Health & Medicine / Pharmaceuticals

The Era of Nanoparticle Drugs Begins With Erection Cream

Tiny drug-carrying balls of sugar are delivering medicine in novel—and very useful—ways. 10.09.2009

Vaccine Production Is Horribly Outdated. Here Are 3 Ways to Fix It.

The traditional method of growing vaccines in chicken eggs may be too slow and inefficient to protect the U.S. 07.27.2009

The Best and Worst of the Latest Science News

Endangered humpback whales may be saved, but Navy sonar can still cause them problems. 01.18.2009

#3: The FDA Tackles Tainted Drugs From China

The realities of globalization hit the U.S. drug industry. 12.22.2008

#11: Effective Kidney Transplants Without a Lifetime of Powerful Drugs

A new technique help transplant patients live, even with mismatched organs. 12.20.2008

#18: Two Alzheimer’s Drugs Show Promise

The new drugs use a totally different mechanism than most would-be treatments. 12.19.2008

#24: Gene Therapy Returns (Some) Sight to (Some) Blind People

Genetic tinkering helps repair one rare form of congenital blindness. 12.17.2008

#28: Lithium May Be the Answer for Lou Gehrig’s Disease

A new study brings some hope that the disease can be treated. 12.17.2008

#38: Cholesterol Drugs Are Prescribed for High-Risk Kids

8-year-olds can now take statins to reduce the chances of heart disease. 12.15.2008

#61: A New Drug Delivers “Fitness” Without the Workout

Take a pill and simulate the effects of exercise. 12.10.2008

#62: Researchers Discover Why Wound-Licking Works

Compounds in saliva actually do speed healing. 12.10.2008

#72: Prozac Cures Lazy Eye

The antidepressent might be the answer to wiping out amblyopia for good. 12.09.2008

Why Darwin Would Have Loved Botox

All those wrinkle-causing winces, smirks, and sneers may have been the product of evolution. 10.15.2008

Are Antidepressant Drugs Actually Worth Taking?

A psychologist says secret corporate documents show how ineffective the drugs really are. 10.10.2008

The Science of Great Sex at 80

Doctors and drug companies are working hard to help seniors get it on like teenagers. 09.15.2008

What Is This? The World's Tiniest Pickup Sticks?

Hint: It was originally developed to treat hypertension and angina. 08.01.2008

Can Schizophrenia Be Cured Before It Starts?

A new mix of therapy and medication may stave off psychosis among teens at risk. 07.22.2008

5 Next-Gen Antibiotics That Could Save Your Life

Powerful peptides from alligator blood; synthetic peptoids from the lab. 06.30.2008

Drugmakers: Prepare for a Smackdown

The FDA plans to lay heavier regulations on Big Pharma. 06.20.2008

Wonder Drugs That Can Kill

Modern pharmaceutical "breakthroughs" sometimes do more harm than good. 06.20.2008

A Chat With George W. Bush’s Conscience

Embryonic stem cells crashed against Leon Kass’ old-school moralism. 02.20.2008

DNA Pollution May Be Spawning Killer Microbes

Rogue genetic snippets spread antibiotic resistance all over the environment. 02.14.2008

The Moral of the Zetia Story

LDL is only called bad cholesterol because we call it that. 01.24.2008

Date-Rape Drug To the Rescue!

The infamous sedative GHB provides the cure for unstoppable sleepiness. 01.03.2008

5. Rx for the FDA

Faced with controversies over drug warnings and recalls, the drug agency tries to revamp itself. 12.12.2007

Forever Young

Suzanne Somers says special hormones can keep women young. Should they listen? 11.13.2007

The Good, the Bad, and the Tiny

The oddly oxymoronic effects of steroids on the human body 10.18.2007

This Is Your Brain on Ecstasy

MDMA really is like love in a pill. 06.18.2007

Why Is the HPV Vaccine So Expensive?

Good for the cervix, rough on the pocketbook 06.11.2007

They've Come a Long Way, Baby

The latest in safe sex: a "smart, molecular condom" 01.31.2007

Raw Data

Placebo vs Placebo 04.27.2006

Snake Oil Salve

Venom gets useful. 12.12.2005

The Covert Plague

Insulin resistance could bring down our health system, but it's easily preventable. 12.01.2005

Secrets of Redheads

Secrets of Redheads 11.22.2005

Longevity

Could a pill control appetite and keep you alive decades longer? 10.24.2005

Infectious Diseases

The race is on to develop medicines faster and keep ahead of bacteria and viruses. 10.24.2005

Are Antibiotics Killing Us?

For every cell in your body, you support 10 mostly beneficial bacterial cells. 10.19.2005

Fighting the Parasite from Hell

Deaths from malaria are rising as older medicines fail 08.06.2005

Vital Signs

Over-the-counter drugs can be risky 03.31.2005

Psychology

01.02.2004

Genetics

01.02.2004

Fish on Prozac

Our pharmaceutical drugs are turning up in the environment and in animals. What will the consequences be? 12.27.2003

Pumped Up on Prozac

11.10.2003

Vital Signs

A boy is gasping for his life, and the medics' rescue measures have failed 09.01.2003

The Biology of . . . Addiction

A controversial new drug seems to stop addiction cold 05.01.2003

New Remedies from Old Poisons

Arsenic: Targeting Leukemia 07.01.2002

Bad Genes, Good Drugs

Wondering what happened to all that knowledge we got from mapping the human genome? It launched a new race to identify the genes that give us diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, and Alzheimer's. The winner gets to make remarkable new medicines 04.01.2002

Future Tech

Microchips and micromuscles could spell the end of one-size-fits-all medicine 12.01.2001

Works in Progress

Perhaps, but the side effects could get you too 06.01.2001

Mad Cow Cure?

06.01.2001

Digging for Cures

12.01.2000

Star Trek Syringe

07.01.2000

Versatile Viagra

06.01.2000

Works in Progress

The most reviled drug in history proves a potent weapon against disease 04.01.2000

Open Sesame

04.01.2000

Bad Mixers

04.01.2000

The Pain Is in the Brain

The biggest headache for headache researchers has always been: Where does the pain come from? The answer might seem obvious, but it's nothing less than a revolutionary discovery 03.01.2000

Passion Pills

A new crop of designer drugs in the works will allow you to pick a potion that guarantees good sex even if you--or your partner--don't much feel like it 09.01.1999

When Pills Kill

Her pulse was close to stopping. Was it the drugs she was taking? 08.01.1999

Drugs from the Sea

There's only one place left to find the next wave of supermedicines. Fortunately, it's where we should have been looking all along 03.01.1999

Drugs From the Sea

There's only one place left to find the next wave of supermedicines. Fortunately, it's where we should have been looking all along 03.01.1999

Fire in the Flesh

Mary Grove was suddenly shedding skin in large red patches. The loss was a threat to her life. 02.01.1999

The Cold Warriors

Closing in on a cure for the common cold. 02.01.1999

Last Days of the Wonder Drugs

Years of overconfidence have made us vulnerable. Now, in the deadly arms race between people and bacteria, the bugs are winning. 11.01.1998

Vital Signs: Heart Smarts

I knew just the right drug to calm my patient's racing heart. I just had no proof it would work. 06.01.1998

The Color of Stress

05.01.1997

The Unfinished War

01.01.1997

Crushing HIV

01.01.1997

Analysis of a Toxic Death

A year ago two dozen emergency room staff were mysteriously felled by fumes emanating from a dying young woman. Investigations turned up nothing--until a team of chemists from a nuclear weapons lab got involved. 04.01.1995

The Cure that Killed

FIAU destroyed a deadly virus. Then it began to destroy patients. 03.01.1994

Secrets of the Shamans

Western drug hunters are swarming over the globe looking for medicinal plants. 11.01.1993

End of the Needle

Just a spoonful of proteinoids helps the medicine go down. 07.01.1992

Rough Ride

04.01.1992