Health & Medicine

Transplanting a human protein, known for promoting growth, into crops may engender larger, heavier and more bountiful plants.

Innovation for Good

Researchers Transfer a Human Protein Into Plants to Supersize Them

While a promising route to boosting crop yields, experts say more work needs to be done to understand why the tweak works

Individuals wear masks while shopping at a grocery store in Los Angeles. Masks help prevent breakthrough infections.

Covid-19

Six Important Things to Know About Breakthrough Infections

As the Delta variant likely drives more cases of Covid-19 in vaccinated individuals, experts weigh in with helpful information

A man in Seattle wears a mask as wildfire smoke descends on the city in September of 2020.

Covid-19

Four Ways to Protect Yourself From Harmful Air Pollution Caused by Wildfires

Awareness about exposure, high-quality masks and air filters can help protect you from dangerous pollutants in smoke

Were it not for tuberculosis, artist and furniture maker Daniel Mack writes, “It’s unlikely that there would have been an Adirondack chair.”

How the Adirondack Chair Became the Feel-Good Recliner That Cures What Ails You

The furniture piece has gone through countless permutations, but it all started at a time when resting outdoors was thought to be a matter of life or death

Will an American athlete from the Tokyo Games grab gold and become the next to be featured on the cover of Wheaties?

The Tokyo Olympics

How Wheaties Became the 'Breakfast of Champions'

Images of Olympians and other athletes on boxes helped the cereal maintain a competitive edge

Researchers say that wild plants that gave rise to today’s three lineages of cannabis grew in present-day China.

New Study Suggests Cannabis' Wild Ancestors Likely Came from China

The analysis identifies East Asia as a potential source of genetic diversity for the growing market for medical and recreational marijuana

Nine out of 10 malaria victims live in Africa, most of them children under the age of five.

Innovation for Good

West African Scientists Are Leading the Science Behind a Malaria Vaccine

Researchers in Mali have been working for decades on the treatment that's now in the final phase of clinical trials

DARPA's initial, modest goal is to alleviate jet lag.

Innovation for Good

This Implant Could One Day Control Your Sleep and Wake Cycles

The so-called 'living pharmacy' will be able to manufacture pharmaceuticals from inside the body

Many of the tombs in Japan are elaborately decorated. Nearby visitors can buy flowers, buckets. brooms and other gardening tools to tidy up the graves.

'Tree Burials' Are Gaining Popularity in Japan as Gravesite Space Decreases

In some cities, cemetery plots are the most expensive real estate per square foot

In work and in personal life, virtual communication kept us in touch during Covid — but oh, those endless Zoom meets! There’s psychological and sensory science behind why they wear us down, and much promise to be realized once we iron out the wrinkles.

How the Pandemic Has Revealed the Promise and Perils of Life Lived Online

For good and for bad, Covid has propelled us even faster into immersive communication technologies

A Covid-19 restrictions sign hangs outside a supermarket in Austin, Texas. Lauren Ancel Meyers at the University of Texas at Austin has shared her team’s modeling results with city officials who make decisions about Covid-19 measures.

Covid-19

What Data Scientists Learned by Modeling the Spread of Covid-19

Models of the disease have become more complex, but are still only as good as the assumptions at their core and the data that feed them

Minute Molecular, the company developing the device, has high hopes for it as an efficient and accurate means of testing people at schools, workplaces and sports stadiums.

Innovation for Good

This Compact PCR Test for Covid-19 Could Give Accurate Results in 15 Minutes

The speed and ease of the DASH testing platform would be a boon for screening efforts

L to R: Zelia Nutall, Mary Mahoney and Bertha Parker

Women Who Shaped History

Looking Beyond the Female Firsts of Science History

Two authors ask readers to change their understanding of what science is and who gets to participate

Giraffes are just as astonishing on the inside as they are to look at. Standing up to 19 feet tall, they require enormously high blood pressure to pump blood up to the head, yet they suffer few, if any, of the consequences that people with high blood pressure would.

The Cardiovascular Secrets of Giraffes

Because of their height, giraffes require scarily high blood pressures—yet they escape the massive health problems that plague humans with hypertension

Cardioids begin to pulse with a heartbeat after seven days of development.

Innovation for Good

This Lab-Grown Mini Heart Can Keep a Beat

The creation, called a cardioid, will help with the study of heart disease and the discovery of new medications

Bats, whales, naked mole rats, elephants, albatrosses, certain dog breeds and a few other animals live unexpectedly long lives. Can scientists discover their secrets?

Why Scientists Are Studying the Genetic Tricks of the Longest-Lived Animals

Researchers are investigating how some species live unexpectedly long lives in order to pinpoint factors affecting human longevity.

The aged bathe in the restorative waters of the mythical fountain of youth in this 1546 oil painting by German Renaissance artist Lucas Cranach the Elder. Scientists have turned to studies of blood to identify a path to rejuvenating tissues damaged by the aging process.

In the Search to Stall Aging, Biotech Startups Are Out for Blood

A handful of companies are trying vastly different approaches to spin animal studies into the next big anti-aging therapy

Bodies lose their vigor with the passing of the years, but emotional well-being tends to improve, studies find. Among the observations: Though older people may have fewer social contacts, those they retain bring more satisfaction and meaning.

Why Do Older Individuals Have Greater Control of Their Feelings?

Psychologist Susan Turk Charles talks about findings that reveal the elderly have higher emotional well-being

Some facets of the 1918 influenza pandemic echo today's crisis: There were mask mandates, campaigns against spitting and pleas for people to cover their mouths, and more than half a million Americans died. The decade that followed the pandemic, however, was marked by social change and economic prosperity—for some.

What Caused the Roaring Twenties? Not the End of a Pandemic (Probably)

As the U.S. anticipates a vaccinated summer, historians say measuring the impact of the 1918 influenza on the uproarious decade that followed is tricky

British schoolchildren dig into a lunch of fish sticks in 1974. Since its debut in 1953, the frozen food has proved to be a hit among kids and adults, owing to its palatability, low cost, and convenience.

The Surprising Success Story of Fish Sticks

The 1950s convenience food has enjoyed a winning streak—no less so than during the Covid-19 pandemic

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