Recent Episodes
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Something Old Becomes Something New
We sometimes forget with all the modern painkillers out there, what a wonder drug good old aspirin is. The active chemical in aspirin is salicin, which was first extracted from Willow tree bark, and the modern form is the synthetic acetylsalicylic acid.
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Obelisks: They Are Living In You
Not only can we report on the discovery of a new life form, it's living inside of us! Wait, just you and me? We can debate if we're human (chuckle), although, sometimes I'd like to take a break from being human. No kidding! Since we can't, back to the episode - a new life form! Hidden among the microbiome of our mouths and guts are thousands of virus-like entities scientists have named obelisks.
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Celiac Disease Gets More Complicated
People with celiac disease are vigilant about avoiding gluten so they don't end up with painful GI issues, but it's not always foolproof. Scientists from four countries, including the US and Canada, have spent the past 6 years learning where in the gut the response to gluten begins and how.
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HPV Vaccines Result in Huge Drop in Cervical Cancer
Among the most common sexually transmitted diseases is the Human Papillomavirus or HPV. In 2006, a vaccine became available to protect against the cancers that develop from these viral infections. A new study shows since then, the vaccine has been effective at lowering cervical cancer cases. HPV is a group of more than 200 related viruses, and types 16 and 18 account for seventy percent of all cervical cancers.
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A Human Language Gene
What makes us unique in the animal kingdom is our highly evolved ability to communicate. Before humans developed complex languages, they learned to gesture. This stimulated the enhancement of areas in our brains related to language processing and development.
