Science and Health (EN) Money and healthcare: a wrap-up of the current world situation 21 Mar 201921 Mar 2019 Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report titled “Public Spending on Health: A Closer Look at Global Trends”. The topic is sensitive, because it concerns how much money…
Science and Health (EN) How science and technology can fight fake news 14 Mar 2019 It is undeniable that fake news became a big contemporary issue. What to believe, and what instead is a lie? I remember myself at high school thinking of how lucky…
Science and Health (EN) Debunking anti-vaxxers lies: a journey in their modus operandi 8 Mar 2019 Few days ago, a friend of mine told me about an article reporting that vaccine-preventable diseases could spread into a vaccinated population, demonstrating the uselessness of vaccines. My friend was…
Science and Health (EN) Prion diseases: when the enemy grows inside you 23 Feb 201923 Feb 2019 In this post, I will focus on a group of diseases that is unique in its features: prion diseases. They are caused by misfolding of prion protein (see further), and…
Science and Health (EN) The future of healthcare: prevention and precision global health 15 Feb 201915 Feb 2019 Compared to few decades ago, nowadays we pay much more attention to our health. This is because, every now and then, some new findings highlight lifestyle tips that have positive…
Science and Health (EN) Computers: doctor’s best friend. Artificial intelligence in medicine 15 Feb 201915 Feb 2019 Artificial intelligence is becoming more and more relevant in healthcare matters. As I mentioned here, Ebola outbreak was controlled only after artificial intelligence was introduced in the campaign against the…
Science and Health (EN) Autism in a nutshell: the known causes, and why vaccines are not among them 14 Feb 2019 In this post I will write about a very sensitive health-related issue: autism. I will summarize its features, focusing on potential causes and clarifying the autism-vaccines debate. Let’s begin with…
Science and Health (EN) Vaccines in a nutshell. What you need to know to laugh at anti-vaxxers plots 12 Feb 201912 Feb 2019 The spreading of information has never been so easy and massive like it is nowadays. Unfortunately, one of the consequences is that also fake and misleading news are easy to…
Science and Health (EN) The WHO teaches that prevention means everything: the case of schistosomiasis. 11 Feb 201911 Feb 2019 Recently, scrolling my Facebook wall, I found a post published by World Health Organization (WHO) about schistosomiasis. I didn’t know what it was, so I decided to learn more about…
Science and Health (EN) Genetic testing: a double-edged sword for our physical and mental health 7 Feb 20197 Feb 2019 Thanks to the great improvements in genetics, including the completion of DNA sequencing and the recording of thousands of variations in the DNA sequence that can predispose to syndromes or…
Science and Health (EN) Smoking: not an elegant choice for your life 31 Jan 201931 Jan 2019 What’s a common action among Robert de Niro in “Casino”, Sharon Stone in “Basic Instinct”, Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany's” and Clint Eastwood in “The Good, the Bad, and the…
Science and Health (EN) Mediterranean diet: a tasty weapon to protect your life 25 Jan 201925 Jan 2019 Do you fasten your seat-belt before starting your car? Do you check that the street is free before crossing it? If you answer yes to both questions, well done. But…
Science and Health (EN) Genetic Modified Organisms (GMO): a threat or a lifebelt for the future? 18 Jan 201918 Jan 2019 Whenever an innovation is brought to life, it is important that people who will use it are informed about it, to prevent misunderstanding and confusion. Since the 1990s, genetic modified…
Science and Health (EN) The secrets of DNA (part 2) 17 Jan 201917 Jan 2019 In a previous post (this one) I described how DNA is structured and how is organized in the cell. I mentioned that some chromosome regions are accessible and others closed…
Science and Health (EN) A look into the future: diagnosis of cancer through blood analysis 18 Dec 201818 Dec 2018 Today I will tell you about a topic that is gaining relevance in the field of cancer diagnosis. As you have already heard thousand times, in order to cure a…
Science and Health (EN) Tell me how your body grows, and will I tell you if you develop diabetes 17 Dec 201828 Jan 2019 A recent study made in China/USA published by Zhang and colleagues revealed that increase of body mass index (BMI) during adolescence has a high correlation with adult type 2 diabetes…
Science and Health (EN) Multiple sclerosis: a slow harakiri of the organism 12 Dec 201823 Jan 2019 In this post I want to tell you about the most common non-traumatic disabling disease among young adults: multiple sclerosis. Let’s see first, what is multiple sclerosis? As usual,…
Science and Health (EN) A colored view of DNA. The basics of biology and genetics 11 Dec 201812 Dec 2018 Each living organism, including humans of course, store all the information in the DNA. In a non-technical way, we can define the DNA as the body's instruction manual. We are…
Science and Health (EN) How does cancer arise? 30 Nov 2018 I’ve already dedicated a post (here) to describe how frequent tumors are. In this post I will focus instead on how tumors arise. We know that viruses and bacteria are…
Science and Health (EN) The secrets of DNA (part 1) 22 Nov 201811 Dec 2018 What do we know about DNA? A lot, but not everything yet. I am a biologist and DNA has been my Polar Star during the last 10 years (moving from…
