When Will the Pandemic End? And How?

Here’s what you need to know: When will this end? And how will we know? ImageA Sicilian fresco of “The Triumph of Death” from 1445. In the previous century, the Black Death killed at least a third of Europe’s population.Credit…Werner Forman/Universal Images Group, via Getty Images When will the Covid-19 pandemic end? And how? According…

Doing the Bump With the Belugas

Beneath the waves, two smoldering coals for eyes watched me with an intense, unyielding stare. Pristine white bodies floated up elegantly from the depths, one after another, surrounding my kayak in the open water. Their ghostly pale faces with wide, Joker-esque smiles pushed closer. A long, powerful sound burst up through the air, like a…

How to Rethink Your Wedding

Let’s just be real. If your wedding was planned as a big gathering in the next couple weeks (probably even months), and you don’t want to cancel, now is the time to pivot to a virtual ceremony. We’ve thought about ways to replan your wedding virtually and engage your friends and family. Let’s talk. Who…

No Natural Light? No Problem

People are finding all sorts of ways to pass the time in isolation: working on 3,000-piece jigsaw puzzles, stress-baking bread, watching celebrities practice social distancing in their sunlit, open-plan homes filled with thriving houseplants and surrounded by immaculate landscaping. If you’d resisted plant mania before, you may now see that empty corner of your apartment…

The microbiome controls immune system fitness

Working alongside colleagues in Mainz, Bern, Hannover and Bonn, researchers from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) and the German Rheumatism Research Center Berlin (DRFZ) were able to show how the microbiome helps to render the immune system capable of responding to pathogens. If absent, relevant mediators are not released, resulting…