The peak of the Atlantic hurricane season has arrived and is living up to its name: Two storms, Laura and Marco, developed within the relatively small confines of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea area late last week. Their formation has already put the season halfway through the alphabetical list of available storm names—a […]
Rosey has lived with bulimia for more than a decade. The 31-year-old resident of Melbourne, Australia, started therapy for her eating disorder six years ago. Although she says she had never considered herself “cured,” she had reached a point in her recovery that felt hopeful and manageable. Then along came the novel coronavirus. When mandatory […]
In early August, the Trump administration decided to end the 2020 Census count four weeks early. We should worry, because counting, data and measurement are at the core of our democracy. Article I, Section 2 of the United States Constitution mandates the enumeration of the population. The Founding Fathers knew that counting the people to […]
Rhinos have notoriously poor eyesight, so they mostly rely on their noses to understand the world around them. But there’s one interaction in which sound plays a key role. Southern white rhino males can either be dominant or subordinate. And only the dominant males hold and defend territories. New research finds that they eavesdrop on […]
The peak of the Atlantic hurricane season has arrived and is living up to its name: Two storms, Laura and Marco, developed within the relatively small confines of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea area late last week. Their formation has already put the season halfway through the alphabetical list of available storm names—a […]
On Sunday afternoon, August 24, President Trump announced an emergency use authorization (EUA) for what he described as a “powerful therapy” against COVID-19. Known as convalescent plasma, or CP, it’s donated by survivors of the disease, on the theory that the antibodies it carries can protect others from COVID’s worst ravages. And a few weeks […]
Australian officials plan to redouble their efforts to save the Great Barrier Reef from the effects of global warming. The world’s largest coral reef system is under threat from rising ocean temperatures, ocean acidification and violent tropical weather. Scientists also have struggled to contain outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns starfish, a polyp-eating predator that can threaten […]
One of the reasons Covid-19 has spread so swiftly around the globe is that for the first days after infection, people feel healthy. Instead of staying home in bed, they may be out and about, unknowingly passing the virus along. But in addition to these pre-symptomatic patients, the relentless silent spread of this pandemic is […]
Editor’s Note (8/25/20): This article is being republished today in light of the news that Africa is expected to be declared free of wild polio. The achievement comes after decades of vaccination drives succeeded in driving the virus out from its last foothold in Nigeria. In January 2014 an American public health worker was visiting […]
The Indian monsoon season is in full swing, drenching the streets of Mumbai and flooding the plains of Bihar. But dark clouds of another kind—disease, hunger and death—are also gathering fast. India is now ahead of all other countries in terms of the number of new recorded COVID-19 cases per day—close to 70,000 in mid-August. […]