Whenever I see a photo from the 1960s or 1970s, I am startled. It’s not the clothes. It’s not the hair. It’s the bodies. So many people were skinny. In 1976, 15 percent of American adults were obese. Now the it’s nearly 40 percent. No one really knows why bodies have changed so much. Scientists…
Vaccines are among the most ingenious of inventions, and among the most maddening. Some global killers, like smallpox and polio, have been totally or nearly eradicated by products made with methods dating back to Louis Pasteur. Others, like malaria and H.I.V., utterly frustrate scientists to this day, despite astonishing new weapons like gene-editing. We have…
Nothing humbles history’s great thinkers more quickly than reading their declarations on the causes of madness. Over the centuries, mental illness has been attributed to everything from a “badness of spirit” (Aristotle) and a “humoral imbalance” (Galen) to autoerotic fixation (Freud) and the weakness of the hierarchical state of the ego (Jung). The arrival of…
It’s a rare person in America who doesn’t know of someone with Alzheimer’s disease. The most common type of dementia, it afflicts about 44 million people worldwide, including 5.5 million in the United States. Experts predict those numbers could triple by 2050 as the older population increases. So why is there still no effective treatment…
It is 2018, and the director of the National Science Foundation, France Córdova, is tired of learning that male scientists whose research she supports with public funds have sexually harassed their female students, staff and colleagues. At 71, she still remembers an unwanted sexual remark from a graduate-school professor she had sought out for advice…
The pancreas is an organ that helps facilitate digestive function and blood sugar regulation. When cancer spreads from the pancreas to other parts of the body, doctors classify it as stage 4 pancreatic cancer. According to research from 2015, about 53 percent of people with pancreatic cancer receive a diagnosis when the cancer is in…
H&M Now in its eighth iteration, the H&M Conscious Exclusive Collection is constantly expanding the boundaries of the Swedish giant’s sustainable efforts. Receive 15 per- cent off the recycled cashmere or polyester velvet pieces from the fall collection, or 10 percent at sister brand &Other Stories, in-store, by donating a grocery-size bag of unwanted clothing…
Victoria’s Secret has long been known for its assortment of lace bras, panties and racy lingerie, as well as its annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. But this year, comments made by Ed Razek, L Brands’ chief marketing officer, left many people miffed. While the cultural shift towards diversity in the fashion industry has resulted in…
Former Dallas Cowboys linebacker Jeff Rohrer, 59, became the first known N.F.L. player, past or present, to marry a man when he wed Joshua Ross, a 36-year-old aesthetician Sunday at the Wattles Mansion Gardens in Los Angeles. Image “Best night of my life,” said Mr. Ross, an aesthetician to celebrities. The couple are flying to…
Jim Lahey, the chef and owner of Sullivan Street Bakery, spent several months perfecting his new brownie. It’s moist and seriously intense — more caky than fudgy. He said the treat is inspired by recipe from his “brownie muse,” Faith Heller Willinger, a food writer who lives in Florence, Italy. Because Mr. Lahey makes the…