Health HEALTH
What the Human Microbiome Is
The human microbiome is the vast community of microbes living in and on the body, and their combined genes, which help shape…
Health
Public health, medicine and the systems that deliver care. Journalistic health explainers from Cubed News — sourced and careful, never a substitute for professional medical advice. Edited by Daniel Okoro.
Health HEALTH
What Herd Immunity Is
Herd immunity is the indirect protection a whole population gains when enough people are immune to an infection that its spread slows…
Health HEALTH
What the Placebo Effect Is
The placebo effect is a real improvement in symptoms that follows a dummy treatment, driven by expectation and the ritual of care…
Health HEALTH
What a Calorie Deficit Is, and How It Drives Weight Loss
A calorie deficit means burning more energy than you take in, which forces the body to draw on its stores and lose…
Health HEALTH
What REM Sleep Is, and Why It Matters
REM is the vivid-dreaming stage when the brain runs near-awake but the body is briefly paralysed, and it helps memory stick.
Health HEALTH
How Antibiotics Work, and Why Resistance Is Rising
Antibiotics attack the specific parts a bacterium needs to survive and reproduce, but overuse is steadily teaching bacteria to shrug them off.
Health EXPLAINER
What the Science Says About Sleep and Health
Sleep was long treated as wasted time. Decades of research now place it alongside diet and exercise as a pillar of health…
Health ANALYSIS
How Universal Health Coverage Differs Around the World
Most wealthy nations promise that no one should be ruined by getting sick — but they keep that promise in strikingly different…
Health EXPLAINER
How Clinical Trials Work, and Why They Matter
Almost every modern treatment owes its existence to clinical trials. Their design — randomisation, control groups, blinding — is built to outsmart…
Health EXPLAINER
What Antimicrobial Resistance Is, and Why It Matters
When the drugs that kill bacteria stop working, routine infections turn dangerous again. Antimicrobial resistance is one of the slowest-moving and most…
Health ANALYSIS
Why Mental-Health Care Access Is So Unequal Worldwide
Mental-health conditions are common everywhere, yet access to care is among the most unequal in all of medicine. The reasons are part…
Health EXPLAINER
How Vaccines Are Developed, Tested, and Approved
A vaccine moves from laboratory bench to clinic through years of staged testing and independent review. Here is what each step is…