Teaching the brains of paralysed people to communicate
One of the most terrifying accidents imaginable is to become paralysed and to be unable to speak. Fortunately, scientists are gradually learning how to interpret...
Is politics invading a leading science journal?
An editorial in Nature Human Behaviour has sparked a lively debate over woke science and free speech. Its headline, “Science must respect the dignity and...
Fallen stem cell hero convicted in Swedish court
Once hailed as a stem cell technology pioneer, Italian surgeon Paolo Macchiarini has been convicted of causing bodily harm and given a suspended sentence in...
Recipient of pig’s heart dies
The xenotransplant patient who made history by receiving a pig heart has died, about 40 days after his operation. David Bennett, a 57-year-old with serious...
New implant from Switzerland offers promise for the paralyzed
On a cold, snowy day last December, Michel Roccati – an Italian man who became paralyzed after a motorcycle accident four years earlier – took...
Are human challenge studies for Covid ethical?
Researchers at Oxford University, in the UK, are seeking volunteers to participate in human challenge studies. These are carefully controlled experiments which involve deliberately infecting...
US doctors transplant pig heart into human
Surgeons in the United States have implanted the heart of a genetically modified pig into a human patient in a global first, the University of...
Francis Collins reflects on 12 years of leading NIH
Francis Collins is stepping down as director of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) after more than 12 years on the job. He was...
Hepatitis research: more dark corners in American medicine
When World War II began, the US military discovered that it had a huge health problem: hepatitis. Nothing much was known about the disease and...
A mammoth resurrection
The thought of seeing woolly mammoths lumbering across the Siberian tundra is incredibly exciting. And Harvard geneticist George Church hopes to make it a reality. Cashed...
University of Pittsburgh in hot water over foetal tissue research
The use of foetal tissue at the University of Pittsburgh is becoming a hot political issue. Several Republicans are calling for an investigation into the...
More shameful syphilis experiments by US doctors
Hi there, Before I forget, there will be no BioEdge next week, as its staff are on holiday. Back on October 16! Bioethics stories seem...