Biology and health news: genetics, cancer research, brain science, new treatments, and medical breakthroughs explained clearly.
Saffron takes well over 100,000 hand-picked flowers per kilogram. Here is the biology, chemistry, labor, and fraud behind the price of the world's most expensive spice.
Real truffles can cost as much per kilogram as gold did a decade ago. The reasons are tree-root symbiosis, volatile aroma chemistry, dog-led harvests, and a short season.
The inventors of insulin assigned their patent for $1 so no one would be priced out of a lifesaving drug. A century later, US list prices ran roughly 11 times those of peer countries. Here is how that happened.
For most of history, aging was accepted as inevitable. A growing group of scientists now argue it's a biological process that can be understood, slowed, and perhaps reversed. Here's where the science actually stands.
Loneliness is now a public health crisis. More people than ever report feeling profoundly alone — even surrounded by others. Here's what the science of loneliness reveals, and why it matters more than you think.
A gene isn't a single thing in your body. It's a stretch of DNA that cells read to make a protein or functional RNA, switched on and off by cell type, timing, and signals. Here's how genes really work.
Some viruses kill almost everyone they infect. Others spread so fast they ignite global pandemics. Here are the most dangerous viruses on Earth and the science behind their lethality.
Attention is not one ability but a set of brain systems with hard limits. Here is what neuroscience and psychology have actually measured about focus, interruptions, and training attention.
Cancer isn't one disease — it's hundreds, all sharing one root cause: cells that lose control of how they divide. Here's what triggers it, how it spreads, and what we can actually do about it.
Vitamin D clearly prevents rickets, yet large trials of extra vitamin D in healthy adults keep coming back flat. Here is how that paradox arises and what the evidence supports.
Decades of cognitive science research have transformed our understanding of how brains learn. The methods most students use are among the worst. Here's what actually works.
Your brain has 86 billion neurons firing at 1,000 trillion connection points. Here's a tour of how it actually generates everything you think, feel, and remember.