Here’s a heads up for all of our light-eyed friends: you’re destined to be an alcoholic. Okay, maybe not destined, but there’s a statistically significant relationship between genes for light colored eyes and genes related to alcohol dependence. This means that there’s a very good chance that these genes have a …
The world’s first man with a successful penis transplant has recently announced that his girlfriend is pregnant! Dr. Andre van der Merwe of Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, South Africa, told CNN on Friday that his patient told him the woman is about four months pregnant. Following severe complications from a …
The latest group of medical students now have another tool to help make medical procedures better and more efficient through innovative training. “Patrick,” the robotic butt, provides a chance for medical students to practice simulated prostate exams with feedback in real time. Thanks to force sensors, Patrick is also able to …
We all have dreams, but what are they, really? The scientific study of dreaming is called oneirology, a term which has been recorded as far back as 1653. And even though dreaming has been the object of study for centuries, the actual purpose of dreams remains elusive to researches, scientists and …
Imagine being rushed in an ambulance to the emergency room, your body completely paralyzed–but you can still hear and feel everything. Now imagine the doctors finding you so unresponsive that you are pronounced dead–and sent to the morgue. Terrifying? Absolutely. And it’s happened to one woman three times. Locked in …
Hayley Okines, one of just 60 or so known people with progeria, died at age 17 earlier this week. Progeria, an extremely rare medical condition, causes the people it affects to age roughly eight times as fast as a typical healthy person. Symptoms of the genetic disorder usually start to …
How is it possible to live without a human heart? For one man, a fatal heart condition was rapidly taking over his life, so he decided to take some serious help from science and technology to help stay alive. The man, a 55-year-old named Craig Lewis, was suffering from a condition …
Imagine waking up in the middle of the night…completely unable to move. It’s terrifying, but a very real phenomenon. It’s been stated that nearly 8% of the general population experiences sleep paralysis. “Your mind wakes up, but your body doesn’t,” explains a researcher at the Sleep Paralysis Project. Most often occurring during …
In Hong Kong, a baby girl was born with what doctors believed to be two fetuses. A CNN article reports, “Each one had four limbs, skin, a ribcage, intestines and primitive brain tissue, according to a study published this month in the Hong Kong Medical Journal.” The condition, called “fetus-in-fetu,” …
Did you know that anxiety disorders are the most common type of mental illnesses in America? Nearly 20% of the adult population (ages 18 and over) are affected by some form of anxiety disorder. Because these types of mental illnesses are so widespread, there is a very good possibility …
