Pig-to-human kidney transplants. A blood test for Alzheimer’s. Birth control without a prescription. These were just a few of the advancements in health and medicine in 2024.

This is the fifth summer of Covid-19 since the pandemic began, and 2024 is projected to be the biggest summer wave of Covid infections to date. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that Covid-19 infections are…

A new study shows that an abnormally active immune system, a characteristic of long COVID patients, largely subsides two years after the initial infection. The finding offers hope that gradual recovery is possible in some long COVID patients. One in…

New research suggests that these conditions may be linked to the body's failure to turn off one of a woman's two x-chromosomes. A healthy immune system defends the body against disease and infection. However, for one in 10 people, mostly women, the…

For many important life events, festivals, and ceremonies—including her own wedding—software engineer Katyayani Vajpayi endured a throbbing migraine that occurred mainly on the left side of her head, making her nauseous, and disturbing her vision.…

Elma Jashim, a recent college graduate is looking forward to beginning medical school in the fall. But she is also dreading the monthly emotional roller coaster that occurs with her menstrual cycle and the havoc it could wreak with her busy academic…

COVID-19 has continued to claim lives in 2023, killing more than 50 thousand patients in the United States alone and bringing the global death toll to almost seven million people. The pandemic has also created an epidemic of survivors who continue to…

These endangered macaques are used for entertainingCats have 276 facial expressions. Why?Can this dog-size lizard be stopped from threatening the South?Where are all the caribou?Inside our two-year investigation of the captive tiger industryOrcas are…

Even patients with mild COVID symptoms could face a higher risk of developing heart disease and stroke. Want to explore further? This story is exclusively for Nat Geo subscribers. Subscribe now and cancel anytime.

Nearly one in five people who have had COVID-19 in the United States continue to suffer from symptoms of long COVID. But why some people recover completely while others remain sick has been a mystery. Now research has provided some enticing clues. A…

Jeremy Warner has had six shots of the COVID vaccines. He’s an oncologist at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he treats immunocompromised patients with cancer who are especially vulnerable to COVID-19. To keep his patients safe,…

Mehnaz Qureshi has caught COVID-19 seven times, despite being fully vaccinated and boosted. A veterinarian and a virologist at The Pirbright Institute in England, she first caught the disease in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic was just…

A highly infectious, new COVID variant is spreading fast, barely three months after the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 was no longer a global health emergency. EG.5, a descendant of a previous XBB strain of Omicron, was first…

To grow and spread rapidly, some cancer cells steal tiny power generators from healthy cells. Glioblastoma is a fast-growing and aggressive brain tumor that often kills patients within a year of diagnosis. The cancer starts in the cells called…

In the mother's womb the fetus floats in a clear, slightly yellowish liquid that surrounds and protects it during pregnancy, allowing it to move and exercise muscles while suspended in its watery world. A spongy disc of tissue called the placenta,…

Sometimes it’s bad genes, not just bad diet, that leads an individual to gain weight more easily than others. Scientists have found that genetic mutations that make an individual feel less satisfied after a meal may be more common than previously…

​New studies show that bacteria help cancer cells evade the body’s immune response. Experts say this relationship could prove vital for wiping out cancer. Most bacteria living in the human body help us thrive, but recent studies show that some…

Some mice are more inclined to run on an exercise wheel than their less active counterparts. That’s because, according to a recent study, these mice carry microbes in their guts that send signals to their brains boosting their desire to exercise.…

A highly contagious subvariant of Omicron called XBB.1.5 is now the dominant strain spreading in the United States. Early data suggests it’s more evasive than other variants, efficiently dodging previously acquired immunity and raising concerns among…

For the first time, scientists have shown that two seasonal respiratory viruses currently circulating in the United States—and overwhelming hospitals with sick kids—can form a hybrid virus under the right conditions. The finding, they say, is not a…