Jon Hamilton

On April 27, 1865, a steamboat named the Sultana exploded and sank while transporting Union soldiers up the Mississippi. An estimated 1,800 people died, but few today have heard of this disaster.

A doctor-scientist's long quest to help children with a rare form of brain cancer has led to the discovery that high levels of brain activity can make glioma tumors grow faster.

No wonder the brain needs so much energy. The same coordinated activity that allows you to retrieve a specific memory, like what you had for breakfast, continues at rest and even during sleep.

The same receptor on nerve endings that makes sinuses tingle when we eat wasabi plays an important role in the pain of inflammation. The first 3-D view of the receptor could lead to better pain drugs.

Scientists are still better than computers at assessing a neuron's health by looking at its shape. But an effort that includes an international series of hackathons could help speed the process.

Clinicians correctly predict a suicide attempt about half the time — no better than a coin toss. Certain tests of involuntary responses, although still experimental, aim to improve the odds.

Six years ago, husband-and-wife scientists used gene therapy to cure colorblindness in monkeys. Now they're trying to make it work for the millions of people with faulty color vision.

Only about half of Medicare patients are told of the diagnosis by their doctor, a study finds. That compares to 90 percent of patients diagnosed with cancer.

The brain's cerebellum helps shape thinking and emotion, as well as physical coordination, research shows. Could stimulating that part of the brain help ease some aspects of autism and schizophrenia?

Jonathan Keleher is one of a handful of people known to have lived their entire lives without a cerebellum. His experiences are helping scientists show how this brain structure helps shape who we are.

Corinne Lasmezas began her career studying a disease that destroys the brains of cattle. Now she's using what she learned to search for drugs that can stop human brain diseases.

The "nightmare superbug" that contributed to two deaths in California isn't as scary as it sounds. But the outbreak does highlight a growing problem with drug-resistant germs.

News reports are describing a "nightmare superbug" killing people in California. But scientists who study infectious diseases say the risk from this outbreak doesn't live up to the alarming headlines.

"It's not something that is likely to spread around the community or is a cause for alarm," says David ...

Humiliation, fear and unpredictability all turn up the volume on pain, research shows. And meditation can turn down pain's intensity, according to scientists who are starting to figure out why.

In 2007, a plastic called Tritan became a hit, partly because it was free of the chemical BPA. Then a competitor began suggesting that Tritan products contained other chemicals that act like estrogen.

Juniper Russo wants what is best for her daughter Vivian, and she sometimes questions mainstream medicine. But after three years of soul searching, she decided what was best was vaccination.

As vessels become more porous, researchers say, they allow toxins in the bloodstream to reach, and damage, delicate brain cells and raise the risk for dementia.

You say banana; this orangutan says ... well, it's hard to tell what she's saying. But the rhythmic, speechlike sounds of the zoo-dwelling ape have started scientists talking.

Brain imaging can help researchers tell if people are more likely to be able to quit smoking or have trouble with reading. But those tests aren't yet ready for the doctor's office or classroom.

Millions of deep-water fish die every year because of barotrauma, a condition divers know as "the bends." But scientists say descending devices can help fish survive a trip to the surface.