How mind-controlling parasites can get inside your head

Apr 02, 2016 03:46 am UTC| Health

Imagine that pesky tabby cat has been pooing in your backyard again. Unbeknown to you, it has transferred some of the parasite spores it was carrying onto your herb garden. Unintentionally, while preparing a tasty salad,...

Why finding a real alternative to sugar is so difficult

Apr 01, 2016 15:57 pm UTC| Health

So much for the decades in which fats and oils were public enemy number one on our dinner plates. There is more and more evidence that sugar or more precisely, carbohydrate is behind our increasing rates of obesity and...

An ancient retrovirus has been found in human DNA – and it might still be active

Apr 01, 2016 15:54 pm UTC| Insights & Views Health

Striking evidence has emerged that an ancient virus previously known only from fossil evidence has persistently infected some humans at very low levels for hundreds of thousands or even millions of years. This ancient...

Changing the face of autism: here come the girls

Apr 01, 2016 09:21 am UTC| Health Science

If you ask someone to name famous people (fictional or non-fictional) who are known for having autism or being on the spectrum, Rain Man is often the top favourite, possibly followed by Sherlock Holmes (especially in his...

Four things parents can do to keep their kids’ kidneys healthy

Apr 01, 2016 05:48 am UTC| Health

There has been an increase in kidney disease in children globally. In the developed world up to 5% of patients with chronic kidney disease are children. But statistics are harder to come by in the developing world. The...

Resisting expanding disease empires: why we shouldn't label healthy people as sick

Apr 01, 2016 00:57 am UTC| Health

You might have heard the frightening news last year suggesting half of all Americans had some form of diabetes. A survey in the journal JAMA was covered extensively, including by NBC, WebMD and the Los Angeles...

Is anyone there? About consciousness and its disorders

Mar 31, 2016 08:44 am UTC| Health

Imagine you just woke up from a deep, dreamless sleep. Fuzzy at first, you suddenly become aware of your surrounding, your body, your reality. We say at this point that you are conscious. But although familiar and...