SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — Death comes for all of us, but Silicon Valley has, until recently, not come for death. Who can blame them for the hesitation? The death services industry is heavily regulated and fraught with religious and health considerations. The handling of dead bodies doesn’t seem ripe for venture-backed disruption. The gravestone doesn’t…
It can seem as though everyone in Silicon Valley is either heading to or coming back from a psychedelic trip, and it is probably Michael Pollan’s fault. He did after all write a best seller, “How to Change Your Mind,” about how healthful psychedelics can be. His neighbor Ayelet Waldman, whose memoir “A Really Good…
Why pay top dollar for a luxury vacation when it’s possible to have it for less? A high-end trip without a premium price tag is possible anywhere in the world, but your approach needs to be tailored to your destination. Here, locals in five famously expensive cities — London, Paris, San Francisco, Singapore and Sydney…
Our bodies seem to adjust to prolonged, repeated physical exertion and its energy demands by burning fewer — instead of more — calories over the course of the day, even if our exertions continue at the same level, according to a surprising new study of energy expenditure conducted during a 20-week running race across the…
However meager our lives, celebrity Instagram accounts offer certain reliable comforts: front-facing studio-quality portraits of our favorite stars standing or sitting alone in careful outfits; a high percentage of photos taken from the manubrium up, so that our entire phone screen is dominated by their proportional features. And, if the celebrity is Beyoncé-level famous, a…
Many nutrition experts blame processed foods for the obesity epidemic, suggesting that a return to home cooking would turn it around. But now some researchers are pushing back against that idea, arguing that it oversimplifies the obstacles that poor and middle-class families face. The case against processed foods has been growing. A flurry of studies…
New research in mice has discovered that disrupting the gut microbiome may result in more aggressive breast cancer. One factor that may drive the spread of breast cancer is the population of gut bacteria. Although the outlook of people with breast cancer has improved dramatically in recent years, predicting and preventing the spread of cancer…
Few homeowners would want the shapes of fungus, germs or mold to freckle their walls or ceilings. But when Stephen Pallrand, the owner of the architecture, design and construction firm Home Front Build and a dedicated environmentalist, set out to construct his family’s new house in Los Angeles, he chose these intricate motifs. Printed mycelium,…
Every Thursday, Henk and Elly Oving take care of their young grandchildren. They don’t have to travel far. They just go downstairs. The Ovings share a five-story home in Amsterdam — two apartments stacked on top of each other and joined by a central staircase — with their daughter Jantien and her husband, Auguste van…
With the online restaurant delivery market growing ever more competitive, Amazon is discontinuing the service it started four years ago as an alternative to popular apps like Grubhub and UberEats. Amazon Restaurants, which customers in nearly 200 cities in the United States use to order from local restaurants, will officially close on June 24. Amazon…