Three Days of Junk Food Can Wreck an Aging Brain—No Obesity Required
A diet loaded with saturated fat doesn’t need months to mess with an older brain. Three days. That’s all it takes. A new study on rats shows that memory impairment and brain inflammation kick in almost immediately, long before any noticeable weight gain or metabolic...
The Bionic Hand That Feels: How Engineers Built a Prosthetic That ‘Knows’ What It’s Touching
Johns Hopkins engineers have finally built a robotic hand that doesn’t grip like a vice or flop like a dead fish. This one actually knows what it’s holding—plush toys, water bottles, sponges—and adjusts its grip accordingly. It’s the closest thing yet to a cybernetic...
Scientists Hack Cannabis for Pain Relief—Without the High or Addiction
The war on painkillers has a new combatant, and it’s wearing a lab coat. A team of scientists at Washington University and Stanford has engineered a molecule that steals cannabis’ pain-fighting powers without plunging users into a THC-induced haze—or worse,...
The Brain’s Cleanup Crew: A New Way to Fight Alzheimer’s Before It Starts
Glutamate is the brain’s favorite neurotransmitter, running the show for memory, mood, and cognition. But like an overenthusiastic party guest, too much of it can cause serious trouble—specifically, a toxic buildup of tau protein, the molecular wreckage linked to...
