In 2015, photos went viral on Chinese social media. They showed a metro station in the middle of a wasteland, without a road, without homes, for no apparent reason. The image was powerful, almost absurd. The West saw this as proof of urban planning madness. However, ten years later, this same place embodies a radical, … Read more
Since the beginning of the 20th century, nuclear physics has strived to understand the intimate structure of the atomic nucleus, this tiny region which concentrates most of the mass of an atom. For a long time, its internal organization resisted any attempt at coherent modeling, despite the accumulation of experimental data. It is in this … Read more
Too often, migraines are reduced to simple headaches. However, they reveal profound inequalities in access to care. Behind the pain, patients are not always heard in the same way. Origin or gender still influence the quality of listening and processing. This situation, which is still little explored, questions the capacity of the system to guarantee … Read more
The impact of excess weight on health is not limited to the heart or liver. From the start of adulthood, the brain also seems to suffer the effects. Researchers have discovered that some young people experiencing obesity already show biological signs linked to premature aging of the nervous system. Among the most notable elements, a … Read more
The fire has gone out, the smoke has dissipated… but the forest does not grow back. In Portugal as elsewhere, the scenario is repeating itself. Despite human efforts and deployed technologies, the most vulnerable areas remain barren, impassable or forgotten. It was on this observation that two students decided to take action. Their solution? An … Read more
Artificial intelligence at the service of medicine Artificial intelligence is increasingly present in our society. But some sectors seem to use it more than others, which is particularly the case for medicine. Recently, researchers at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, have developed a new technology to detect the first signs of illness, which … Read more
For decades, fats were classified according to simplistic criteria, opposing the bad saturated ones to the virtuous unsaturated ones. This divide has shaped our eating habits, valuing vegetable oils without real examination of their long-term effects. Soybean oil, which has become omnipresent in processed products, rarely escapes analysis. However, behind its apparent nutritional neutrality, it … Read more
Every time something falls and breaks, it leaves behind an apparent mess. However, this chaos obeys a rigorous mathematical logic. Whether a piece of sugar is crushed, a vase shatters or a bubble explodes, the distribution of fragments follows a recurring pattern, regardless of the material or the cause of the rupture. This regularity, long … Read more
When a vital organ like the heart is affected, modern medicine still has certain limits. Emergency care has advanced, yet heart muscle regeneration remains difficult. After a heart attack, it is no longer just immediate survival that matters. These are the lasting after-effects that affect quality of life. Thus, research is intensifying to find new … Read more
Sleeping longer to recover, regenerate or compensate for chronic fatigue seems intuitively beneficial. However, several recent studies overturn this preconceived idea. Beyond nine hours of sleep, the protective effects seem to reverse. By digging into data from large international cohorts, researchers have identified a clear link between prolonged sleep and increased mortality risk. But these … Read more
