Medicine

Presented by Shay Neufeld Opiates, the class of molecules that includes morphine, heroin, and codeine, are arguably the most addicting drugs known to exist. This class of drugs has single-handedly started wars, forced international laws, and to this day…

Neurons (shown above) are progressively degraded in Alzheimer’s Disease. [Image: neurons/Mike Seyfang under CC-BY licence] Recent findings from Duke University have implicated overactive immune cells as a potential cause of Alzheimer’s disease…

Scanning electron micrograph of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (brown) surrounded by cellular debris.Credit: Credit: NIAID/NIH (NIAID Flickr’s photostream) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons A 1000-year-old Anglo-Saxon recipe for…

This is an image of a small artery in a mouse eyelid that has formed a thrombus (blood clot). When a blood vessel is damaged, chemicals that attract platelets are released from the site of injury. Platelets in the flowing blood stick to the site, and in…

Image by Don W. Pottle This is an image of crystals of aspirin with caffeine.   An Excedrin tablet was crushed in water and allowed to dissolve.   Drops of the solution were placed on a glass microscope slide and allowed to dry.  Examining and…

As your eyes close, a kaleidoscopic vision of pattern, color, and sense of deep meaning engulfs your entire field of experience. Thirty minutes ago you were given a controlled dose of a highly potent, and highly illegal, hallucinogenic compound—all in…

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a neurodegenerative disorder in which symptoms of dementia worsen over time, is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Although there is currently no cure, one study recently claimed that manipulating levels of a…

Overprescription of antibiotics pressures bacteria to evolve resistance. The rise of antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” – harmful bacteria that cannot be treated with antibiotics – is an often overlooked threat to public health. The World Health…

Poop sharing has gotten a lot of (medical) attention in the past few years. Fecal microbiota (or stool) transplants are emerging as the most promising treatment for Clostridium difficile infections, a bacteria that causes large intestine inflammation and…

As HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, continues to spread globally, there is increased demand for a drug that can effectively prevent HIV infection. Even more appealing is a drug that could guard against HIV over the long term, and not require a daily…