Category: Health

How a growing trove of genetic data is informing medical breakthroughs

01.09.20.

Individualized medicine, in which treatments are customized based on a patient’s unique DNA, is a rising field. Along with an ever-expanding genetic database, it offers tantalizing promise for solving some of medicine’s most daunting challenges. But individualized medicine also carries with it questions and risks — both moral and medical. PBS NewsHour science correspondent Miles…
Read More
Researchers still striving to understand cause of vaping-related illnesses

12.12.19.

State governments continue to crack down on flavored e-cigarettes and other vape products, largely in response to the deaths and illnesses that began coming to light this past summer. But as lawmakers deliberate over their policy response to vaping, researchers are still trying to understand the cause of the illnesses. PBS NewsHour science correspondent Miles…
Read More
Can ultrasound be used to fight Alzheimer’s?

10.21.19.

At age 61, Judi Polak is five years into a bleak diagnosis: Alzheimer’s disease. But last year she made medical history in a clinical trial, when a team of scientists, engineers and practitioners deployed a novel device to take aim at a big barrier in the fight against her illness. PBS NewsHour science correspondent Miles…
Read More
Does marijuana hurt or help your brain? Scientists rush to study the drug’s impact

07.18.19.

As national attitudes and laws around cannabis use have evolved, so have the commercially grown strains of the plant. Some marijuana varieties today contain levels of THC, the drug’s psychoactive compound, as high as 50 percent, compared to around 5 percent a generation ago. But as PBS NewsHour science correspondent Miles O’Brien reports, the effects…
Read More
The stunning truth about asbestos use in the U.S.

03.14.19.

Asbestos is no longer ubiquitous in building materials, and since it’s proven to cause cancer, many Americans likely assumed the substance had been banned entirely. But not only is asbestos a naturally occurring mineral, it is also still used to make some household products. PBS NewsHour science correspondent Miles O’Brien reports on “broken” U.S. regulation…
Read More
What’s on your citrus fruit? Trump’s EPA fights to keep controversial insecticide in use

10.11.18.

Citrus growers hope to fend off fruit-munching katydids, but one weapon is under scrutiny. Researchers found that children growing up near fields where the insecticide chlorpyrifos was deployed exhibited autism-like symptoms. A court ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to ban the insecticide’s use, but Trump’s EPA is fighting back. PBS science correspondent Miles O’Brien reports.…
Read More