recollection of how loud the birds were chirping at that moment? “The memory does not operate like a videotape machine faithfully recording every single detail,” said Richard J. McNally, a professor of…