Tracy Wait Dowd was in her second-floor apartment in Kingston, N.Y., one night in July when she heard a noise in her kitchen: A bat was fluttering near the overhead light. She did what seemed like the most sensible thing at the time: She went to her bedroom, closed the door and hoped it would…
I’ve never been an outdoorswoman. Though I’m from Texas, spent pivotal teenage years in Kentucky and grew up around hunters and farmers, there’s a difference between spending time outside and living, cooking and sleeping with nature. Giselle Burgess, a mother of five and a Girl Scout troop leader whom I met while researching a book…
On a surf outing a few years ago, as I paddled out to the sandbar, I felt something rough and solid brush against my leg. A shadow larger than my shortboard passed in the turquoise water below. I was surfing in the breaks off New Smyrna Beach, Fla., a city known to many as the…
My husband, our tween son and I moved into a new house at the beginning of the year. We didn’t meet our neighbors before the pandemic hit; we still haven’t. After the horrible police shooting of Jacob Blake last week, our son made a beautiful Black Lives Matter poster and asked if he could display…
In planning documents sent last week to public health agencies around the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention described preparations for two coronavirus vaccines they refer to simply as Vaccine A and Vaccine B. The technical details of the vaccines, including the time between doses and their storage temperatures, match well with the…
SAN FRANCISCO — It is the beachfront version of a double black diamond ski slope, smack in the middle of this major American city, framed by the San Francisco skyline and fog-wreathed Golden Gate Bridge. Playing out against this backdrop most weekdays in summer is a scene so hair-raising as to seem unreal: dozens of…
New York’s first Makeup Museum, an immersive, interactive concept focusing on touch and experimentation, was slated to open in May. Its premiere exhibition, “Pink Jungle: 1950s Makeup in America,” would encourage visitors to take part in experiences like mixing their own makeup or indulging in facials modeled on the ones given to Marilyn Monroe and…
Separated from perfection by nothing more than a pinch of salt, ripe tomatoes inspire a very particular type of summer joy. In the last few weeks of the season, many of us consume them ravenously, as if storing sunshine for the cold months ahead. You’ll still find plenty at their peak right now, but even…
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The setup of the two friends’ agricultural venture was unusual. Their farm sat next to a gas station, inside a shipping container where the plants grew in vertically stacked shelves. And the timing of their first sales — during the early days of Malaysia’s coronavirus outbreak — seemed less than ideal.…
Helmholtz Zentrum München is awarded four ERC Starting Grants in the latest funding round of the European Research Council (ERC). All shortlisted projects submitted by early career researchers were successful, marking a novel record for the center. The winners aim to promote a healthier society and accelerate the development of personalized medicine solutions in the…