Category: Health

PeopleImages/Shutterstock.com Cancer treatment follows a familiar pattern: doctors spot symptoms, diagnose the disease and start treatment. But scientists are now exploring a radical shift in how we tackle cancer. Instead of waiting for tumours to appear, they want to catch the disease decades before it develops. This approach is called “cancer interception”. The idea is […]

Yavuz Meyveci/Shutterstock.com Mystics once spent years meditating in caves in search of transcendence. Today, a growing number of people believe something similar can be reached in a single afternoon with the help of a psychedelic drug. Swallow a capsule of psilocybin or take a carefully supervised dose of LSD and you may encounter what many […]

Prostock-studio/Shutterstock Talking is one of the most complex actions the human body performs, yet the process of turning thoughts into speech is coordinated on millisecond timescales. For some children, the brain struggles to plan the movements needed for speech, turning everyday conversation into hard work. Even forming a single word can affect learning, friendships and […]

Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock Many people assume that medicines sold over the counter are inherently safe. After all, if you can buy something in a supermarket or high street pharmacy, how dangerous can it really be? The reality is more complicated. Several commonly used over-the-counter medicines carry a real risk of dependence, misuse or harm when taken in […]

Angel Gruber/Shutterstock Air pollution has long been linked to heart and lung disease. But a large US study suggests it may also raise the risk of Alzheimer’s disease – the most common form of dementia. Researchers tracked nearly 28 million older adults over six years nationwide. They found that those exposed to higher levels of […]

Shutterstock AI/Shutterstock.com A drug designed to help cancer patients rebuild wasting muscles has become one of the most contentious substances in elite sport – and the scientist who discovered it now spends more time trying to stop people using it than encouraging its medical use. James Dalton, who developed ostarine in the early 2000s, recently […]

Close-up of a demodex folliculorum mite: your skin is alive with company Kalcutta/Shutterstock You are not alone in your own skin. Millions of microscopic creatures live there too. Our skin is home to entire ecosystems of microscopic life. Bacteria and fungi get most of the attention, but mites are there too. Among the most common […]

Lightspring/Shutterstock A team of Romanian scientists drilled a 25-metre ice core from the Scǎrișoara Cave in search of clues for developing new medicines. The 5,000-year-old ice yielded samples of ancient bacteria. Laboratory analysis revealed something remarkable. These bacteria, undisturbed for thousands of years, were able to grow in a variety of harsh environments. They thrived […]

akramalrasny/Shutterstock An explosion does not need to strike the head to injure the brain. When a blast occurs, it generates a sudden pressure wave that can pass through the body and skull in milliseconds, potentially deforming brain tissue and blood vessels along the way. For soldiers exposed to improvised explosive devices or other blasts, and […]

The Enhanced Games, slated to commence in May 2026, has sparked outrage across the sporting world. This new competition is the first in history to openly permit performance-enhancing drugs, and sporting bodies aren’t happy about it. World Athletics president Sebastian Coe called the concept “bollocks”, while World Anti-Doping Agency president Witold Bańka has dismissed it […]