Dana Smith
Americans’ average lifespan now sits at 78 years. Will we continue to live longer?
The oldest human on record, Jeanne Calment of France, lived to the age of 122. What are the odds that ...
5 signs of dementia besides memory loss
Memory loss is the most well-known symptom of dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s disease. But experts say there are other warning signs ...
Delaying menopause? Why keeping ovaries working longer could potentially prevent age-related diseases
Scientists are studying how to keep the ovaries working longer — and potentially, prevent age-related diseases in the process ...
Some people hit 80 years old while retaining exceptional memories. What goes on in these ‘super-ager’ brains?
When it comes to aging, we tend to assume that cognition gets worse as we get older. Our thoughts may ...
Is biological age testing useful or overrated?
New tests promise to tell you if you have the cells of a 30-year-old or a 60-year-old. Here’s what to ...
Get headaches from red wine? Here’s the culprit
Is it sulfites, tannins or another culprit? Here’s what the research says about the migraines some people get with a ...
Why all the COVID-induced blood clots, strokes and heart attacks? The coronavirus may be a blood vessel disease rather than a respiratory affliction
In April, blood clots emerged as one of the many mysterious symptoms attributed to Covid-19, a disease that had initially ...
Why it may not be ‘screen time’ that’s stunting development of kids’ brains
A new study links young children’s screen time with changes in the brain and slower language development. But parents, before ...
Mental health apps are reading your texts—some of them are selling your data, raising privacy concerns
An app for monitoring people with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia is so precise it can track when a patient steps ...
AI’s surprising development of ‘number sense’ mimics that of human babies
Training software that emulates brain networks to identify dog breeds or sports equipment is by now old news. But getting ...
Women’s fertility is a ‘black box’. This biotech company wants to help crack it open
Fertility is like most aspects of medicine — it’s rarely discussed until a problem arises. But as women wait longer to start ...
Vulnerability to mental illness may have given humans an evolutionary advantage
Nearly one in five Americans currently suffers from a mental illness, and roughly half of us will be diagnosed with ...
Solitary confinement may cause ‘irreversible’ damage to the brain
There are an estimated 80,000 people, mostly men, in solitary confinement in U.S. prisons. They are confined to windowless cells ...
Brains of fetuses could suffer from exposure to marijuana
Marijuana has been legalized in some capacity in 31 U.S. states, in large part due to a softening stance around ...
Autism linked to electrical firing of neurons, neuron-controlled brain size
Researchers at UC San Francisco have developed a new genetic model of autism, using neurons created in the lab from ...
‘Dark genome’ could yield answers to complex genetic diseases
The mysterious majority – as much as 98 percent – of our DNA do not code for proteins. Much of ...