After a massive five-year effort, researchers have unveiled an “atlas” that gives an unprecedented look at the intricacies of the human brain.
The atlas, which will be available to researchers everywhere...
Anyone with a cat knows the calm, low rumble of purring, but how does such a small animal make such a low sound?
New research suggests it boils down to a pad embedded in feline vocal cord folds.
That's different than previously thought, which was that purring happ...
New research suggests that concert goers may synchronize their breathing and more as they listen to the intricacies of a classical symphony performance.
Previous studies have shown that music may be able to induce synchronization in listeners, but the authors of this stu...
Extensive exercise regimens are keeping astronauts healthy and protecting their hearts during extended space missions, new research finds.
A study from scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas found no loss of heart mass or output, and no loss of function i...
Growing up in poverty may harm the structural wiring of a child's brain, a new study claims.
Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found a link between both neighborhood and household poverty and the brain's white matter tracts. These let...
Space travel appears to weaken astronauts' immune systems, and researchers believe changes in gene expression are the culprit.
These immune deficits aren't permanent. They disappear when back on Earth, often within weeks, according to new rese...
Astronauts spending six months or longer in space should stretch their time between trips to three years, warns new research on the impact of space travel on the brain.
To study this, researchers examined the brain scans of 30 astronauts, looking at scans that depicted t...
The influence of Neanderthals is evident right in the center of the faces of modern humans.
New research finds that genetic material inherited from Neanderthals affects nose shape. A particular gene made the nose taller from top to bottom.
This may have been neces...
A significant number of patients take far longer to recover from a concussion than expected, and they may not be getting the care they need, according to a new study.
Researchers from the United Kingdom who studied concussion patients found that almost half had changes i...
People are often reminded that they are their own unique person — and a new study says that's particularly true of the digestive tract.
Dissections of a few dozen deceased individuals revealed striking differences in gastrointestinal anatomy, even among a small group o...
Assessing heart roundness may be a new way to diagnose cardiovascular conditions, new research suggests.
While doctors now use measures like heart chamber size and systolic function to diagnose and monitor cardiomyopathy and other related heart issues, cardiac sphericity...
Groups of whales, dolphins and porpoises are regularly stranded in shallow waters around the coasts of the United Kingdom.
Researchers wanted to understand why, so they studied the brains of 22 toothed whales — or "odontocetes" — that were stranded in Scottish coasta...
Humans have continued to evolve after splitting from chimpanzee ancestors nearly 7 million years ago, according to a new study that found 155 new genes unique to humans that suddenly arose from tiny sections of DNA.
Some of the new genes date back to the...
Women tend to be better able than men to recover from kidney injury, but why?
Apparently women have an advantage at the molecular level that protects them from a form of cell death that occurs in injured kidneys, a new study in mice has discovered.
“Kidney diseas...
The risk of suffering a stroke at an early age may depend partly on a person's blood type, a large study suggests.
If you need to take a pill, you might want to take it lying down -- on your right side, that is.
Researchers studying how body positioning affects the absorption of pills found that one taken when a person was lying on the right side speeded pills to the deepest part of ...
Genetically altered pig hearts could soon become a viable transplantation alternative for people with life-threatening heart disease, new experiments show.
A team at NYU Langone Health has successfully transplanted two such pig hearts into brain-dead humans on life suppo...
Historically, not much has been recorded on the aging of amphibians and reptiles, unless they live in a zoo.
It's an icky truth: Everyone has millions of tiny mites living and mating on their skin.
Not to worry, though -- Demodex folliculorum skin mites actually help keep your pores clean and your skin healthy, stressed Alejandra Perotti, an associate professor of inve...
New research gives new meaning to the term "hotheaded" - your normal brain temperature is higher and varies much more than previously thought.
The findings could lead to future research into whether disruption of daily brain temperature rhythms might trigger
People with anorexia nervosa show significant shrinkage in three important areas of the brain, new research reveals.
The researchers said their ...
If you're taller than average, your genes may affect your risk for a variety of diseases, a new study suggests.
These include a higher risk for the heart rhythm disorder atrial fibrillation and varicose veins, but a lower risk of coronary heart disease, high blood pressu...
An international research effort has unveiled the most extensive reference map yet of individual cells within the human body, knowledge that could revolutionize the study of health and disease.
The massive Human Cell Atlas contains detailed maps of more than one million ...
Scientists have unearthed new details about how astronauts' brains are affected by extended trips in space.
"These findings have important implications as we continue space exploration," said study co-author Dr. Juan Piantino. He is an assistant professor of pediatrics (...
If you've ever wondered how your pooch flashes those "puppy dog eyes" that melt your heart, a new study may provide some answers.
The researchers identified certain muscle features that help dogs look so cute, and it suggests that thousands of years of selective breeding...
TUESDAY, Feb. 8, 2022 (HealthDay News ) -- Mosquitoes see red when they look at your skin, and that brings them in for a bite, according to research showing that these insects find certain colors more attractive.
The sex lives of dolphins may seem to be an esoteric scientific subject, but there are researchers who wondered if a certain part of a female dolphin's anatomy might produce pleasure.
"Every time we dissected a vagina, we would see this very large clitoris, and we were c...
French Bulldogs are incredibly cute, sporting adorable snub snouts, big round heads, bright wide eyes and large bat ears.
Unfortunately, the physical traits that make them one of the most popular breeds in the United States and United Kingdom also saddle them with a host...
They once ruled the planet, but even the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex could suffer from bone disease, new research shows.
Scientists used imaging to examine the lower left jaw of a fossilized T. rex skeleton discovered in Montana in 2010. The skeleton, which is about 68 mill...
Most folks groan when the time comes to either "spring forward" or "fall back" an hour, with the waxing and waning of daylight saving time.
But that one-hour time shift -- which occurs at 2 a.m. Sunday -- is more than just a minor annoyance, sleep experts say.
Rese...
Gender-affirming breast removal (mastectomy) can greatly enhance a patients' mental well-being, a new study finds.
Gender-affirming mastectomy is the most common type of gender-confirming surgery, but there's "not a lot of information out there about how exactly these ty...
The size and shape of the blood vessels in your brain may help predict your risk of an often-fatal type of stroke, called an aneurysm, a new study finds.
An aneurysm is a bulge in an artery wall.
"A subarachnoid hemorrhage is the most dangerous type of stroke and o...
The heart rates of people sync up when listening to a story, a new study finds.
"There's a lot of literature demonstrating that people synchronize their physiology with each other. But the premise is that somehow you're interacting and physically present [in] the same pl...
Your favorite tabby cat may seem to have little similarity to her relatives in the wild, but all share a key gene that gives them their distinctive look.
Why cats' coats are decorated with stripes, spots and blotches has long been a mystery. Now, researchers have identif...
When Nancy Cappello was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer in 2003, she was stunned.
How could this have happened? She went for her annual screening mammogram every year and was always told that all was fine.
It wasn't.
Cappello had dense breasts, but no o...
Researchers have identified specific brain circuitry that is related to people's sense of spirituality -- and it's centered in a brain region linked to pain inhibition, altruism and unconditional love.
The findings add to research seeking to understand the biological bas...
Heart defects are often - but not always - detected at birth, so it's important to pay attention when a child gets dizzy, passes out or says her heart is "beeping."
These and other warning signs, such as an apparent change in fitness, shouldn't be overlooked, an expert s...
People really do vary in how fast they age, and the divergence starts in young adulthood, a new study suggests.
The researchers found that by the tender age of 45, people with a faster pace of "biological aging" were more likely to feel, function and look far older than ...
Research into miscarriages, infertility and birth defects is now primed to undergo revolutionary advances, thanks to the creation in the lab of an early stage of human embryos by two separate international teams of scientists.
Both teams were able to use human cells...
Humans sweat more and move more than chimpanzees and other apes, but new research shows people are actually more water-efficient than their primate cousins.
For the first time, scientists say they measured precisely how much water humans lose and replace each day compare...
Modern technology has unraveled an ancient mystery about the death of an Egyptian king.
Computed tomography (CT) scans of the mummified remains of Pharaoh Seqenenre Taa II, the Brave, revealed new details about his head injuries not previously found in examinations since...
Researchers have identified more than 140,000 viruses that live in the human gut, including half that were previously unknown.
The number and variety of viruses found in more than 28,000 gut microbiome samples gathered from different parts of the world are surprisingly h...
What can poop from ancient Neanderthals tell us?
It turns out that it harbors valuable information about modern-day gut health.
An international research group led by the University of Bologna in Italy analyzed ancient DNA samples extracted from 50,000-year-old sed...
There have long been theories that women's menstrual cycles align with the moon, and now a new study suggests there's some truth to that.
Using years of records kept by 22 women, researchers found that for many, menstrual cycles "intermittently" synced up with the phases...
New research reveals why Black Americans might be more vulnerable to colon cancer than white people are.
The researchers examined age-related "epigenetic" changes in colon tissue. These changes affect how genes work.
The investigators found that in both Black and w...
The human body apparently disagrees with Mother Nature on how many seasons there are.
Instead of four seasons, human biology appears to have two, according to a team of Stanford University researchers.
"We're taught that the four seasons -- winter, spring, ...
Doctors stress that it's a very rare occurrence, but one woman's pre-surgery COVID-19 nasal swab test appears to have triggered a release of cerebrospinal fluid into her upper nasal cavities.
The incident was tied to a tiny gap in the bones of the woman's skull -- an...
Gaining weight around your mid-section may be the makings of much more than a wardrobe crisis: It may also signal the start of a serious health crisis.
So warns a team of Canadian and Iranian researchers who conducted an extensive review of 72 studies involving more...
People with fatter legs appear less likely to have high blood pressure, new research suggests.
The researchers suspect that measuring leg fat could help guide blood pressure prevention efforts. Those with bigger legs may not need to worry as much about high blood pr...
If you ever had a sex-ed class in school, you have probably seen a visual of sperm swimming with a wagging tail. Now, high-tech tools have shattered that view of how sperm move.
More than 300 years ago, a Dutch scientist used an early microscope to observe human spe...