Joseph Lekuton, a member of parliament in Kenya, starts with the story of his remarkable education, then offers a parable of how Africa can grow. His message of hope has never been more relevant.

Weight discrimination has very real health consequences, especially when some of the most common perpetrators are medical professionals.

They've been called the "saints of Somalia." Doctor Hawa Abdi and her daughter Deqo Mohamed discuss their medical clinic in Somalia, where -- in the face of civil war and open oppression of women -- they've built a hospital, a school and...

Have you ever wondered what the sun is made of? Dr. Cecilia Payne-Gaposhkin wondered that, too, and she used science to figure out the answer! Find out how she did that and more about her amazing life and...

Our medical systems are broken. Doctors are capable of extraordinary (and expensive) treatments, but they are losing their core focus: actually treating people. Doctor and writer Atul Gawande suggests we take a step back and look at new...

Experts can't agree on the definition of the term "concussion," which makes it difficult to diagnose, treat, and research this important brain injury....

Reuse of syringes, all too common in under-funded clinics, kills 1.3 million each year. Marc Koska clues us in to this devastating global problem with facts, photos and hidden-camera footage. He shares his solution: a low-cost syringe...

Working in the White House in the 1840s may have been more hazardous than we thought.

Anyone who has lost a loved one to pancreatic cancer knows the devastating speed with which it can affect an otherwise healthy person. TED Fellow and biomedical entrepreneur Laura Indolfi is developing a revolutionary way to treat this...

There’s more to DNA than just the double helix we know and love: under some conditions this familiar molecule can take on unfamiliar forms, each of which can have a different impact on our health.

Since the advent of genetic engineering, a lot of weird questions have cropped up, particularly with regard to what information a company can patent. Individual genes, as they are discovered, are now immediately patented and can be...

Today, we all do our best to protect ourselves from coronaviruses. But a lot of what people are doing doesn’t really help, and it could take away supplies from those who actually need them. Hank explains what does help, and how it...

When Dave deBronkart learned he had a rare and terminal cancer, he turned to a group of fellow patients online -- and found the medical treatment that saved his life. Now he calls on all patients to talk with one another, know their own...

Paruresis or “Shy Bladder Syndrome” is the inability to pee in public. If this sounds like you, have hope; it’s super treatable!

Jessi is about to go to the doctor's to get a vaccine and she's sort of nervous. But she knows that vaccines are really important, so she learned all about how they help us stay healthy! Now she wants to share what she learned with you!

You've probably heard how some drugs and treatments make people feel better, even when they turn out to be fake. That's the placebo effect, but how does it work? And could the same effect backfire, causing your brain to make you feel...

Squeaks has a doctor's appointment coming up and he's a little nervous, so Jessi asked her friend Dr. Arron Carroll to come over and talk about what happens when you visit the doctor!

Don't take the easy route! Instead, use this little trick to improve your writing -- let go of the words "good" and "bad," and push yourself to illustrate, elucidate and illuminate your world with language.

You might have faked being sick to avoid doing something unpleasant. However, for people with the factitious disorder, faking illness isn't quite so straightforward.

Learn about the three ocean zones with our ocean experts, Dr. Irene Stanella and her lab assistants Wyatt and Ned!

We teamed up with Amy Poehler's Smart Girls to ask you who your #sciencewoman heroes are. Here's what you told us!

If you’ve ever noticed that being sick often sucks more at night, that wasn’t your imagination. Fevers do often rise at night! Why do our bodies do that? Is there a reason we have to suffer more?

What if one day you woke up and were suddenly speaking with a completely new accent from somewhere you’ve never lived? It sounds like a movie plot, but this rare condition is known as foreign accent syndrome.

As 18th-century science and medicine brought properties of electricity to light, some Victorian doctors decided that putting sick people in a bathtub and shocking them might be a good idea.