Gamma Knife surgery uses incredibly precise, high-energy light to treat patients

Gene therapy treats a disease by editing its DNA source

This modification is typically performed by viruses, which are naturally skilled at entering cells but have their disease-causing component removed before delivery. Once inside, cells can use the inserted genetic material to produce more helpful proteins, fewer harmful ones, or create new proteins.

Tumor genetic profiling can lead to targeted treatments

Genetic profiling of tumors—based on a sample from the tumor, a patient's blood, or both—can help clinicians determine if targeted therapies known to block the growth of certain types of tumors would be appropriate for specific patients.

Learn about the 'Goldilocks' of radioisotopes, which can help attack hard-to-treat cancers

Actinium-225 can be attached to a molecule that binds to cancer antigens, helping it target specific cancers in the body. It emits alpha particles that can damage DNA but do not penetrate deeply, confining the damage to nearby cancer cells. However, annual global production of actinium-225 is less than a grain of sand.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

Brain activity goes into overdrive around the point of death

Recent studies suggest increased electrical activity in the brain during and after clinical death could be responsible for near-death experiences. Both high-frequency gamma waves (linked to perception and attention) and low-frequency beta waves (related to focus and concentration) increased and became more synchronized across multiple brain regions, potentially resulting in a near-death state of heightened consciousness.

Electron accelerators are used to create X-ray lasers

In an X-ray free-electron laser, electromagnetic fields are used to accelerate and move electrons in wiggling patterns, causing them to emit synchronized, high-energy X-rays. This resulting light beam can strike targets up to 120 times per second to create movies of changing molecular structures and phenomena.

Astronauts have repaired genetic damage in space using CRISPR—a molecular tool that can make precise changes to DNA and is used in single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses.

Open brain surgery is not required for BCIs inserted via blood vessel injection

Synchron's brain-computer interface, the Synchron Switch, takes advantage of preexisting medical devices, such as stents and catheters. Cells grow over the device over a 90-day period, incorporating it into the vessel wall and minimizing clots.

Animation of a Gamma-ray burst, the brightest explosion in the universe

Gamma-ray bursts are some of the most luminous explosions in the universe, the result of a star collapsing on itself and emitting massive jets of particles. See a brief animation of the phenomenon here.

How helium enables MRI machines to look inside organisms

By cooling the machine's magnets with liquid helium to extremely low temperatures, they can generate and maintain powerful magnetic fields that align the hydrogen atoms in living things to point toward a patient's head or feet. A radio pulse nudges these atoms, which realign and induce a measurable signal in nearby electrical coils. These signals are captured in slices and then stacked into a 3D reconstruction.

Advanced drugs are closing in on cancer's deadliest mutations

The protein KRAS, mutated in many cancers, was deemed ‘undruggable’. Now scientists are hoping to save lives with a batch of new compounds that target it.

Glowing chemicals allow scientists to read DNA like a barcode

The process of determining the order of nitrogenous bases in DNA involves first cutting the DNA into fragments, which are duplicated multiple times using bacteria. Fluorescently labeled terminator bases are added to fragments, which are sorted by length and read via laser to reconstruct the sequence.

Anesthetics slow brain activity by promoting inhibitory neurotransmitters

Drugs like propofol and isoflurane increase activity at the GABA receptor, which opens chloride channels. These ions enter neurons and hyperpolarize them, making them less likely to fire. Dexmedetomidine instead blocks norepinephrine receptors in the brainstem to sedate patients.

Some materials can absorb low-energy light and emit high-energy radiation

Through anti-Stokes cooling, incoming energy is combined with vibrations in a material's crystal lattice to produce a net reduction in its temperature. Using this effect, lasers can be directed at microchip hot spots to help keep data centers cool.

The origin of LASIK eye surgery, from a lab incident to federal funding and widespread use

After a University of Michigan engineering student suffered retinal burns from an ultrashort pulse laser, researchers realized it could be used to reshape the cornea and improve a person's vision with greater precision than a scalpel and earlier laser technologies. Agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Energy, provided funding to develop and commercialize the procedure.

Using psychedelics to manage a cancer diagnosis

Dr. Roland Griffiths helped lead the revival of psychedelic research, often prescribing the use of psilocybin to address severe depression or anxiety in patients. This podcast explores how Griffiths leaned on his own career after being diagnosed with cancer and facing the prospect of death.

Photodynamic therapy is one current treatment for age-related macular degeneration

This laser-based treatment is used on advanced "wet" age-related macular degeneration patients, but it's now used less often than in the past because there are newer injection-based drugs to decrease abnormal blood vessel growth.

The Gasbuggy Project detonated a nuclear bomb to fracture underground rock formations

Part of Project Plowshare—a program aimed at finding peaceful uses for nuclear devices—the 1967 experiment sought to extract natural gas trapped within shale in underground New Mexico. Gas radioactivity was found to be excessively high for use without expensive processing, and the project was deemed an economic failure.

Grinding is a body modification subculture focused technological implants

Grinders seek to increase the intensity and range of body modifications to push "beyond the human norm." The movement's roots stretch back to 1998 when cybernetics professor Kevin Warwick installed an RFID chip in his arm that granted him control over external electronics and became, arguably, the world's first cyborg.

As of February 2025, there are more than 150 clinical trials using CRISPR technology

The clinical trials are designed to determine whether experimental CRISPR-related therapies are safe and effective. The majority of trials involve treatments for blood disorders, including beta thalassemia.

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

The weakest form of light that is dangerous to humans is ultraviolet

Unlike radio waves, microwave, infrared, and visible light, UV light can produce chemical changes, such as curing adhesives and resins, causing substances to fluoresce, and destroying the genetic material of microorganisms. This makes UV light useful for sterilization, forensics, and quickly drying nail polish.

Stereolithography uses light to fabricate objects in layers via chemical reactions

Specific locations in a tank of light-sensitive liquid resin are exposed to projected light, causing them to cure onto a build platform. The resulting cross-section of hardened plastic is moved slightly away from the light source, exposing it to resin once more, and the process repeats to produce successive layers.

Surgery before the dawn of anesthesia

The arc toward anesthetics was painfully slow, with early pain mitigation offerings ranging from analgesics—drugs that dim pain but don't block it—and numbing surgical sites with cold water to gassing patients with carbon dioxide or bashing or bleeding them unconscious. Such treatments and the torturous surgery they preceded led many to avoid even life-saving procedures, and those who survived often kept silent about the trauma.

New drugs called Gepants have been shown to improve the quality of life of many sufferers.

Journalist Eva Wiseman has had migraines since childhood. Beginning with a yawn they segue into visual auras before turning into severe pain. As it so happened, she experienced a migraine during the course of her interview with Dr. Peter Goadsby, a pioneer in understanding and treating migraines as well as getting the world to treat them seriously.

Alkaline hydrolysis—dissolving the body—is one 'green' burial option

This approach, which is sometimes called flameless cremation, involves dissolving the body with water and chemicals. The remaining bone fragments can then be spread like ashes. It was reportedly incorporated into the funeral industry in 2011.

Dr. Bernard Fisher pioneered lumpectomy as a treatment for breast cancer

Dr. Bernard Fisher was a surgeon-scientist who developed and discovered cancer treatments that changed the way we treat and understand breast cancer. Despite these contributions, Fisher was also the subject of a congressional investigation that tarnished his reputation. Listen to the "Less Radical" six-episode podcast series covering the complex story of this influential doctor.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

See images of medical cases of firework injuries shared on this 'Instagram for doctors.' (Warning: Graphic content)

Objects can be 3D printed with light by projecting 2D computerized tomography (CT) scans onto rotating cylinders of resin, which solidify upon exposure.

Against his wishes, Albert Einstein's brain was removed before his cremation, and the pathologist responsible stored it for decades in mason jars within a beer cooler.

Larger animals like giraffes, elephants, and blue whales have developed a unique defense against cancer, a phenomenon known as Peto's Paradox

Read a deep dive on the 'all-purpose healing' peptide BPC-157.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

Explore what it's like inside a patient isolation unit, used in situations such as treating a patient or suspected patient with Ebola.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Recent research found that the brain doesn't seem to massively rewire following amputation—upending earlier beliefs about the cause of phantom limb pain.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

When caught in the mouths of cardinal fish, seed shrimp release glowing, bioluminescent chemicals, which alert predators of the cardinal fish, prompting the shrimp's ejection.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

In recent years a child anxiety expert has created and tested a novel phobia and anxiety treatment approach for children, focused on changing how parents respond to the fears.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

The Ramones' 'Pet Sematary,' the theme song for the Stephen King novel of the same name, was written while the band was admiring the writer's collection of horror memorabilia.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes