Massive
A glow-in-the-dark animal? Meet the springhare
Fluorescence occurs across only a handful of mammals but they span three different continents and inhabit entirely different ecosystems. The ...
In early organoid studies, CRISPR gene editing shows promise for curing cystic fibrosis
For the first time, a type of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing, called prime editing, has been performed in “mini-organs” to correct the ...
Evolutionary science has seen a tsunami of new revelations — but have they upended the central tenets of Darwinism?
Massive asked three evolutionary biologists... about their perspectives on the origin of the field, what has changed, and about the ...
Why we think newborn babies look more like their fathers and other myths and misconceptions about evolution
In chatting about this or that, about babies, dating, or the mysterious lives of cats, someone brightly chimes “That’s because ...
Klotho: Is prescribing a drug to supercharge the brain a good idea?
One of the most intriguing molecules out there is called Klotho. Identified in , it’s named for the Fate of ancient Greek ...
Debate emerges over using CRISPR gene editing to prevent opioid overdoses
According to the CDC, about 47,000 Americans died from an opioid overdose in 2018, a number that remained steady from the previous ...
The genetics of poop and how it can help our health – and threaten our privacy
Everyone pees and poops. We excrete metabolites, vitamins, microbes, and even our own cells. This information makes its way into ...
The mystery of the human butt
Take a look around the animal kingdom. Even our closest living relatives among the great apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas), ...
Rat magnets: Why did cats become attached to humans?
The exact relationship between early, semi-domesticated cats and humans isn’t clear cut. While there’s some evidence that people had personal ...
Brain activation: How to help the blind see
[I]n a recent study at Baylor College of Medicine, researchers made the blind see. A team led by neurosurgeon Daniel Yoshor “drew” letters ...
Greta could be the first wooly mammoth-elephant hybrid—and the loneliest animal in the world
The room is bright and her bath is warm. A clamp slides over her sides. She squeals as it hoists ...
Sniff test: How our sense of smell appears to signal whether an unresponsive patient might recover consciousness
Even with more recent technologies, such as brain imaging, the rate of misdiagnosis in DOC [disorders of consciousness] patients could ...
Repairing retinas and restoring vision: Generating photoreceptors directly from skin cells offers ‘quick and easy’ therapy
Damage to the retina can have serious consequences and lead to retinal diseases. Even cutting edge medicine like cell therapy ...
Recreation of Earth’s ancient hydrothermal vents suggests life could emerge even on ‘hellish worlds’
One theory for how life emerged suggests that it originated in the sea, at alkaline hydrothermal vents. It’s impossible to ...
Rise of the dinosaur may have been fueled by earlier mass extinction event
When it was alive, this large, crocodile-like reptile lurked in the swamps and rivers of the Triassic — a time ...
Seeking the ‘secret ingredient’ that led to life on Earth. Researchers may have discovered it
Think of the RNA world as a pot of gazpacho. We prepare ingredients and then stir them into a single ...
If we have difficulty defining ‘life’ on earth, how will we identify it on other planets?
What does it mean to be alive? Science, shockingly, still doesn’t have a consensus. For example, is it fair to ...
While you sleep, your brain decides which memories to keep, and which ones go to ‘the garbage bin’
We don’t remember every detail of our lives: Our brains decide which events are important for long-term storage and which ...
Biomarkers could be key to blood test for concussions
There is no single distinguishing feature of a concussion. Most of these symptoms can also be present in other types of injury ...
Travel restrictions to stop the coronavirus? Here’s why they won’t work.
Travel restrictions, though not recommended by the WHO, are a tool that countries use in hopes of stopping the spread of ...
Viewpoint: Protecting NFL players’ brains demands ‘unbiased researchers with good intentions’
As a spectator, it’s easy to forget the long term consequences of 300 pound humans crashing into each other at over 20 ...
Stealth technology could offer ‘secure, selective and precise’ delivery system for cancer drugs
Earlier this year, researchers assembled an intelligent and autonomous nanostructure entirely out of DNA that delivered and released a cancer drug. Cancer ...
Moderate drinking won’t shrink your brain, but people with smaller brains do drink ‘slightly’ more
Alcohol is one of the most widely used and abused drugs on the planet. It’s important for us to understand how it is, or ...
Why virtual reality is a ‘far from perfect’ tool for studying how the brain works
Virtual Reality (VR) is not just for video games. Researchers use it in studies of brains from all kinds of ...
These women are missing the ‘scent region’ of the brain. How do they still smell?
When Tali Weiss and her colleagues at the Weizmann Institute of Science found a patient that had an otherwise normal ...
‘Strange’ twist for viral version of Parkinson’s: It may take decades for disease symptoms to appear
In recent years, a mysterious surge of a Parkinson’s-like disorder spread around the world, causing an estimated 10-15% of the ten million worldwide ...
Do genetics determine our political beliefs? Why twin studies may not be able to answer the question
In the late 1960s, researchers began to consider the interaction between genes and environment as a possible basis for all ...
