The United States reached a milestone, of sorts, when last week the Food and Drug Administration approved the first treatment for Covid-19. The drug is called Veklury, although most people know it by its scientific name, remdesivir. On Wednesday, its manufacturer, Gilead Sciences, said that remdesivir, which has been authorized for emergency use since the…
The most extensive study of ancient dog DNA to date has shown how rapidly dogs spread across the world after domestication, and pins their likely origin to a group of extinct wolves. The new report in the journal Science pushes ancient DNA studies of dogs to a new level, but raises as many questions as…
Competitive runners could soon face a familiar 2020 dilemma, as some race directors tiptoe forward with plans for in-person events, even as coronavirus cases climb again nationwide. Runners registered for these races, including me, must now decide whether we feel comfortable racing in-person and, if so, how we can best protect ourselves and the runners…
Babies love lullabies, and a new study suggests they don’t much care what culture the songs come from, what language they are sung in, or even who sings them. The study, led by Constance M. Bainbridge, a doctoral student at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Mila Bertolo, a researcher at Harvard, enrolled 144…
The fear of snakes has plagued Sydney Masters as long as she can remember. Ms. Masters, a New York public relations executive, experiences an overwhelming panic-attack type of fear — shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat — whenever she’s near anything that slithers. Several years ago, while she was walking in Washington Square Park, a man…
Motherhood was a dream of love planted in my heart before I was born, always a “when,” never an “if.” Even after I divorced at 34, childless, I still assumed my future would follow the date-marry-procreate blueprint I’d always imagined. But four years, dozens of dates and not a single serious boyfriend later, it seemed…
When I learned this summer that the clinical trial of the cancer drug that seems to be keeping me alive had unexpectedly shut down, I discovered the murky rules governing drug trials and the stressful confusion they breed in participants. In August, Alesha, the research nurse who has overseen my care since I entered a…
The school year is still young, yet parents and students alike may have noticed that academic motivation is already low. No surprise there. Whether school is remote, in-person or hybrid, many students have come to feel that, if this year were a meal, it would be all vegetables and no dessert. Gone, or hamstrung by…
BOSTON – Nearly one-third of cancer patients who decide to undergo surgery for their condition may have second thoughts, and this decision conflict may lead to less favorable treatment outcomes in both the near- and long-term, according to a team of investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health…
More than a dozen U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers experienced large, repeated outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illnesses in the last three years, according to a new study by researchers at UC San Francisco. Between Jan. 1, 2017, and March 22, 2020, the researchers identified 1,280 cases of influenza, 1,052 cases of chickenpox, and…