At some point in your life, you will likely experience the anxiety of sitting in a hospital room, waiting for a serious medical diagnosis. Even those lucky enough to avoid that situation will likely accompany a loved one—a parent, grandparent or child—who is receiving the news. You might remember the stiffness of the chair, the […]
Editor’s Note (9/8/20): This article has been updated and republished in light of findings suggesting a higher rate of COVID-19 diagnoses among young adult e-cigarette users. Smoking or vaping could make you more vulnerable to a severe infection with the novel coronavirus, some experts say. Although there have not been many studies investigating this link […]
When COVID-19 hit the U.S., most of us became homebodies. Journalist Emily Anthes was thus propitious in the timing of her new book, The Great Indoors: The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Happiness (Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux). You may distract yourself from cabin fever by learning about the cabin. […]
The designation “mountain man” conjures an image of a rough, bearded, possibly grimy white man living ruggedly and adventurously amid trees, snow, deer and the occasional bear. Although most people who live in the U.S.’s mountain states today do not reflect this narrow, stereotypical extreme, the peaks that surround them may shape personality traits that resonate […]
George Floyd could not breathe. Like one hundred thousand other Americans, he gasped horribly for air before his world went dark. Unlike them, his agony was not born from a lung-ravaging virus. He was strangled. He was murdered in public, with the weight of anti-Black hatred kneeling terribly—almost boastfully—down on his neck. Weeks before, and […]
When a craft sinks or goes missing at sea, search-and-rescue teams often rely on computer models to determine where to scour for survivors. Currently used models incorporate data from satellites and offshore sensors to predict a drifting object’s path, producing maps of the areas where it is most likely to be found. If the initial […]
J.B.S. Haldane, one of the founders of modern evolutionary biology theory, was reportedly asked what it would take for him to lose faith in the theory of evolution and is said to have replied, “Fossil rabbits in the Precambrian.” Since the so-called “Cambrian explosion” of 500 million years ago marks the earliest appearance in the […]
J.B.S. Haldane, one of the founders of modern evolutionary biology theory, was reportedly asked what it would take for him to lose faith in the theory of evolution and is said to have replied, “Fossil rabbits in the Precambrian.” Since the so-called “Cambrian explosion” of 500 million years ago marks the earliest appearance in the […]
It seems that science has lost, and politics won, in the battle against COVID-19 here in the United States. A recent Pew Research study reports that up to 25 percent of people surveyed see some truth to conspiracy theories saying that people deliberately planned the coronavirus outbreak that has now led to the demise of […]
Edited by Dava Sobel They sent out a dove: it wobbled home, wings slicked in a rainbow of oil, a sprig of tinsel snagged in its beak, a yard of fishing-line binding its feet. Bring back, bring back the leaf. They sent out an arctic fox: it plodded the bays of the northern fringe in […]