Paging Dr Chimp: the medical secrets we can learn from apes, birds and even butterflies

Primates eat bitter bark to kill parasites, while sparrows use cigarette butts to keep ticks off their chicks. Could the wisdom of wildlife be the next frontier in medicine?

Prostate cancer surgery breakthrough offers hope for erectile function

Neurosafe procedure allows doctors to remove prostate while preserving as much nerve tissue around it as possible

Martin Skirrow obituary

Microbiologist whose discoveries transformed the treatment of infectious diarrhoea and stomach ulcers

‘It’s back to drug rationing’: the end of HIV was in sight. Then came the cuts

The abrupt halt to US funding threatens to undo decades of advances, dramatically increasing infections and deaths, but some see an opportunity for Africa to lead the response

Virtual reality goggles helped me on the path to physical recovery

An unexpected bit of tech opened up a whole new world of possibilities for a frustrated, injured writer

The Age of Diagnosis by Suzanne O’Sullivan review – are we really getting sicker?

A neurologist discusses the dangers of overdiagnosing conditions from Lyme disease to ADHD in an era where technology meets pathology

Opening our eyes to the science of sleep, in 1971

Armed with the new EEG machine, investigators were able to look into the familiar yet strange phenomenon more deeply than ever before

Bacterial vaginosis can be passed to women by men, researchers find

Study suggests infection is sexually transmitted and opens up new way to reduce recurrence by treating male partners

‘I was causing harm’: author Helen Jukes on motherhood and our polluted bodies

In her latest book, Mother Animal, the writer gives a personal account of the impact of ‘forever chemicals’ on her and her child during and after pregnancy

The Inherited Mind by James Longman review – a moving memoir of mental illness in the family

The TV reporter’s struggles with depression and the suicide of his father, whose own father killed himself, prompt this incisive, highly personal investigation