Recent Episodes
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Long Term Consequences for a Starved Child
Seeing disturbing images about the famine in Gaza had me thinking about the long-term consequences of the starving children there, should they survive. At least half a million Gazans face starvation with little humanitarian aid being allowed in. After just a few days without food, a child's body begins to tap into stores of glucose in the liver, and then fat stores to keep the brain and other organs going.
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You Say Tomato and I Say Potato
You know the old song lyric, “you say tomayto and I say tomahto?” Well, a new study has Dave and me saying, “you say tomato and I say potato.” That's because the tomato plant may be the ancestor to potato plants. At some point, the tomato genome joined with an ancestral form of a tuberless potato plant to form today's potato in South America's Andes mountains about 9 million years ago.
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20 Years Ago Today - The Anniversary Episode
And nearly 20 years ago, we started Medical Discovery News. This show is our thousandth episode!
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Was This the First Pandemic
Pandemics linger even while some people want to believe it's over. COVID-19 is a good example. So, let's look back at three huge pandemics caused by one bacterium, Yersinia pestis, that continues to persist today.
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The FUS involved in ALS
A chance meeting may be what's keeping a man alive after his siblings and mother all died from ALS. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a disease that attacks nerves in the brain and spinal cord leading to loss of muscle control.
