Life Science

Hair loss affects millions of Americans -- men, women and even children. That's why a recent gene therapy study from a research group at the University of Pennsylvania has many people excited.

By Jacob Silverman

A man in Cornwall, England, went 11 consecutive days without a wink of sleep. Find out how he did it, why he did it and why you shouldn't give it a try.

By Jacob Silverman

Much like Noah, researchers are stockpiling the genes of Earth's living creatures, loading them into state-of-the art facilities and freezing them. Are scientists saving them for a rainy day?

By Robert Lamb

We've all felt fury wash over us. Whether it's the guy who blurts the score to the game you TiVo'ed or the woman who lets the door slam in your face, anger is universal. You might as well learn how it works.

By Molly Edmonds

If you swim like a fish or run like a cheetah, you may understand biomimicry better than you realize. The practice involves imitating models in nature to improve technology and design.

By Robert Lamb

Everyone cries. For some it's an emotional response, while others just shed tears when chopping onions. Are tears a way for us to cleanse our bodies?

By Alia Hoyt

The trials of being a lefty are numerous. You jostle for elbow room at the table, use scissors that feel funny in the hand and are teased for writing oddly. But do beleaguered lefties get the last laugh in sports?

By Robert Lamb

For Jack and his beanstalk, the sky was the limit, but nature's giants hit a point at which they can't grow any taller. What prevents lofty trees like sequoias from soaring any higher?

By Jacob Silverman

A gulf of difference may separate our human world of empires, science and spirituality from the animal wilds of the other great apes. But the genetic differences are pretty meager.

By Robert Lamb & Desiree Bowie

Can humans live forever? No, but thanks to the discovery of the Hayflick limit, we know that cells can conceivably divide forever without dying.

By Josh Clark

Everything has to start somewhere, including us humans. But where? Was it Africa, or were there multiple ground zeros for humanity's explosive growth and eventual world domination?

By Robert Lamb

Doctors always want your blood, but one day, a health care professional may ask you to open up and say, "Ptooey!" Why? Your spit holds a mother lode of biological information.

By William Harris

A funny thing happens when you live in complete darkness. You lose your eyesight. At least that's what's happened to the species that have evolved inside our deepest, darkest caves.

By Debra Ronca

E=mc2. The theory of relativity. An understanding of the speed of light. These ideas all came from the brain of one man: Albert Einstein. But what happened to his brain after he died?

By Molly Edmonds

It's safe to say that no one particularly wants an ice pick through the eye socket. And yet, for years, people who were mentally ill or merely "difficult" had parts of their brains removed this way. The natural question: Why?

By Shanna Freeman

Religion is one of the three things you're never supposed to talk about if you don't want your dinner party to turn into a food fight. But what about looking at religion through the lens of science instead of faith? Is there a connection between our gray matters and pray matters?

By Molly Edmonds

Kanye West says he says sees music in color. Other people can hear words that make them taste a particular flavor, or they actually feel another person's pain. Welcome to the world of the synesthete. It's a stimulating one.

By Kate Kershner

Nothing beats watching a blockbuster on the big screen, but today's home theater systems do an impressive job bringing that experience into your home. In this article, we'll explain how the components of a home theater system re-create the sounds and

By Jonathan Strickland

Given the choice, would you rather have been born with a different eye color, hair color or skin tone? Of course, you didn't have these options, but could you have them for your own children?

By Kevin Bonsor & Julia Layton

Every animal you can think of -- mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, amphibians -- all have brains. But the human brain is unique. It gives us the power to think, plan, speak and imagine.

By Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D. & Robynne Boyd

While most psychologists believe that brainwashing is possible under the right conditions, some see it as improbable or at least as a less severe form of influence than the media portrays it to be. So how does someone get brainwashed?

By Julia Layton & Alia Hoyt

Learn the physiological processes that trigger a coma, how an actual coma differs from television depictions and how often people awaken after months or even years of being in a coma.

By Stephanie Watson

Plants that eat other creatures? It sounds like a genetic experiment gone awry. But there's actually nothing unnatural about it; carnivorous plants have been around for millions of years.

By Ann Meeker-O'Connell

The CBS drama "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" routinely uses cutting-edge technology to solve crimes, including collecting and analyzing DNA evidence. But catching a criminal using DNA evidence is not quite as easy as "CSI" makes it seem.

By William Harris

Cloning is the process of making a genetically identical organism through nonsexual means. In this article, we will examine how cloning works and look at possible uses of this technology.

By Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D.