Tag: Health
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Why we don’t sleep
Bad nights are disruptive to a person’s life. Fortunately, scientists are constantly learning more about the causes.
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Tick-tock goes the body clock
You can sleep when you’re dead, they say. In the meantime, though, circadian rhythms are best not tampered with.
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Why we sleep one third of our time
You may think you’re resting, but your brain is fulfilling critical tasks from building memories to reinforcing learning to clearing toxins.
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“Modern life is just too interesting to sleep longer”
We spend one third of our time sleeping, but scientists still don’t know why. A prominent researcher reviews the most likely explanations.
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The importance of darkness
For most organisms the absence of light is vital, too.
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Human: too much brightness?
One of the basic certainties that unites all life on this planet: night follows day follows night. But then we started to mess with it.
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Year of the light
Everywhere you turn, optical engineering is at the heart of new technologies. No wonder 2015 has been named the Year of Light.
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When 80 became the new 40
Life spans in the developed world have doubled over the past two centuries — and scientists are working hard to decipher the code of aging.
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How old are you really?
Age is so much more than years elapsed since your date of birth.
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The sweet smell of sweat
Everyone knows that animals use odours to communicate. Now a growing body of research suggests that humans do, too.
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Think yourself healthy
The vagus nerve, which connects the brain to various organs, plays an essential role in the mind-body relationship. Can you train it to make you happy?
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The invisible killers
With its horrible symptoms and 80% mortality rate, Ebola fever is especially frightening. The cases in Spain and the U.S. served as a reminder that procedures for strict disinfection, while simple on paper, are less so in practise. Even the Western health system cannot entirely protect us from this virus.
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Beating the Superbugs
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are on the rise, but the pipeline for new drugs is drying up. Researchers are developing new strategies to avoid a resurgence of illnesses that once seemed easy to cure.
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“The field has finally reached scientific maturity”
Happiness can be understood objectively, says pioneer researcher Ruut Veenhoven.
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Happy? Your smartphone will know
New technologies and citizen science offer innovative ways to track and quantify emotions. They are uncovering new ingredients in the recipe for happiness.
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New ways of fighting bacteria
Four novel approaches to keep killers in check.
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Take it, use it, change it, create
You no longer need to be an electronics wizard to build sophisticated devices. “Makers” like the four profiled on these pages are unleashing their creativity thanks to Raspberry Pi and Arduino boards.
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Bacteria, on your plate
Already sold in health-food stores as nutritional supplements, micro-organisms could help feed the world if prices came down.