Atlantic
Viewpoint: ‘For most young people, a medical pathway is not the best way to manage gender-related distress’ — English rethink puberty blockers for youth in wake of controversial ‘Cass Report’
Hilary Cass is the kind of hero the world needs today. She has entered one of the most toxic debates ...
Viewpoint: Brain theory—We thought weight loss drug Ozempic worked in the gut. We were wrong
Scientists zero in on the likely mechanisms of weight-loss drugs, but they are encountering new and baffling questions ...
Scientists losing uphill battle to prevent measles spread
Measles seems poised to make a comeback in America. Two adults and two children staying at a migrant shelter in ...
Whether you use Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro or Zepbound, you’re going to hit a weight-loss plateau. Then what?
Everyone hits a weight-loss plateau, but the race is on for next-generation drugs that can help patients lose even more ...
Weight-loss drugs, malaria vaccines and more: CRISPR innovations headline the science breakthroughs of 2023
CRISPR is the year’s top breakthrough not only because of heroic work done in the past 12 months, but also ...
‘Crime of insincerity’: What happens when researchers publish scientific results they don’t believe in?
Scientific publication can be a constraining, flattening, and maddening process—but that’s not necessarily a bad thing ...
Viewpoint: Young far-right activists embrace ‘scientific racism’
Viewpoint: The pseudoscience of race provides both a justification of hierarchies and an enemy to rail against ...
Viewpoint: With climate change boosting temperatures, we should get used to sweating
Perspiration is vital to life. It cools our bodies and hydrates our skin; it manages our microbiome and emits chemical ...
Viewpoint: Nuclear codes — ‘The temptation to automate nuclear weapons with AI will be great. The danger is greater’
The world’s major military powers have begun a race to wire AI into warfare. For the moment, that mostly means ...
Could ice cream be good for your health?
Back in 2018, a Harvard doctoral student named Andres Ardisson Korat was presenting his research on the relationship between dairy ...
Might weight-loss drugs like Ozempic encourage people to stop exercising?
In the age of Ozempic, what’s the point of working out? The idea that we exercise to get thin may ...
Living through a time of pestilence
If the pandemic ought to have given us anything, it should have been a more universal empathy toward the condition ...
Lab leak or animal source? Strong evidence that COVID traces to raccoon dogs in China
The strongest evidence yet that an animal started the pandemic: A new analysis of genetic samples from China appears to ...
‘Sleep is a need, but it’s also a ritual’: Exploring the scientific mystery of snoozing
Why do living things sleep? “Ask researchers this question, and listen as, like clockwork, a sense of awe and frustration ...
Perspectives on cultured meat: Differences driven by ethics, education, ethics and views on how to address climate change
Last week I asked, “What do you think about meat grown in a lab? Would you eat it? Will your ...
‘Are we dreaming big enough’? CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna challenges governments, universities and investors to seize the moment and radically expand gene editing revolution
In a life-changing collaboration with the French scientist Emmanuelle Charpentier, we figured out how the chemistry of this process could ...
Long COVID complications spark quest to better understand long-term consequences of other viruses
Several months into the pandemic, a new aspect of COVID-19 started gaining attention from scientists, journalists, and health-care professionals. Instead ...
COVID ad infinitum: Why the coronavirus could be part of our lives for a very long time
Experts knew from early on that, for almost everyone, infection with this coronavirus would be inevitable. As James Hamblin memorably ...
Could Paxlovid help treat long COVID?
In the two years since she caught the coronavirus, 38-year-old Jessica McGovern has cycled through “well over 100 drugs, supplements, ...
Is a new COVID surge cycle beginning?
At this very moment, the United States, as a whole, remains in its legit pandemic lull. Coronavirus case counts and ...
Social reckoning? Do we need cathartic nationwide acknowledgement of COVID’s horrific death and injury toll?
On May 24, 2020, as the United States passed 100,000 recorded deaths, The New York Times filled its front page ...
Why we might need not annual COVID boosters
In many parts of the world, the variant’s record-breaking wave is receding. Having a bespoke vaccine in 100 days would ...
Many people equate COVID with flu. Here’s why it’s more like smoking
It’s suddenly become acceptable to say that COVID is—or will soon be—like the flu. Such analogies have long been the ...
More than 7 million immunocompromised people in the US remain vulnerable to COVID. How should their concerns be addressed?
COVID-19 is still all around us, everywhere, and millions of people... are walking around with a compromised immune system. A ...
Vaccinating the elderly: An unappreciated strategy to reduce COVID deaths
No other basic fact of life matters as dramatically as age for COVID. Other common factors associated with risk—race, diabetes, ...
Challenging the endemic hypothesis: ‘We have no idea what will happen next’
Endemicity, so the narrative goes, is how normal life resumes. (Some pundits and politicians would argue that we are, actually, already at ...
Viewpoint: Masking school children to protect against COVID? Why the negatives may outweigh the benefits
The CDC guidance on school masking is far-reaching, recommending “universal indoor masking by all students (age 2 and older), staff, ...
COVID risk social contract: Is it okay to walk into a bar if you might sicken someone who might need hospital care?
When is it morally acceptable for one person to subject another to risk? Is it okay to walk into a ...
