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
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.
How consensus can undermine science
The main objective of consensus statements appears to be to reduce doubt, which may stifle scientific inquiry.
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.
Psychedelics & Mental Health
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.
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.
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
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.
Alternative funeral options are changing how we honor our dead
A small, yet growing number of people are starting to choose funeral options outside traditional burial or cremation.
LSD effective as major depression therapy in phase 2 trial
MindMed and University Hospital Basel have announced top line results for their phase 2 trial.
Scientists figure out why tardigrades are nearly indestructible
Tardigrades have been frozen, boiled, exposed to extreme doses of radiation, and remarkably still survive. How?
Scientists train ants to sniff out cancer in just 30 minutes
Ants were just as accurate as cancer-sniffing dogs. Better yet, they could be trained in minutes rather than months.
Study finds CPR patients may frequently have near-death experiences
In a study of CPR patients across the US and UK, researchers found new evidence about near-death experiences.
Nurses are breaking the mold to set out on their own
Tech platform Hydreight wants to help nurses go into business for themselves by being a turnkey solution.
DMT appears effective for depression up to six months later
Small Pharma has announced the results of a six-month follow-up for their phase 2a trial of DMT for depression.
Some cancers shouldn’t be treated
We’re detecting and aggressively treating more tumors than ever before. But we’re also over-treating more cancers then ever.
“Sunshine Calls” help depression and loneliness, study finds
A trial of “Sunshine Calls” found that the empathy-based phone calls helped reduce depression symptoms in older patients.
“Nanosyringes” can inject medicine into a single cell
MIT researchers have turned a system found in bacteria into programmable “nanosyringes” for injecting proteins into human cells.
One shot could stop severe bleeding and save thousands of lives
A potentially lifesaving treatment to stop severe postpartum hemorrhage could soon be more accessible to the people who need it the most.
Macaque monkeys shrink their social networks as they age — just like elderly people
Macaque monkeys reduce their social networks as they get older – research suggests evolutionary roots of the same pattern in elderly people.
One way to speed up clinical trials: Skip right to the data with electronic medical records
It takes around 17 years for medical research to translate into clinical practice — why not use EMR data to speed things up?
New drug delivery tech could ensure you never forget your meds
Rice University’s new drug delivery tech uses biodegradable microparticles to administer medications exactly when and where they are needed.
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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