An extremely rare, polio-like disease has appeared in more than a dozen California children within the past year, and each of them suffered paralysis to one or more arms or legs, Stanford University researchers say. But public health officials haven’t identified any common causes connecting...

Devoted dog owners often claim that their pets understand them. A new study suggests they could be right. By placing dogs in an MRI scanner, researchers from Hungary found that the canine brain reacts to voices in the same way that the human brain does. Emotionally charged sounds, such as...

Researchers at New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center say they’ve been able to successfully train a patient’s own immune cells to find and destroy cancer. In the largest-ever clinical study of patients with an advanced form of leukemia, the researchers found that 88 percent of...

NASA is working with the Houston-based company GRoK Technologies on the development of tissue regeneration technology. The plan is to create non-invasive medical technologies designed to “regenerate bone and muscle tissues,” not too dissimilar to what we see on Star Trek. In the press...

A man who lost his left hand in an accident nine years ago has had his sense of touch restored using a prosthetic hand surgically wired to nerves in his upper arm. During the trial, Dennis Aabo Sørensen was able to grasp objects, detect the strength of grip, distinguish shape and identify...

Is height important in matters of the heart? According to new research from Rice University and the University of North Texas, the height of a potential partner matters more to women than men, and mostly for femininity and protection. The study, “Does Height Matter? An Examination of Height...

Shanghai resident Tony Jiang and his wife Cherry have three children – all born in the United States to an American surrogate mother. Their daughter and twins were born in California. “The elder girl is now three years old,” he told VOA. “The younger twins are now 13...

As countries modernize around the world, they’re increasingly being hit with one of the curses of wealth: cancer. There are about 14 million new cancer cases globally each year, the World Health Organization reported Monday. And the trend is only getting worse. The global burden of...

Health officials in Hong Kong killed about 20,000 chickens Tuesday after the deadly H7N9 bird flu virus was found in poultry imported from the mainland. Dressed in white protective coats and masks, the workers loaded up birds by the handful into black plastic bags, which were then filled with...

Finding a cure for the common cold has long been seen by many as something akin to the search for the Holy Grail, but Canadian researchers say they have a good idea about what best prevents and treats the malady. Writing in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), the researchers...

Earlier this month a 13-year-old California girl with an allergy to peanuts died in her father’s arms after unknowingly consuming a small amount of peanut butter in a snack she was eating. The girl quickly spit out the small bit of peanut butter, but efforts to save her life, including...

Someday, implanted medical devices such as a heart pacemaker may be powered by the movement of the body’s organs. Researchers have demonstrated the potential of natural organ motion to do just that. So-called piezoelectric materials produce electrical current when they are stressed or...

If you’ve got your kid in piano lessons because you think it will make her smarter, Harvard researchers have some bad news for you. Despite widespread belief to the contrary, there is little to no evidence to conclude that music improves intelligence. “More than 80 per cent of American...

I recently received a call from a friend inquiring if the newspaper would be interested in a story about seven men who have been friends for 76 years and have been meeting monthly for decades. A surprise party was planned for them with invitations to their children, grandchildren and...

Alice Robbins is not about to tell anyone how to live their life, but it wouldn’t hurt anyone to take note. On Saturday, the Cincinnati-born vegetarian Seventh-day Adventist will turn 100. The centenarian, who lives in Linda Valley Villa in Loma Linda, credits her longevity to a healthy...

New research suggests muscle-strengthening exercises and conditioning activities like yoga can help reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes in women. Scientists have found that one way to reduce the risk of diabetes is with aerobic exercise, workouts like running or brisk walking that work up a...

A new report by the U.S. surgeon general warns that smoking cigarettes causes more health problems than previously thought. The study, released on Friday, follows the 50th anniversary of the surgeon general’s landmark report that first confirmed smoking causes lung cancer. The latest...

One of the biggest challenges for people living with Parkinson’s is the difficulty – and sometimes inability – to feed themselves, due to the shaking tremors associated with the disease. But help might be on the way. A new, high-tech, “smart” spoon promises to stabilize the...

Now that more than 2 million people have signed up for private insurance plans created by President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, a crucial next check-up for the new marketplace will be to see how old customers are. Early data from a handful of state exchanges shows the administration...

Six more people in China have been confirmed as infected with the new H7N9 strain of bird flu and one of them has died, the World Health Organization [WHO] said on Monday. Three of the other five patients are hospitalized in either serious or critical condition, while the remaining two have...