36 Hours in Barolo, Italy

As far as Italian wine regions go, it’s hard to beat Barolo. Crowds are thinner than in Chianti, the food better than in Friuli, the landscape lusher than in Umbria or Sicily. In the heart of Italy’s northwestern Piedmont region — a gastronomic paradise famous for its rich pastas and white truffles that are in…

The Latest in Translation Devices

Forget phrase books or even Google Translate. New translation devices are getting closer to replicating the fantasy of the Babel fish, which in the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” sits in one’s ear and instantly translates any foreign language into the user’s own. The WT2 Plus Ear to Ear AI Translator Earbuds from Timekettle are…

The Party Girl, Till the End

“Is this for my obit?” The Instagram direct message came in reply to a reporter’s query to Nina Griscom. It was meant to be humorous but also not. Whip smart, potty mouthed and uncommonly direct, Ms. Griscom, 65, is a celebrated “It” girl from an earlier era. The decade in question was the 1980s, a…

The way of making memories

How does the brain translate information from the outside world into something we remember? An international team of researchers working in the Human Brain Project have zoomed in on the neuronal circuits in the striatum, a brain structure involved in memory, behavior and reward learning. The findings, published in the PLOS Computational Biology Journal, increase…

Vitamin D and Omega 3 supplements do not reduce risk of systemic inflammation

Vitamin D and marine omega-3 fatty acids — also known as fish oil — are purported to have many health benefits, including reducing systemic inflammation. Signals of systemic inflammation are tied to diseases of aging and obesity, including cardiovascular disease, heart failure, osteoporosis, diabetes mellitus, some cancers, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. While…