A tool for modifying genes is spreading through the biomedical research world like wildfire. As part of the series Joe's Big Idea, NPR's Joe Palca explores why CRISPR-Cas9 is becoming indispensable.
The wave of mass shootings in the U.S. is renewing a debate over treating gun violence as a public health issue. Congress has stood in the way of federal funding for studying injuries and deaths.
One revision would crack down on studying tissue and blood samples without getting a person's consent. Another change would make it easier to conduct studies in many locations at once.
Differences in the patterns of genes that are turned on in brains of people and mice suggest glial cells may have helped humans develop brains that can acquire language and solve complex problems.
The National Institutes of Health has issued a moratorium on funding work that puts human stem cells into nonhuman embryos. The concern is that hybrids might develop human brain cells, sperm or eggs.
It's the kind of oops no scientist wants to make. But the researchers who published a paper saying that watching sad movies makes it hard to perceive the color blue now say they erred.
Infection and autoimmune activity result in inflammation. And psychiatric researchers now suspect that inflammation may play a role in some cases of depression and other mental illnesses.
Researchers in the Middle East have requested the first-ever withdrawal from the "final backup" seed bank because of destruction caused by the Syrian civil war.
To investigate whether norovirus particles might form an infectious aerosol spray when a sick person vomits, researchers built a simulator that uses Jell-O instant pudding in explosive experiments.