Diverse perspectives on science and medicine
I’m astonished at the speed with which geneticists and epidemiologists are zeroing in on the Wuhan coronavirus. Nomenclature is still up in the air. The first name, “2019-nCoV” for “novel coronavirus first seen in 2019,”
Four of the six of us from my high school inner circle have had breast cancer over the past two years. And that has me wondering. Did a shared environmental exposure, stamped onto our shared
If legislation being developed by State Rep. Ginny Ehrhart, (R-Powder Springs, Georgia) goes forward, a physician who provides surgery or hormones to assist a transgender individual age 18 or under in transitioning will be committing
It was a good year for new treatments for genetic diseases! Of the 44 FDA approvals of new drugs, 8 were for 6 single-gene diseases: DMD, beta thalassemia, cystic fibrosis, a form of amyloidosis, and two
About 5,700 years ago in southern Denmark, a woman enjoyed a meal of hazelnuts and duck, then chewed gum made from the boiled, tar-like gunk of birch bark. Pieces of DNA extracted from the ancient
Members of a three-generation family in France who suffer from widespread infections and fragile skin, joints, bones, and blood vessels share an underlying and unexpected immune system glitch, according to a new report in Science
After reading Christina Adams’s new book Camel Crazy: A Quest for Miracles in the Mysterious World of Camels (New World Library), I may have a new favorite animal (sorry, cats and hippos). Most of us know
On Monday November 5, officials at the FDA listened for three hours to arguments for and against “fecal microbiota transplants” – mostly for. Speakers reported that the procedure has saved thousands of lives. The technique
Anyone who’s tossed a pumpkin onto the lawn after Halloween to discover vines snaking along the ground the next summer knows how easy it is to grow the plant. Pumpkins have an intriguing history and
Ninety-seven percent of potential new cancer drugs never make it to market, dropping out of clinical trials when they don’t meet measures of safety or efficacy. “Why that is, we don’t really know. But I