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
The missing tech case for how we create an era of abundance
AI and other new technologies could make things that are costly and scarce today, cheap and abundant for all tomorrow.
The next era of psychedelics may be precision-designed states of consciousness
A look inside Mindstate Design Labs’ effort to design drugs that reliably produce specific states of consciousness.
What is The Great Progression: 2025 to 2050?
We have a historic opportunity to harness AI and other transformative technologies in order to make a much better world in the next 25 years.
Psychedelics & Mental Health
How Neuralink’s chief competitor is tapping into the brain without surgery
Synchron’s brain-computer interfaces do not require brain surgery, but travel to the brain through the jugular.
How to reclaim meaning in a changing world
What if the barrier to a fulfilled life isn’t technology, it’s culture?
The exciting research that may cure Parkinson’s
GeneCode is developing a drug it hopes won’t just alleviate Parkinson’s symptoms but also protect and restore patient’s neural health.
Biohacking
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.
Boosted Breeding and beyond: 3 tech trends that could end world hunger
A world without hunger is possible, and the development and deployment of new farming technologies could be one key to manifesting it.
New AI generates CRISPR proteins unlike any seen in nature
An AI that generates CRISPR proteins is opening the door to gene editors with capabilities beyond what we’ve found in nature.
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
Earbud-like tech will monitor sleep for signs of Parkinson’s
An EEG device that’s worn in the ear during sleep could help doctors diagnose Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s long before symptoms appear.
Insiders say Apple is building an “AI health coach”
Tech giant Apple is developing an app with an AI health coach to help you live a healthier lifestyle, according to a Bloomberg report.
Gene therapy reverses vision loss in primates — by making their eyes young again
A Harvard study found that a new gene therapy that reprograms cells to their younger state can reverse NAION-caused vision loss in primates.
The vicious cycle of food and sleep
More than a third of Americans don’t log enough hours in bed, provoking serious health impacts. Diet is an important, under-recognized reason.
“Relationships 5.0”: Are people going to start dating AI?
Online dating is so mainstream that you’re an outlier if you haven’t met your partner on an app — so why not AI?
Scientists discover “anxiety gene” in the brain — and a natural way to turn it off
The discovery of an “anxiety gene” — and a natural way to put the brakes on it — in mice could lead to new treatments for anxiety disorders.
How “centaur AI” will radically reshape the future of healthcare
With healthcare, it is not enough to spot patterns: we need to understand biological mechanisms. Ai can help us do it.
New gel destroys brain cancer in 100% of treated mice
A new brain cancer treatment not only cured 100% of mice that received it, but also trained their immune systems to fight future cancers.
Emotions get better with age
As people grow older, they gain greater control of their feelings. How do they do that — and can they teach young people a thing or two?
This brain image is 64 million times sharper than standard MRI
A new brain imaging technique that generates ultra-high resolution images of mouse brains could revolutionize neuroscience research.
Two African countries first to approve Oxford’s malaria vaccine, with 20 million doses on the way
Ghana and Nigeria have become the first two nations to approve Oxford’s vaccine against malaria.
How frontotemporal dementia, the syndrome affecting Bruce Willis, changes the brain
What is FTD, the type of dementia that leads to inappropriate social behavior, impulsivity, and loss of empathy?
UCLA’s humanoid soccer robot is headed to the “RoboCup”
A first-of-its-kind soccer robot built by researchers at UCLA is heading to France to compete in the annual RoboCup.
Hollow “seed” shrinks cancerous tumors from the inside
A new drug delivery system for pancreatic tumors could dramatically decrease medication dosages, helping minimize unpleasant side effects.
The imagination effect: A history of placebo power
The famous placebo effect has a long, rich history — it certainly had an outsized role in the medicine of centuries past.
A mosquito factory will create billions of biters in Brazil
The World Mosquito Project’s plan is to introduce bacteria-carrying mosquitoes to stop the spread of dengue.
Dementia patients are “rallying” just before death. Scientists want to know why.
New research into terminal lucidity could revolutionize our understanding of dementia — and maybe even give us a way to reverse it.
Dignity therapy: Making the last words count
Guided conversations with the terminally ill are popular with patients, families and doctors. But are they truly beneficial?
Alzheimer’s disease: an illness that needs a long overdue cocktail
Scientists are starting to agree that the “holy grail” solution for Alzheimer’s is more likely to be a drug cocktail than a single treatment.
Stanford researchers have engineered an organism to fight cancer
A team of Stanford and MIT researchers have engineered bacteria to create a topical tumor treatment and preventative effective in mice.
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.
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