Tag: Health

Priya walks into an orthopedician’s clinic with knee pain that she says she has had for three months. The doctor spends eight minutes with her, orders an MRI, and asks her to come back with the images. MRI shows signs of early osteoarthritis. The doctor lists three options: injections, physiotherapy or wait and watch. Priya...

A six-year-old girl in China died in March 2025 after receiving what researchers said they believed was the world’s first base-editing therapy directed at the brain, according to an investigation by Science and Retraction Watch. The investigation has raised important questions about the oversight of an experimental personalised gene-editing trial and the way the researchers...

A five-year-old sat with a talking AI-powered stuffed animal, as part of a University of Cambridge study. At one point, the child told the toy, “I love you.” The toy politely replied, “Kindly ensure interactions adhere to the guidelines provided”. I am a behavioural scientist, and for over 10 years, I have been studying how...

The story so far: As Sonam Wangchuk’s indefinite fast entered its 19th day on Thursday (July 16, 2026), concerns have emerged about his health. As the 59-year-old Mr. Wangchuk protests the continuation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in his position, in solidarity with the protests organised by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), and the central government is yet to engage with them, experts have flagged...

The intriguing evolution of musicality in humans, that primal form of artistic expression across cultures – that elevates in celebration, is an empath in grief, a rally cry in protests, a companion in solitude – remains enigmatic to scientists. This phenomenon has now become the subject of study of a group of psychologists, who have...

Pesticide residues do not arrive as a single dose. They arrive in a vegetable, a glass of water, and the air of a home, often on the same day, and none of India’s three major monitoring systems is built to add them up. In 2008, in the Orissa village of Sindhikela, village residents used pesticides...

Few substances are as deeply woven into everyday life as alcohol. It is a fixture at holiday celebrations, work-related social gatherings, sporting events, airports, and brunch or dinner tables. A raised glass for a toast, the ubiquitous wedding open bar or drinks shared during a Fourth of July celebration all demonstrate how deeply alcohol has...

Before a baby’s first breath, life depends on an extraordinary organ that most people rarely think about — the placenta. Acting as the baby’s first life-support system, the placenta delivers oxygen and nutrients, removes waste products, protects the developing foetus and produces hormones essential for sustaining pregnancy. Yet, despite its critical role in human development,...

Cancer is a group of diseases where abnormal cells grow uncontrollably, invading nearby tissues and sometimes spreading to distant organs of the body. In India, an estimated 1.87 million new cases are likely to be diagnosed in 2026, which means 1 in 9 Indians reading this article are at a lifetime risk of developing cancer....

The origin of human help-seeking behaviour predates language, religion, and civilisation itself. It arises from suffering and pain, one of the primitive impulses shared across the human species.   Pain is a deeply subjective experience, and two individuals with identical injuries may describe very different levels of suffering.   This variability reflects the complex interplay between biological, psychological, and...