Ed Cara
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What Ever Happened to Mad Cow?
One of the most existentially frightening illnesses ever to be discovered was mad cow disease, a fatal prion-spread illness that appeared in animals in the 1980s and killed over 200 people during the height of the outbreak in the late 1990s. You don’t hear much about mad cow today, but the threat still looms. Here’s…
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Universal Antivenom for Snake Bites Might Soon Be a Reality
We might be soon on the verge of having a super snake antivenom. In new research, a team of scientists says they’ve created a lab-made antibody geared to counteract toxic bites from a wide variety of snakes. In early tests with mice, the uber-antivenom appeared to work as intended. Snake antivenom is typically derived from…
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Things You Didn’t Know About Memory
The ability to remember the past—to learn from our mistakes—is perhaps one of humanity’s greatest survival advantages. But as crucial as memory is to our daily lives, it’s far from perfect. Over the years, plenty of scientific research has demonstrated how fallible our memories truly are. While we’re generally good at recalling the gist of…
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Woman’s Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Successfully Treated by Unique Brain Implant
The brain of 34-year-old Amber Pearson contains a one-of-a-kind implant. The Oregon resident is the first person to have a deep brain stimulation device that manages both her epileptic seizures and her obsessive compulsive disorder symptoms. Her subsequent improvement has inspired scientists to conduct larger studies of the technology. Pearson’s story was first detailed in…