Recent Episodes
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Growing New Teeth
Wouldn't it be great to be able to regrow new teeth instead of expensive painful fake implants? Scientists have been working on that.
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A New Treatment for Pancreatic Cancer
People are devastated when they're told they have pancreatic cancer. That's because it's usually diagnosed in the later stages when cancer has spread and survival rates plummet. New clinical trials are using drugs that turn off the mutated versions of the KRAS protein, and in studies with early-stage patients, more than a quarter saw partial reduction in their tumors, while some responded even better.
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Biological Toxins as Medicines
Animals, plants and microbes can all produce deadly biological toxins. Botulinum from a bacterium; ricin from castor beans; and tetrodotoxin from Pufferfish are just a few examples. But scientists have learned to tame these deadly chemicals into useful medical treatments.
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Another Cruise Ship Virus - Maybe
If you're a fan of cruises, you might have heard of the norovirus or maybe even been sickened by one. Even though infections usually clear in one to three days, that's enough to ruin a trip. And the virus can cause serious illness in places such as nursing homes where the people are more vulnerable.
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Something Old Becomes Something New
We sometimes forget with all the modern painkillers out there, what a wonder drug good old aspirin is. The active chemical in aspirin is salicin, which was first extracted from Willow tree bark, and the modern form is the synthetic acetylsalicylic acid.
