A new vaccine has successfully killed the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) that causes AIDS in monkeys. It's hoped that with further research, an HIV-form of the vaccine can soon be tested in humans.

Surgeons performed a C-section on this turtle and saved her life!

A turtle named Dabao was a bit lethargic and zookeepers at China’s Chengu City Zoo thought she was sick and sent her for x-rays. The results were surprising: 14 eggs were stuck in the birth canal. To make sure Dabao survived, the surgeons opened the shell with a skull opener, carefully removed the 14 eggs (which were immediately buried in sand to await hatching) and resealed the shell with epoxy resin.

This tiny camera invented by scientists F. Levent Degertekin can provide high-definition 3D images of your arteries. The camera, which is the size of an uncooked quinoa grain, uses ultrasound imaging techniques to capture what going on inside the body. The images produced can be used in the surgical theatre, giving doctors a direct view of obstructions in a blood vessel.

In the early 1900s, the disease pellagra was widespread in the United States, especially in southern states. Individuals with pellagra were weak, and they developed diarrhea, a skin rash, and mental confusion. Each year, thousands of Americans died from this dreaded illness. In 1914 the U.S. surgeon general assigned Joseph Goldberger, a physician who worked in a federal government laboratory, to study pellagra. Most medical experts thought pellagra was an infectious disease because it often occurred where people lived in close quarters, such as prisons, orphanages, and mental health institutions. Goldberger knew from his previous research that infectious diseases usually spread through a population by close physical contact. While investiga ...

How did doctors figure out if women were pregnant back in the day? They used frogs, of course! Before the 1960's, the only reliable pregnancy test involved injecting a woman's urine into an African clawed frog and seeing if the frog spawned.

This peculiar method, known as the 'frog pregnancy test,' may sound bizarre today, but it was a common practice in the early to mid-20th century. The African clawed frog, a species native to sub-Saharan Africa, was preferred for this test because of its unique reproductive system.

If a woman was pregnant, her urine would contain hormones that would induce the frog to lay eggs, confirming the pregnancy. While this method may seem unusual by modern standards, it was an early example of using biological indi ...

For quite some time it's been known in the medical community that a link exists between depression and heart disease. For example, large epidemiological surveys typically find that 1.5 to 3 percent of the population is depressed at any given time. Among patients with heart disease, however, the rate of depression is closer to 18 percent. Similarly, about 1 in 6 people in the general population has an episode of major depression during their lifetimes, compared to about 50 percent of people with heart disease. Finally, a Canadian study revealed that of 222 patients who had suffered heart attacks, those who were depressed were four times as likely to die within the next 6 months.

Amassing this evidence is one thing, but explaining it is quite ...