Faye Flam – Page 2 –

A scientist looks at a blood sample in a laboratory at the Center for Scientific Research Caucaseco in the outskirts of Cali, Colombia, on April 25, 2012, during the World Day for the fight against malaria.

Please don’t try this biohacking at home

May 31, 2019 at 4:19 p.m.

Early this year, a 28-year-old self-described biohacker named Aaron Traywick injected himself with an alleged herpes vaccine prepared by fellow amateur medical researchers. The injection, which was broadcast on Facebook...

Go ahead and order another slice of cheesecake

June 2, 2018 at 1:27 a.m.

In the latest science shocker, researchers discovered that a number of people around the world are eating foods such as cheese, butter and full-fat yogurt without doing deadly harm to...

A blue moon rises behind the torch of the Statue of Liberty seen from Liberty State Park in Jersey City, N.J., Friday, July 31, 2015. The blue moon happens when the moon rises in its full stage twice during the same month.

Why extremely rare events keep happening all the time

August 21, 2019 at 9:23 p.m.

Something weird seems to be happening in the heavens. This week marks a coincidence of the full moon and the summer solstice. Some astronomers are calling this combination of maximum...

There's value in preventive medicine, but experts in laboratory testing say that doctors and their patients credit the numbers that come out of screening tests with more accuracy and predictive power than they deserve.

Are doctors, patients too trusting of blood tests?

June 10, 2018 at 7:43 p.m.

Now that failed inspections, government sanctions and a criminal investigation have shadowed the once stellar expectations surrounding the blood-testing company Theranos, the big question is turning from whether the company...

There are ethical and philosophical challenges raised by gene editing technology that should be taken seriously.

Would you edit your children’s genes?

May 11, 2019 at 2:52 a.m.

We are all unwitting players in a genetic lottery. Take a gene called APOE. It comes in three flavors — APOE2, APOE3 and APOE4. All three are considered normal human...

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