LONDON — Researchers seeking evidence of chemical “micropollution” in five rural English rivers have found pesticides in many of the freshwater shrimp they tested. And cocaine in all of them. The presence of the illegal drug was unexpected because the sites where the researchers gathered their samples, in the eastern coastal county of Suffolk, were…
People didn’t talk much about sex in the 1980s — at least not openly. So when a pint-size former Israeli sniper with a thick German accent began saying things like “premature ejaculation” and enter “from behind” on local radio — and later, television — people listened (closely). Dr. Ruth banned the word “frigid” on her…
Twitter may be besieged with controversies over inaccurate news, hate speech and harassment, but its Manhattan offices on West 17th Street are a study in sunny civility. On a recent Thursday, the 400 so-called tweeps who work there were dining on Indian food in the bright cafeteria, with its Big Buck Hunter arcade game and…
“You know what’s so great about this?” said Lake Bell, nuzzling a husky mix named Kylo at the A.S.P.C.A. adoption shelter on the Upper East Side. “I’m going to pick up poop at some point.” Ms. Bell, an actress and filmmaker who made a splash with her 2013 feature-film directorial debut, “In a World…,” was…
The scent of lily of the valley cannot be easily bottled. For decades companies that make soap, lotions and perfumes have relied on a chemical called bourgeonal to imbue their products with the sweet smell of the little white flowers. A tiny drop can be extraordinarily intense. If you can smell it at all, that…
Dublin has long been a beer and whiskey town. For generations pubs poured the same pints of stout and familiar bottles of whiskey, but in recent years a shift has shaken the local drinking scene. A new type of bar — focused on craft cocktails and often showcasing the mixing potential of Irish spirits —…
It takes some gumption for a designer to announce, just days before the opening of the Metropolitan Museum’s costume extravaganza celebrating the ubiquity of “camp,” that “reality is what interested her. Because everything now is too much: too complicated, too sophisticated.” Too angry, Miuccia Prada could have added. Too gilded. Too full of distortion. “Simplicity…
SHALAZHI, Russia — At the wedding of Ibragim Arsanov and Zarema Bashayeva, plum and pear trees were in bloom and the snowy peaks of the Caucasus Mountains formed a picturesque backdrop for the estimated 700 guests at the celebration. Old men sat at long tables laden with broiled turkeys and bottles of nonalcoholic pear juice,…
The protein shakes that health supplement stores sell, which people sometimes buy as a dietary aid to build muscle mass, may not actually be safe for health in the long run according to a new study in mice. Could protein shakes negatively affect health in the long run? Many fitness protein powders that are commercially…
“Don’t worry,” reads the cover photo of my sister’s Facebook page. “Everything is going to be amazing.” The words, in neon blue, green and red, glow from the screen as a kind of preternatural promise, a message from beyond. When I’m feeling stressed, I click on her profile, gaze at that image and take a…