Biotech
Human history has been all but defined by death and disease, plague and pandemic. Advancements in 20th century medicine changed all of that. Now advancements in 21st century medicine promise to go even further. Could we bring about an end to disease? Reverse aging? Give hearing to the deaf and sight to the blind? The answer may be yes. And soon.
Featured
Ancient Olympians wouldn’t qualify for today’s Games
Across history, the human body has been reshaped by discipline, medicine, and now technology — each era redefining peak performance.
Why AI gets stuck in infinite loops — but conscious minds don’t
Anil Seth suggests the difference is that living beings are rooted in time and entropy, a grounding that may be essential for consciousness.
We purged worms from our bodies — and may have made ourselves sick
Biotech labs are mining worm chemistry to design medicines that calm the immune system without the risks of live infection.
Psychedelics & Mental Health
Inside a neuroscientist’s quest to cure coma
Thousands of Americans are trapped in disorders of consciousness. Neuroscientist Daniel Toker is searching for a way out.
Pac-Man turned 45 today. The surgeon general once warned that playing it could make kids violent.
Officials’ warnings about the impact of video games on kids were never proven true. They may be making the same mistake with social media.
Flexible brain implant takes major leap forward
The FDA’s clearance of Precision Neuroscience’s flexible electrode array pushes the startup ahead in the race to BCI commercialization.
Biohacking
Three founders look to the future at Freethink’s inaugural Great Progression event
The tech community came together for the launch of the Great Progression event series, curated by Peter Leyden and produced by Freethink.
We’re able to create new creatures through gene editing. What’s stopping us?
The question isn’t whether we can sculpt new life. The question is what comes next.
This conservationist is trying to bring extinct species back to life
Ryan Phelan, co-founder of Revive & Restore, talks about the future of conservation at Freethink’s Great Progression event.
Ray Kurzweil explains how AI makes radical life extension possible
Life expectancy gains in developed countries have slowed in recent decades, but AI may be poised to transform medicine as we know it.
Vaccines
Personalized cancer vaccines are having a moment
Personalized cancer vaccines were a recurring theme at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in 2024.
The threat of avian flu — and what we can do to stop it
Avian flu is infecting cows on US dairy farms, and now a person has caught it — but new research could help us avoid a bird flu pandemic.
One shot recreates younger immune systems, in mice
An antibody treatment designed to revitalize an aging immune system delivers “surprising” results in elderly mice.
More
Could freezing your body offer a chance at immortality?
In a lab in Arizona, dozens of bodies sit preserved at 320 degrees below zero. They each paid $200,000 to be frozen…
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Superhuman
Can genetically modified pigs be the key to treating rare diseases?
When it comes to rare diseases, doctors often don’t have enough patients to determine the effectiveness of various treatments. Now, scientists are breeding pigs with the same genetic code as people with a disease in order to create a pool of test “patients” unlike any before.
Scientists physically "transplant" a memory in snails
The experiment breaks the conventional wisdom about what memories are made of.
The cause (and possible cure) for most infertility
Fertility medicine may be on the edge of a breakthrough.
Two billion people have TB. What should we do about it?
In the fight against TB, sometimes it’s better to just get along.
CRISPR can diagnose Zika (and Ebola) with just a strip of paper
We could be on our way to a fast, reliable, portable test for almost any virus or cancerous mutation.
We found the oldest human virus: It's familiar (but weird)
The discovery cracks open a 7,000-year history of human-virus warfare. And it’s raising weird questions.
Bionic prosthetic grants amputee musician a rocking encore
How might your life change if you lost an arm? After losing his right arm in an electrical accident, Jason wasn’t…
Neuroscientists want to beam experiences directly into your brain
It’s a breakthrough for the blind and paralyzed, not the first step toward the Matrix. (Promise.)
Scientists want to rewrite the entire human genome, from scratch
What if we could rewrite our entire genetic code to make us invincible against viruses?
Glowing cancer cells could find hidden tumors (and replace mammograms)
A new pill can make cancer cells glow under infrared light, and it could eliminate for mammograms.
Unlike smoking, vaping won’t mess with your microbiome
Smoking kills off good bacteria and upsets the balance of power your gut.
Babies sometimes trigger preterm labor to escape infections
A new discovery upends what we thought we knew about premature births and could point the way to entirely new…
Scientists finally get a look at enzyme that protects DNA
We finally have a detailed picture of an enzyme that could play a key role in fighting both aging and cancer
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Superhuman
These doctors are performing brain surgery … using sound
Bonnie D’Ettorre suffers from a nerve disorder causing uncontrollable shaking. Doctors at Ohio State are about to “burn it out” using a thousand beams of ultrasound.
The ebola vaccine is still working 2 years later
The vaccine works great at preventing infection—let’s hope it can also prevent media panic too.
These bacteria-eating sewer viruses are saving lives
The world discovered phages before antibiotics, but these lowly sewer viruses are getting renewed attention in the…
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Superhuman
The world’s first bionic drummer
Jason Barnes lost his arm in a horrible accident. Then he became the fastest drummer in the world…
Linking genes to depression could revolutionize treatment
Saying something is “genetic” used to be a fatalistic diagnosis. But with modern medicine, it could be the key to…
The eternal sunshine of the stressed out mind
Researchers at Cambridge University have finally figured out how the brain stops stressful thoughts and memories…
Special Collection
Collection
The Science of Death
Explore the journey from life to death and beyond. Near-death experiences, death doulas, digital immortality, and more – join us for a thoughtful exploration of one life’s most intriguing and inevitable phenomena with stories from the frontlines of death.
Get inspired with the most innovative stories shaping the world around us.