MARSEILLE, France — In this ancient port city on the Mediterranean, there is no escaping the dark, hot, earthy fish concoction known as bouillabaisse. All around the Vieux Port, restaurants with multilingual menus lure tourists with the promise of an authentic taste of the city’s signature dish. One advertises in bright white lights a “bouillabaisse…
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Good morning. I’d like to be writing today from the bridge of a tuna boat, crouched over the keyboard in shorts and deck boots, the cuffs of my shirt absorbing the sweat on my wrists. It’d be a quiet time, waiting on the tide, far out to sea, high sun rising and maybe fish with…
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Image Some researchers at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., have been using gene therapy to try to treat sickle cell anemia. CreditErin Scott/Reuters Sickle cell disease affects about 100,000 Americans, most of them African-Americans. There are few treatments for it, and experts say not enough is being done to prevent complications. Just recently,…
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We took our children on vacation, oh yes, of course we did. We took them to the beach. We never got it together to own a second home; no country weekend cottage, no beach house. We never even got it together to achieve a recurring rental, or to return to a particularly beloved motel or…
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As the elderly man with an incurable cancer lay dying, he told his son he had only one regret. Rather than enjoying his last weeks of life with the people and places he loved, he had squandered them on drug treatments that consumed his days and made him miserable. Perhaps others can benefit from this…
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It was 7 a.m. on Independence Day when a doctor told Rose and Roger Porter Jr. that their daughter could die within hours. For nearly a week, Mikayla, 10, had suffered intensifying bouts of fever, diarrhea and stabbing stomach pains. That morning, the Porters rushed her to a clinic where a doctor called for a…
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Good morning. One of my favorite recipes in our collection comes from Julia Reed, the elegant New Orleans writer and cook. It’s for a simple supermarket-and-farmstand summer-squash casserole (above), Mr. Roast Chicken’s friendliest table companion. Yes, there are Ritz crackers in there, and white toast crumbs as well. You’ll be into it or you’ll get…
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A wide-ranging review of 36 trials found that testosterone may have profound positive effects on sexual function and well-being in postmenopausal women. New research extols the benefits of testosterone for the sexual well-being of older women. This review, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, included blinded randomized controlled trials of testosterone treatment that had…
DetailsIn a recent study, mice that ate a diet with reduced levels of a particular amino acid responded better to cancer treatments. The findings are intriguing, but the authors call for caution. Meat and eggs contain particularly high levels of methionine. Doctors and other experts now understand the significant role that nutrition plays in health.…
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Image Visitors now throng the Forbidden City in Beijing.CreditYan Cong for The New York Times BEIJING — For much of the past century, the Forbidden City has been an imposing void in the otherwise bustling heart of Beijing. The 180-acre compound, where emperors and their advisers plotted China’s course for centuries, was stripped of its…
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