AI is giving a boost to efforts to monitor health via radar

Today’s radar technology can detect the minute movements when your heart beats or you take a breath. Machine learning turns those signals into vital signs readings.

Aly Fathy, Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of Tennessee • conversation
April 30, 2025 ~7 min

How our bodies react when we use social media – and when we stop

New research shows withdrawal-like reactions when people are asked to stop using Instagram – but these may not reflect an addiction.

Niklas Ihssen, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Durham University • conversation
March 4, 2025 ~6 min


How accurate are wearable fitness trackers? Less than you might think

A new study reveals strengths and weaknesses of the gadgets we use to monitor our lives.

Cailbhe Doherty, Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science, University College Dublin • conversation
Aug. 20, 2024 ~7 min

Heart rate zones aren’t a perfect measure of exercise intensity, but regularly getting your heart pumping is still important for fitness

Both high- and moderate-intensity exercise provides similar overall health benefits.

Jason Sawyer, Associate Professor of Exercise and Movement Science, Bryant University • conversation
April 1, 2024 ~8 min

How do pacemakers and defibrillators work? A cardiologist explains how they interact with the electrical system of the heart

Heart rates that are too slow or too fast can sometimes be lethal. Medical implants can help the heart get its rhythm back.

Virginia Singla, Clinical Assistant Professor of Cardiology, University of Pittsburgh • conversation
Dec. 11, 2023 ~10 min

How signals from your body could be making you anxious

Do you get scared if you feel your heart speed up?

Kiera Louise Adams, PhD Candidate of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford • conversation
March 1, 2023 ~7 min

Heart rate variability – what to know about this biometric most fitness trackers measure

Tiny fluctuations in the time between each beat of your heart can provide clues about how much stress your body is experiencing.

Anne R. Crecelius, Associate Professor of Health and Sport Science, University of Dayton • conversation
Dec. 26, 2022 ~8 min

I listened to animals' hearts to reveal their hidden emotional worlds

Measuring the heart rate of animlas can reveal their changing emotional state, even when their behaviour stays the same.

Claudia Wascher, Senior Lecturer, Animal and Environmental Biology, Anglia Ruskin University • conversation
June 28, 2021 ~7 min


Isolating together is challenging – and relationship stresses can affect biological functioning

A study found the emotional dynamic between young heterosexual partners can have a measurable physiological effect on men, but not on women.

Hannah L. Schacter, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Wayne State University • conversation
April 13, 2020 ~6 min

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