Diseases

Groundbreaking research on COVID-19, cancer, diabetes, and other health concerns.

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An Ixodes tick (left). An Asian tiger mosquito. (right)

What a cold winter means for ticks and mosquitoes

By Laura Baisas

7 wild ways pregnancy changes your body forever

By Jennifer Byrne

Close-up of aedes aegypti mosquito sucking blood from human skin, transmitting dangerous diseases like dengue fever, zika virus, and chikungunya, Chumphon in thailand.

Mosquitoes have been sucking our blood for 1.8 million years

a woman scratches an uncomfortable itch on her forearm

How your body knows when to stop scratching

By Laura Baisas

a large group of yellow bananas

New discovery could help stop banana extinction

By Laura Baisas

Stirling, Scotland - August 1, 2020, old medieval cemetery around Port of Menteith Parish Church

Medieval elite still received fancy burials despite disease stigma

Poison warning label layered atop brown hair

Hair samples reveal the benefits of lead regulation

Two paleolithic skeletons displaying dwarfism in museum exhibit

Skeletons reveal Stone Age mother and daughter had a rare genetic condition

a grandmother and grand child lay with colorful blocks

Babysitting grandkids can boost brain health

By Laura Baisas

A cross section of a dog's heart showing heartworm

This deadly dog ‘spaghetti’ has ancient origins

By Laura Baisas

a mosquito drinking human blood

Without forests, mosquitoes turn to human blood

Depiction of the fourth horseman of the apocalypse, Death, riding a mythical creature, presumably a winged lion. Below him is a personification of famine (Fames), pointing to her open mouth. The depiction was created in Erfurt in the mid-14th century; the connection to Neuses may be drawn due to the date – St. Mark’s Day – of the annual memorial procession leading to the mass grave. Source: Klassik-Stiftung Weimar

Medieval plague victims likely found in mass grave in Germany

A white woman cracks her fingers. She has muted purple nail polish on and a muted purple blouse on, too.

Is cracking your knuckles really bad for them?

By Sarah Lindenfeld Hall

pills of various sizes laid out in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and pink order

Addiction is puzzling. Scientists are trying to understand why.

By Hanna Pickard

a block calendar with january 1 and the word "dry" on it

The health benefits of Dry January

a firefly glowing on a black background

‘Hope in a bottle’ for a deadly cancer and the firefly gene that lit the way

roman ruins in northern england

Diarrhea slowed down Roman soldiers

By Laura Baisas

several cheeses on a wooden board

Brie, cheddar, and other high-fat cheeses linked to lower dementia risk

By Laura Baisas

Photograph of the fresco Trionfo della Morte, taken at its original location in the Camposanto Monumentale in Pisa. The fresco, known as the “Triumph of Death” and attributed to the painter Buonamico Buffalmacco, is not precisely dated; scholarly estimates range from 1335 to 1350. While it does not depict the Black Death explicitly, the selected detail shows victims of an epidemic from diverse social backgrounds, their souls carried off by demons.

Medieval volcanoes may have ignited the Black Death

Arm in noninvasive glucose monitoring device

Goodbye, finger pricks? Diabetes patients could monitor glucose with lightwaves.