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Articles that Bring You Inside the Science of Health

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ThumbnailForecasting Flu | 1/25/2013
A technique that predicts when cities may experience the highest number of flu cases could aid preparedness efforts.
ThumbnailRemarkable RNAs | 1/8/2013
RNA is a versatile molecule that is involved in many essential cellular functions. Here’s a quick rundown of types of RNA that scientists are discovering and learning more about.
ThumbnailWhat Students Want to Know About Cells | 12/13/2012
NIH scientists answer questions from middle and high school students about the cell and careers in research.
ThumbnailGetting a Better Grasp on Flu Fundamentals | 11/26/2012
Studying the molecular structure of the flu virus and modeling how flu infection can spread are aiding efforts to keep people from getting sick.
ThumbnailTick Tock: New Clues About Biological Clocks and Health | 11/1/2012
Read about genes and proteins that run biological clocks and help keep daily rhythms in synch.
ThumbnailLearning About Human Biology From a Fish | 10/15/2012
Learn why this small fish is a big friend to scientists—and how it’s offering important insights into our own biology.
ThumbnailLife After Traumatic Injury: How the Body Responds | 9/20/2012
Researchers are learning about what happens to the body--from its molecules and cells to its tissues, organs and systems—after a traumatic injury.
ThumbnailComputation Aids Drug Discovery | 8/29/2012
Learn about different computational approaches that aid the design of new drugs.
ThumbnailThe Big, Fat World of Lipids | 8/9/2012
Your body contains thousands of other types of fats, or lipids. With improved tools and methods, researchers are learning more about lipid diversity and function.
ThumbnailOnce Upon a Stem Cell | 7/18/2012
Learn about some of the substantial strides that researchers have made in understanding different stem cell characters and their fates.
ThumbnailCilia: Biology’s Brooms | 6/28/2012
Learning more about basic cilia biology is leading to new insights into how problems with cilia cause diseases.
ThumbnailGenetics by the Numbers | 6/12/2012
Get stats on what scientists have learned so far about genetics
ThumbnailFive Ways Your Cells Deal With Stress | 5/17/2012
Find out how cells respond to rising temperatures, toxins, infections, resource shortages and other stressors.
ThumbnailArmpits, Belly Buttons and Chronic Wounds: The ABCs of Our Body Bacteria | 4/26/2012
Understanding how and why bacteria colonize particular places on the body could point to ways of treating skin and other conditions.
ThumbnailFive Foul Things That Are Also Good for You | 4/4/2012
Usually, we think of mold, feces, nitric oxide, hydrogen sulfide and rat poison as rank, toxic or both. But scientists are learning more about the helpful roles these substances can play.
ThumbnailThe Greening of Chemistry | 3/14/2012
Researchers are developing new reactions that make the chemical processes used to manufacture medicines, plastics and other products cleaner, faster and cheaper.
ThumbnailChromosomal Caps Count Down to Cell Death—Or Cancer | 2/23/2012
Every cell in your body has a clock called a telomere that ticks down the number of times it can safely divide. If scientists could make drugs to control telomeres, they could perhaps treat diseases of aging as well as cancer.
ThumbnailMetals: In Sickness and in Health | 2/1/2012
We're not quite Iron Man, but metals are intricately entwined with our bodies. They make vital functions like respiration, circulation and reproduction possible.
ThumbnailHelicases: Unwinding While Staying on Track | 1/11/2012
Like 'The Little Engine That Could,' helicases are hardworking enzymes that don't give up. Without them, your cells would stop dividing and many other important biological processes would come to a halt.
ThumbnailWhy Sugars Might Surprise You | 12/8/2011
Sugars are well known as an energy source for our bodies. But did you know that sugar chains made within the body, called glycans, play important roles in just about every aspect of how our cells work?
ThumbnailDrakes: A Mythological Model Organism | 11/16/2011
With the aid of Web-based programs that use dragons, high school students are learning about complex genetic concepts and gaining an appreciation for how science is done—all while having fun.
ThumbnailHow a Jellyfish Protein Transformed Science | 10/27/2011
From its humble beginnings in glowing jellyfish to its phenomenal success as a tool in labs around the world, green fluorescent protein, or GFP for short, has transformed biomedical research.
ThumbnailEveryday Evolution | 10/6/2011
When you head out to get your annual flu shot, you might be thinking about the brief prick of pain or possible side effects. But are you thinking about evolution? After all, it's why you're getting jabbed.
ThumbnailVirtual Rats to Help Researchers Study Disease | 9/7/2011
Most lab rats have to be housed, fed and bred. But not the group Daniel Beard has in mind for his new systems biology center. They'll be virtual.
ThumbnailNew Uses for Old Drugs | 8/17/2011
Using computers and genome databases, researchers have predicted new uses for drugs already on the market—identifying potential treatments for 53 human diseases.
ThumbnailThe Quake that Brought Back Cholera | 8/10/2011
New tools such as water contaminant sensors and computer models are better equipping scientists, policymakers and public health workers to contain infectious diseases like cholera after disasters strike.
ThumbnailOne More Way Plants Help Human Health | 7/13/2011
This is the latest in a long line of research, much of it supported by the National Institutes of Health, that uses plants to solve puzzles in human health.
ThumbnailThe Amazing World Inside a Human Cell | 6/29/2011
Imagine you've shrunk down to 3 millionths of your normal size. At this scale, a medium-sized human cell looks as big as a football field. Let's take a quick trip inside to see how it works.
ThumbnailSeeking the Causes of Sepsis: Life-Threatening Bacterial Infection Remains Mysterious | 6/15/2011
Like using a machine gun to kill a cockroach, the immune system can overreact to an infection in a potentially deadly condition called sepsis. Researchers are working to find the causes and develop better treatments.
ThumbnailLiving Laboratories: How Model Organisms Advance Science | 6/1/2011
Think you don't have much in common with slime molds and mustard plants? Think again. Research using model organisms like these continues to lead to new ways to maintain health and diagnose and treat disease.
ThumbnailA New Use for Census Data: Disease Simulations | 5/18/2011
Researchers have been transforming anonymized census data into a virtual or "synthetic" U.S. population to better model the spread of infectious diseases and improve public health.
ThumbnailNature: The Master Medicine-Maker | 5/4/2011
Plants, bacteria, fungi and other organisms are a prolific source of new drugs. Chemists seek to discover, examine and modify natural products with the hope of developing new medicines to improve human health.
ThumbnailCool Tools: Visualizing the Invisible | 4/21/2011
From fluorescence imaging that lights up proteins to electron microscopy that pinpoints cellular structures, visualization techniques have illuminated the inner workings of cells.
ThumbnailWhat Is an Ontology? | 4/6/2011
Biomedical researchers face a growing problem in trying to manage their knowledge. To make it easier for them to understand and share data, computer scientists are building virtual libraries called ontologies.
ThumbnailFor Proteins, Form Shapes Function | 3/23/2011
Every protein has a shape that helps a molecule do its job. Understanding protein shape allows researchers to learn more about protein function in health and disease and how to design new drugs.
ThumbnailThe Rhythms of Life | 3/8/2011
A system of biological clocks controls the daily, or circadian, rhythms of the body. These roughly 24-hour cycles of physical, mental and behavioral changes are found in humans and fruit flies, plants and even tiny microbes.
ThumbnailCellular Suicide: An Essential Part of Life | 2/23/2011
Apoptosis, sometimes called "cellular suicide," is a normal, programmed process of cellular self-destruction. Even though it involves cell death, apoptosis serves a healthy and protective role in our bodies.
ThumbnailSolving the Sleeping Sickness 'Mystery' | 2/9/2011
Since before the 1300s, people living in Africa have been dying from a disease known as sleeping sickness. Epidemiologists are working toward eradication by predicting where cases will emerge next.
ThumbnailUnderstanding Anesthesia | 1/26/2011
Anesthesia helps many of us during our lives. But even though anesthetics have been used for more than 150 years, doctors and scientists still don't know exactly how these medicines work in the body.
ThumbnailLearning From Bacterial Chatter | 1/12/2011
What do digestion, cholera and tooth plaque have in common? They're all made possible by quorum sensing, a form of bacterial communication.
ThumbnailWhat Drives Seasonal Flu Patterns? | 12/30/2010
Theories abound as to why seasonal flu outbreaks happen in the colder months. Now a single culprit may explain it best: absolute humidity, or the amount of water vapor in the air.
ThumbnailWhat Do Fats Do in the Body? | 12/15/2010
It's common knowledge that too much cholesterol and other fats can lead to disease, and that a healthy diet involves watching how much fatty food we eat. However, our bodies need a certain amount of fat to function.
This page last reviewed on June 27, 2012