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In Focus

Living Memory

How does the brain remember? As memory disorders become more common, the research race is on to determine how the process works, what can go wrong and how worn memories can be made whole again.

It is possible to watch a memory forming in the brain. Researcher Sheena Josselyn at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, for instance, looks through an ultralight “mini endoscope” attached to a lens in the brain of a mouse. The animal’s brain cells have...

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In Depth

Energy Crisis

Those who suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome often face years of doubt from their medical providers. But now the physical hallmarks of the disease are coming into focus.

Rethinking the Perfect Organ

The critical shortage of organs isn’t going away. Revising the current guidelines about who should be a donor—and who should be a recipient—might save lives.

The Solid Tumor Barrier

New T cell therapies succeed with a narrow band of cancers. Can they be made to work for the rest of them, too?

When Healers Get Hurt

For nurses and doctors, abuse from patients is just part of the job. But as attacks mount, hospitals are trying to defuse the tension.

The Gut Hypothesis

Could Parkinson’s disease, a brain disorder, have its origin somewhere else? A controversial theory is gaining ground.

Hear This

Some people are born deaf; others lose hearing because of injury or as they age. New approaches could open their ears.

Danger in the Sheets

Health officials know how to stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. So why the growing epidemic?

Lessons From a Long Sleep

Stroke researchers marvel at what hibernating animals can do. Now they’re searching for strategies that would benefit patients.

An Endgame for an Epidemic

AIDS still kills, in numbers more vast than most people realize. But the right blend of science and policy could end the scourge.

140 Million Miles From Home

Two years in deep space will subject the body to unprecedented stresses. Scientists are probing the secrets to survival.

New Heroes of the Microbe War

More and more bacteria are nearly impervious to treatment. Could new approaches pick up where antibiotics leave off?

The Rise of Fake Medical News

More and more websites are peddling “alternative facts” to deceive the public and sell bogus cures. Fixes won’t be simple.

New Tools for Depression

At long last, new therapies—including heat treatments and psychoactive drugs—are offering relief for people with depression.

Knots in the Family Tree

In Utah extensive data on families and their genetic anomalies are helping unlock secrets about major diseases.

100 Year Shadow

A century after the worst plague in history, researchers seek a universal flu vaccine to head off a repeat of the disaster.

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Dispatches

Higher Education

Medical marijuana has swept the country, but physicians aren’t trained how to use it.

Homegrown

Kayse Shrum is launching the first U.S. medical school affiliated with a Native American tribe—part of a strategy to train doctors where they’re needed most.

How to Get Home

A man with cancer faces the logistics of dying at home.

Out of Pediatric Care, Into…?

For young people with chronic illnesses, the transition into adult care can be uncharted—and dangerous—territory.

Beyond Cold Storage

A metabolic slowdown would press pause on the body until surgeons can repair damage. How close is it to becoming a reality?

Riding a Wave of Sound

One way to get drugs through the blood-brain barrier: smuggle them across using sound waves.

Under Your Skin

Chronic itch is agony, but new treatments that target the neural pathways responsible could finally offer some relief.

The Neuroscience of Giving Up

Why do some people react poorly, even catastrophically, in emergency situations?

Saving Generation Juliana

Climate change becomes a flashpoint for a new generation of physician activists.

Leave No Limb Behind

The human costs of amputation are sky high. A wave of innovation is working to keep patients intact.

What Comes After Transvaginal Mesh?

Prolapse of the pelvic organs is uncomfortable and widespread, and its treatments are sometimes dangerous. But new approaches are on the way.

Sins of the Past

The California Death Certificate Project is finding the physicians associated with opioid overdoses. Is it justice or a witch hunt?

Medicine and the Makers

Roderic Pettigrew is training a new hybrid specialty—half physician, half engineer.

Lies I’ve Told My Doctor

A wary patient has a hard time telling her doctors the truth.

Prohibition at 100

The 18th Amendment launched the most sweeping health experiment in U.S. history. Physicians—then and now—have debated its complex legacy.

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From Mass General

A Revolution in Cancer Treatment

Peter L. Slavin and Timothy G. Ferris discuss the promise of CAR T cell therapy for solid tumors.

Climate Change Meets an Aging Population

The most common victims of extreme weather events are older people. New research looks into how the health system fails them, and how it can be fixed.

Singular Exceptions

Should primary care physicians be trained to spot unusual, medically important cases?

Silent No More

Peter L. Slavin and Timothy G. Ferris discuss the need to end workplace violence in health care.

An Extra Pair of (A)Is

Machine intelligence takes a big step into the clinic, with a technology that helps identify patients with an elevated risk of breast cancer.

Doctoring on a Screen

Telemedicine made its first broadcast 50 years ago in an airport clinic.

Ending the AIDS Epidemic

Since the early 1980s, AIDS has killed more than 35 million people worldwide. But researchers are determined to find better treatments, cures and preventions that many finally put an end to the epidemic.

For Some Clots, It Takes a Village

Treatment of pulmonary embolisms may benefit from a team approach. But that model faces obstacles inside and outside the hospital.

Shining a Light on Depression

Peter L. Slavin and Timothy G. Ferris highlight the need for new approaches to treating depression.

A (Small) Cause of Big Pain

Neurologist Anne Louise Oaklander investigates a cause of chronic pain that is treatable without opioids.

Investing in Our Future

Peter L. Slavin and Timothy G. Ferris discuss the importance of research funding.

After the Storm

Hurricane Maria shut down a factory where intravenous fluid bags were made. Why has this roiled a nation’s hospital system?

The Crisis in the Air

Slowing climate change is important for our health long term. But cleaning up polluted skies will also yield immediate health benefits.

Medicine in the Mix

The science of embedding medications in polymers opens new doors.

Sparkling Like (Nano) Diamonds

Tiny diamonds set loose in the body can promote a sharper MRI image.

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Charts & Data

The New Anatomy

Parts of the body are constantly being proposed or discovered. Where do they come from?

Anatomy of a Hashtag

Public health messaging online yields beautiful—but sometimes worrying—data.

The Village Without Memory

In France, a home for people with dementia is designed from the ground up.

To Choose Death

Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act crosses the 20-year mark.

In Passing

How does a hospital keep patient details from getting lost in the shuffle?

To Catch a Protein

The world of protein imaging undergoes a chilly revolution.

The Next Zika

Vaccines are most helpful before an epidemic hits. So which diseases should researchers prepare for next?

ResearchKit

A software platform from Apple is helping medical researchers collect health data from any iPhone user

White Coats

The standard garb of the physician comes with surprising risks and benefits.

Unsound the Alarm

Hundreds of alarms compete for a clinician's attention. Can less noise mean better care?

Babel in the ICU

Machines in an ICU can't speak to one another—but what if they could?

The Changes We've Seen

Proto looks at trends in health care during the last 10 years.

Born Too Soon

Despite steady declines over the past decade, the U.S. still has one of the highest preterm birthrates in the developed world.

An Outbreak Told in Genomes

Rapid genetic sequencing maps an Ebola outbreak in fine detail.

20 Years After Apartheid

In the 1980s physician Miguel Ribeiro took stunning photographs of his South African patients. How has the nation’s health care fared in the years since?

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