I am an extreme planner. But I’ll admit that the task of planning a cross-country move during a pandemic with a suppressed immune system (and a sassy cat named Brünnhilde) was a daunting one. It was a plan born of necessity; I have Crohn’s disease, an autoimmune disease that affects the intestinal tract, as well…
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Send questions about the office, money, careers and work-life balance to workfriend@nytimes.com. Include your name and location, or a request to remain anonymous. Letters may be edited. Free Labor Boundaries A few weeks ago, I started a part-time internship. The work is remote and unpaid, and my supervisor and I are working across time zones.…
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Juan Morel, a 38-year-old professional bodybuilder, has several nicknames. One is “Diesel,” for his resemblance to the similarly smooth-headed and muscled actor Vin. Another, “King of New York,” he earned for winning his second New York Pro competition last May. “And now,” Mr. Morel said recently over FaceTime from his Long Island home, “the ‘Cookie…
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I am in the Catskills in a charming, tucked-away treehouse of an inn. My room, walking distance to hiking trails, overlooks a waterfall. Morning coffee and evening vodka-tonic are taken on the deck where the temperature clocks in at a marvelous 75 degrees. Owls hoot. Birds chirrup. Wind tickles my legs. During the coronavirus lockdown…
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A few years ago, I received a handwritten letter in the mail from a person I didn’t know. The writer was the executive director of a summer camp. He had read my father’s obituary in the local newspaper. My dad wasn’t famous, but he’d led a remarkable life. Born to a Scottish maid and Irish…
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First there was the Zoom boom, followed quickly by Zoom fatigue. Then everyone became a gamer, inviting visitors to their virtual islands and sending friends digital gifts. There were raves, meetings, meditations and movie nights, all of which took place on the internet. Now, months later and with no sign of the virus’ end in…
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The gate to the orphanage was smaller than I remembered. Nearly 25 years had passed since I lived there. I wondered if coming back was a good idea. My best friends Phu, Francis and Will had planned this trip to Vietnam and invited me to come. I met them 15 years earlier when I was…
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Washington, DC – July 24, 2020 – A team of researchers showed that artificial intelligence (AI) could help predict the type of bacteria that caused the infection in patients with pneumonia. The research is presented at ASM Microbe Online, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. “This research highlights the potential of AI…
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A Nature study authored by a global team of scientists and led by Sumit Chanda, Ph.D., professor at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, has identified 21 existing drugs that stop the replication of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The scientists analyzed one of the world’s largest collections of known drugs for their ability…
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An experimental messenger RNA (mRNA)-based vaccine against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) elicits protective immune responses in mice and non-human primates, researchers report on July 23rd in the journal Cell. Two injections of the vaccine were sufficient to induce robust immunity, completely preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection in mice. “The robust protection observed in the…
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