Understand discoveries about the body, medical research, and public health. Follow what studies show, what remains uncertain, and how health systems affect everyday life.
36 stories & explainers · Newest first
Microscopes magnify structures far too small to see with the naked eye, which is how doctors and scientists can watch cilia beating inside a child's airway to diagnose rare diseases.
5 min read
A tiny forest of hair-like fibers beating in rhythm inside a child's windpipe just took top honors at a global microscopy video competition, revealing biology usually invisible to the naked eye.
2 min read
Vaccines work by teaching the body's defenses to recognize a germ before a real infection happens, which is why scientists study new vaccine designs, like ones targeting many strains of a bacterium at once.
5 min read
One bacterium wears more than 100 disguises, and it still kills hundreds of thousands of people a year through pneumonia and meningitis. Now researchers are working on a single vaccine that could catch nearly all of its forms at once.
2 min read
An outbreak that began quietly in the Democratic Republic of Congo has become the country's worst Ebola crisis on record, and UN responders say it is spreading faster than aid money can keep up.
2 min read
When a country reports a fast-spreading disease like Ebola, the World Health Organization steps in to coordinate money, medical teams, and information across borders.
5 min read
Every 30 minutes, another person is dying from Ebola in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, making this the fastest-growing outbreak on record, the World Health Organization says.
2 min read
Picture the brain as a walled city that normally keeps the body's immune system locked outside. Stanford researchers now find that wall grows leaky with age, letting immune cells flood into brain tissue.
2 min read
Picture the rubbery cushions between your vertebrae slowly hardening into bone. That's what happened to zebrafish with a faulty collagen gene, until a drug already prescribed for osteoporosis stepped in and stopped it.
2 min read
A decade-old UN goal that no country in Asia had managed to reach has just been hit by Cambodia, marking a milestone in the global fight against HIV.
2 min read
Learn how your body's trillions of cells convert food and oxygen into usable energy, the basic process that keeps every organ, muscle, and thought running.
4 min read
Deep inside almost every cell in your body live tiny structures that make energy, and one biologist thinks they might also shape how you feel and think.
2 min read
Millions of people may have paid lamb prices for kebabs that were secretly made with cheaper goat meat, fat, and skin — raising questions about how food labelling protects consumers and their wallets.
3 min read
When you buy food, you trust the label or menu to tell the truth. Food fraud happens when sellers replace expensive ingredients with cheaper ones without telling you — costing you money and sometimes putting your health at risk.
6 min read
Deep inside your brain sits a tiny cluster of neurons so old in evolutionary terms that even fish have them — and they may be the reason you can block out noise and concentrate on one thing at a time.
2 min read
Your brain receives millions of signals every second but only pays attention to a few. Learn how a deep brain structure called the thalamus acts like a gatekeeper — and what happens when that filter does not work properly.
6 min read
Getting dengue once should make you stronger against it — but sometimes a second infection hits far harder. A landmark study has now explained the immune mechanism behind this dangerous paradox, bringing scientists closer to a vaccine that works for everyone.
3 min read
By the time most people feel sick from kidney disease, up to 90% of kidney function may already be lost — and doctors say regular screening is the only reliable way to catch it early.
3 min read
Antibiotics are medicines that kill or stop the growth of bacteria, but using them incorrectly can make them stop working for everyone. This explainer covers how antibiotics work, why resistance is a growing concern, and how to use them safely.
6 min read
A fossil from Homo erectus — an ancient human relative who lived nearly 2 million years ago — has given up genetic secrets that scientists once thought were lost forever, rewriting what we know about humanity's family tree.
3 min read
A draft treaty circulating among African governments would legally reject decades of international human rights agreements — and rights organisations say the consequences for women and young people could be severe.
3 min read
Insurance is a way to protect yourself from big, unexpected costs by paying a small amount regularly. This explainer covers how it works, why families buy it, and what common terms like premium and claim mean.
6 min read
Every time an exam looms or a deadline hits, many people reach for a biscuit or mithai — but that craving is actually a chemical signal from your brain, not just a lack of willpower.
2 min read
A mosquito bite can end a child's life — and in Zimbabwe right now, that risk is rising fast. Malaria cases are climbing sharply as foreign aid funding dries up and climate change creates more breeding grounds for the mosquitoes that carry the disease.
2 min read
Every month, millions of families pay for something they hope to never actually use — and that is exactly what makes insurance one of the smartest financial tools ever invented. Understanding how it works can help you make better money decisions for life.
3 min read
Long after COVID testing booths closed, Bengaluru's drains kept telling the truth — wastewater data caught hidden virus surges that official case counts completely missed.
2 min read
When the air outside feels hotter than a kitchen oven, going to school can become a health risk — Patna's government just acted on that reality. Authorities in Bihar's capital have ordered schools up to Class 8, plus anganwadis and pre-schools, to shut early because of a sharp rise in daytime temperatures.
3 min read
A family in Britain was handed an £8,000 vet bill overnight when their insurer cancelled their pet policy — and it reveals something important about how insurance really works, and when it can let you down.
3 min read
A prize worth ₹2 crore is waiting for anyone who can build the best AI tool to spot early signs of memory loss — before a person even knows something is wrong. IISc's Centre for Brain Research has opened the challenge to the world.
2 min read
Smaller than a grain of sand yet spinning up to 1,500 times per second, the tiny motor that powers bacteria has puzzled scientists for half a century — until now. Physicists and biologists have finally mapped how this molecular machine converts a flow of charged particles into spinning motion.
2 min read
A creature barely the size of a grain of rice is living far longer than its body size should allow — and biologists at the Max Planck Institute have found that its secret may rewrite how we understand aging in all animals.
2 min read
Every time your body fights off a virus, it uses defense systems that bacteria invented over 3 billion years ago — long before animals ever existed. Dozens of new discoveries are rewriting how scientists understand human immunity.
3 min read
Fire was humanity's greatest invention, but the same fossil fuels we burn today are making wildfires fiercer and more dangerous than at any time in recorded history. New research traces this troubling loop from prehistoric hearths to smoke-choked modern skies.
2 min read
Your liver performs over 500 jobs every single day, yet most people never think about it until something goes wrong — it has no pain sensors of its own, so distress shows up in surprising ways elsewhere in the body.
2 min read
The UN's top aid official has warned that South Sudan could face a full-scale famine. Years of conflict and flooding have pushed millions of people toward severe hunger.
2 min read
Researchers have proven a 67-year-old theory about how vitamin B1 moves into brain cells. The discovery could lead to better treatments for neurological diseases.
2 min read
