Post-Covid, Many Patients Try Smell Therapy. But Does it Work?
To treat Covid-related smell loss, some people are turning to physical therapy for the nose. The only problem: physiology is incredibly difficult to study; and the experimental therapy — while helpful...
View ArticleDo Kids Really Need to Be Vaccinated for Covid? Yes. No. Maybe.
The notion that the Covid-19 pandemic cannot be curbed without vaccinating children has quickly become axiomatic among many experts. But other scientists suggest that while it might eventually prove...
View ArticleIn the Tales Told by Sewage, Public Health and Privacy Collide
Countries all over the world have made wastewater analysis a standard public health measure — and they’ve been able to use this existing infrastructure during the Covid-19 crisis. But experts feel that...
View ArticleSide-Stepping Safeguards, Data Journalists Are Doing Science Now
Gone are the days when science journalism was like sports journalism, where the action was watched from the press box and simply conveyed. News outlets, with their increasingly sophisticated in-house...
View ArticleBook Review: Lessons From the Rise and Fall of Ancient Cities
In “Four Lost Cities,” Annalee Newitz illuminates what we can glean from the growth and decline of early civilizations. From central Turkey to the Mississippi floodplains, each of these cities share a...
View ArticleCovid-19 Ravages India in Unexpected New Wave
In our weekly news roundup: Researchers have suggested a range of possible causes for this new spike, including loosening public health standards, large political and religious gatherings, and the...
View ArticleFor Physically Disabled Parents, Covid’s Trials Are Amplified
Across the United States, parents have dealt with school closures, isolation from community support, and other obstacles during the Covid-19 pandemic. And for the millions of parents with physical...
View ArticlePooled Testing Gets Smarter During the Pandemic
Combining multiple nasal swab samples into one pooled test for Covid-19 can save time and money. And smart pooled testing uses either mathematically complex techniques or AI to boost the efficiency of...
View ArticleAn Unorthodox Allergy Clinic Seeks to Disrupt Medicine
The Southern California Food Allergy Institute began as a one-man operation in a hospital basement. The clinic’s website now boasts a 99 percent success rate with thousands of patients in remission...
View ArticleAmerica’s Forgotten History of Supervised Opioid Injection
A Philadelphia nonprofit is stirring controversy with its plan to open a facility that would allow people to inject heroin and other drugs under the watchful eye of a nurse. What critics fail to...
View ArticleBook Review: The Next Frontier of Warfare Is Online
In “This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends,” Nicole Perlroth chronicles the growing black market for cyberweapons, and the global arms race it has created. As with the atomic bomb, the U.S. has...
View ArticleCovid-19 Remains Unchecked in India
Sixteen months since Covid-19 began sweeping around the world, India may be on the brink of the pandemic’s largest humanitarian disaster. A new wave of infections has swamped hospitals and official...
View ArticleIn a Second Wave, Covid Finds India’s Rural Villages Vulnerable
The escalating scourge has prompted thousands of rural Indians to flow toward urban centers in search of care. And as the death toll rises, those who are not yet ill face a wrenching loss of...
View ArticlePsychology, Misinformation, and the Public Square
In my role as Chief Disinformation Officer of Harmony Square, I learned about the manipulation techniques people use to gain a following, foment discord, and exploit societal tensions for political...
View ArticleAmid Drought, California Contests Nestlé’s Water Rights
As drought conditions worsen across California, last month Nestlé received a draft cease-and-desist order from state officials. The company has maintained that its rights to California spring water...
View ArticleHow Often Do Police Use Tasers on Teens? Experts Want More Data.
Introduced to law enforcement in 1993, Tasers are currently marketed as a “less lethal” alternative to firearms. But little is known about how these energy weapons are used on youth. Researchers are...
View ArticleThe Silent Epidemic of Premature Death in Black Men
Even before the pandemic, Black men in the U.S. lived, on average, five years fewer than White men and a decade shorter than women overall. Research suggests this disparity reflects the experiences of...
View ArticleBook Review: Tales of Nature Altered by Human Hands
In “Second Nature,” Nathaniel Rich explores the impacts of technologically-driven human advances. From climate-related changes to pollution to land use, Rich deftly explains the pressing debates that...
View ArticleAmid India’s Covid-19 Surge, U.S. Offers Belated Medical Aid
India’s Covid-19 disaster has raised questions in the United States about the country’s responsibility to help. Last week, after extensive pressure and criticism, the Biden administration agreed to...
View ArticleWhen the Line Between Life and Death Is ‘a Little Bit Fuzzy’
Over the past few years, highly publicized lawsuits have raised a potent question: When, precisely, can someone be considered brain dead? Even among physicians there is disagreement about what...
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