While you might sometimes find it annoying that you can’t remember faces, names and details, forgetting is an important part of the brain if we’re not to become cognitively overwhelmed. And, it turns out, the brain takes a very controlled approach to how it goes about it.
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The recent announcement by a British medical ethics board in favor of an experimental three-parent IVF treatment
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Today is World Sleep Day, designed to make us all celebrate sleep and, presumably, try to get a little bit more of it. But even if you can’t catch more shuteye than usual, here are the five most important things you need to know in order to make the resting hours you do get count.
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The teenage brain can be a very strange place indeed—for the owner and anyone around it. This video peers inside the adolescent skull to explain exactly why that’s the case.
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We’ve known that flesh wounds create disturbances in the skin’s bioelectric field since Emil du Bois-Reymond first placed an injured hand in a galvanometer in 1843. Thanks to a new discovery from a team at the University of Berkeley, we might soon be able to harness those currents to heal ourselves with electricity.
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Migraines suck, but do they suck enough that you’d strap on an electric headband that zaps your brain’s nerves to block the pain? The FDA doesn’t think that’s such a crazy notion—the agency just approved exactly such a device for treating and preventing migraine headaches.
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Besides the fact that manufacturers sterilize the needles (so no real extra effort is needed), other sterilization procedures are also used in these executions for good reason.
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Ian Lipkin, world-renowned virus hunter, is often jetting off to far-flung countries—countries in the middle of strange epidemics, that is. From SARS in China to MERS in Saudi Arabia, his lab has discovered or characterized over 500 viruses previously mysterious to humans. But what’s it like working on the frontlines of an epidemic? How do you identify a virus you can’t even see? Gizmodo got in touch with Lipkin to ask some questions about the life of a virus hunter.
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You’ve seen the iPhone accessory that can check your blood pressure, as well as the one that can monitor your heart rate. There’s even one that can turn your phone into an electrocardiogram (ECG). But, now, there’s an iPhone case that can do all of that—and more. Meet Wello.
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Surgeons have used metal screws to reassemble broken bones for years, but there are drawbacks: if the metal corrodes, they’ve gotta come out. Biodegradable screws aren’t as strong, and can cause inflammation. So a team of Harvard and Tufts scientists came up with screws and plates that are as tough as metal, but biodegradable. The trick? They’re made out of silk.
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