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Health & Disease

Salt taste is surprisingly mysterious

Too much sodium is bad, but so is too little — no wonder the body has two sensing mechanisms

Preparing for future pandemics: Learning from Covid-19

VIDEO: Knowable Magazine’s interviews with experts during the pandemic revealed many missed opportunities and blunders in the US response to Covid-19, which was marked by excess American deaths and disability. The experience does offer lessons on how to better prepare for what scientists call the inevitable emergence of the next global health emergency.

Medications for opioid use disorder — MOUD — and adolescents

Treatment with drugs such as buprenorphine, methadone and naltrexone is deemed the gold standard for youth with opioid addictions. Why isn’t it used more often?

How the placebo effect went mainstream

PODCAST: Sloppy by today’s standards, and maybe even back when it was published in 1955, Henry Beecher’s paper paved the way for sounder drug trials and pushed scientists to better understand how we process pain (Season 3, Episode 3)

The baby brain: Learning in leaps and bounds

VIDEO: Learn how the baby brain changes from gestation to toddlerhood, and what parents, teachers and policymakers can do to ensure kids are set up for success

Small wonders: The antibodies from camels and sharks that could change medicine

A handful of animals make a pared-down version of these pathogen-fighting proteins of our immune system. Scientists hope to harness them as treatments for ills from cancer to Covid, for tracking cells in the body, and more.

The teen brain: Mysteries and misconceptions

VIDEO: Join a conversation about the teenage brain’s strengths and vulnerabilities, how adults can support teenagers with mental health issues, and how teens can help one another

The mature mind: Aging resiliently

VIDEO: Connect with brain health experts about the best ways to cultivate resilience as we age, and how to support loved ones with memory loss and dementia

How saliva changes the flavor of food

The liquid that our mouths produce isn’t just a lubricant. It plays an active role in how we perceive taste and can influence what we choose to eat, researchers are discovering.

Covid, RSV and the flu: A case of viral interference?

The ‘tripledemic’ unfolding this winter is one of several odd trends among respiratory virus infections these last years. Viruses, it turns out, can block one another and take turns to dominate.

What’s the fittest fitness for the oldest old?

Even for 60ish youngsters, researchers reaffirm that exercise is essential. But just walking won’t cut it — break out the weights and go for strength training too.

What next-gen Covid-19 vaccines might look like

From building up defenses in the nose to slowing down a virus’s ability to make copies of itself, scientists are rolling out a raft of creative approaches to fighting infection

How to fight Covid with light

Some wavelengths of light in a range called far-UVC kill microbes in experiments and appear to be harmless to people. Could they be used to make indoor spaces safer against the coronavirus?

Handing the surgeon’s scalpel to a robot

After decades of merely assisting doctors, are sophisticated machines ready to take charge?

She saw the obesity epidemic coming. Then an unexpected finding mired her in controversy.

Katherine Flegal was a scientist who found herself crunching numbers for the government, until one day her analyses set off a firestorm. What does she make of her decades as a woman in public health research?

How long will it take to understand long Covid?

Covid long-haulers experience a litany of symptoms, and researchers have proposed a variety of theories to explain them. It’s a morass to figure out, but the answers are important for the multitudes still suffering from an infection that happened to them months or even years ago.

The lasting anguish of moral injury

Psychologists are finding that moral code violations can leave an enduring mark — and may require new types of therapy

Making microbots smart

What would it take to create a truly intelligent microbot, one that can operate independently? A roboticist describes the fascinating minutiae and the medical jobs these tiny machines could do for us.

This myth about guns is killing us

OPINION: The idea that gun violence prevention research is at odds with gun rights is just not true

Sex, immunity and the brain

Differences between the immune systems of males and females — in particular, ones involving cells called microglia — might help explain why the risk for conditions such as autism and Alzheimer’s varies between the sexes

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