Viewpoint: With climate change roiling temperatures, we should get used to sweating

Viewpoint: With climate change boosting temperatures, we should get used to sweating

Atlantic | 
Perspiration is vital to life. It cools our bodies and hydrates our skin; it manages our microbiome and emits chemical ...
Lab leak or animal source? Strong evidence emerges that COVID started in raccoon dogs in China

Lab leak or animal source? Strong evidence that COVID traces to raccoon dogs in China

Atlantic | 
The strongest evidence yet that an animal started the pandemic: A new analysis of genetic samples from China appears to ...
COVID ad infinitum: Why the coronavirus could be part of our lives for a very long time

COVID ad infinitum: Why the coronavirus could be part of our lives for a very long time

Atlantic | 
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?

Could Paxlovid help treat long COVID?

Atlantic | 
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?

Is a new COVID surge cycle beginning?

Atlantic | 
At this very moment, the United States, as a whole, remains in its legit pandemic lull. Coronavirus case counts and ...
Why we might need not annual COVID boosters

Why we might need not annual COVID boosters

Atlantic | 
In many parts of the world, the variant’s record-breaking wave is receding. Having a bespoke vaccine in 100 days would ...
Challenging the endemic hypothesis: ‘We have no idea what will happen next’

Challenging the endemic hypothesis: ‘We have no idea what will happen next’

Atlantic | 
Endemicity, so the narrative goes, is how normal life resumes. (Some pundits and politicians would argue that we are, actually, already at ...
Winter COVID guide: What we need to know about our second pandemic year

Winter COVID guide: What we need to know about our second pandemic year

Atlantic | 
For nearly two years now, Americans have lived with SARS-CoV-2. We know it better than we once did. We know ...
At-home antigen tests are booming — but are they reliable? Here's the case for and against them

At-home antigen tests are booming — but are they reliable? Here’s the case for and against them

Atlantic | 
Researchers have long known that rapid [COVID-19] antigen tests, although convenient, sacrifice some accuracy for their art. Compared with PCR-based ...
COVID and evolutionary fitness: As vaccines limit the virus' ability to evolve into lethal strains, scientists hope future variants will be less threatening

COVID and evolutionary fitness: As vaccines limit the virus’ ability to evolve into lethal strains, scientists hope future variants will be less threatening

Atlantic | 
There is no playbook for evolution. Delta could continue to ratchet up its rate of spread, or it could be ousted ...
Think of vaccines more like flame retardants than impenetrable walls. Some people will inevitably get sick

Think of vaccines more like flame retardants than impenetrable walls. Some people will inevitably get sick

Atlantic | 
The first thing to know about the COVID-19 vaccines is that they’re doing exactly what they were designed and authorized ...
Very rare and very expected: Don’t be surprised when some vaccinated people get COVID

Very rare and very expected: Don’t be surprised when some vaccinated people get COVID

Atlantic | 
[N]early 40 million Americans have received the jabs they need for full immunization. A vanishingly small percentage of those people ...
Natural GMO: Whiteflies stole a gene from plants millions of years ago that can protect them from pesticides

Natural GMO: Whiteflies stole a gene from plants millions of years ago that can protect them from pesticides

Atlantic | 
Pale, squishy, and smaller than a sesame seed, these sap-sucking bugs terrorize more than 600 plant species, infecting them with ...
When it comes to COVID, identical doesn’t always mean the same: Twins got COVID together but their illnesses followed different trajectories

When it comes to COVID, identical doesn’t always mean the same: Twins got COVID together but their illnesses followed different trajectories

New York Times | 
Early last spring, [twin] sisters from Rochester, Mich., checked themselves into the hospital with fevers and shortness of breath. While ...
Ellume: 91%+ accurate at-home COVID test given first emergency authorization in the US

Ellume: 91%+ accurate at-home COVID test given first emergency authorization in the US

New York Times | 
The Food and Drug Administration on [December 15] issued an emergency authorization for the country’s first coronavirus test that can run from ...
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First new human organs found in three centuries – camera-shy salivary glands in your head

New York Times | 
A team of researchers in the Netherlands has discovered what may be a set of previously unidentified organs: a pair ...
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Why do some children who eat enough calories still end up stunted?

New York Times | 
Even when given enough to eat, [malnourished children] end up shorter than their peers and are saddled with cognitive deficits, ...
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These 2 ‘crucial and very different’ tests could help us contain the coronavirus

Smithsonian | 
Amidst a slew of shortages and logistical hurdles, American researchers are now slowly rolling out two crucial and very different ...
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If you survive the coronavirus, do you gain immunity? And for how long?

Smithsonian | 
Scientists don’t yet have definitive answers about SARS-CoV-2 immunity. For now, people who have had the disease appear unlikely to ...
coronavirus mask warm weather

Warm weather won’t solve COVID-19 pandemic by itself

Smithsonian | 
Many infectious diseases wax and wane with the changing months. Some, like flu, spike when the weather turns cold, while others, ...
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Trends that will shape the 2020s: Psychedelics as medicine, diagnostic cell phone apps and AI prediction of disease outbreaks

Smithsonian | 
Clearly, a lot can happen in a decade—but innovation has to start somewhere. Based on what’s breaking through now, here ...
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‘Living, self-healing xenobots’ made from frog stem cells could lead to new drug delivery system

Smithsonian | 
They’re perfect strangers: biological entities that, up until this point, had no business being together. And yet, [microbiologist Michael] Levin ...
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How whales got so big eating tiny krill. And why they don’t get bigger

Smithsonian | 
Pound for pound, the blue whale’s reign is indisputable. At around 100 feet long and 100 tons in size, these ...
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This ‘hot mess’ bird links dinosaur and avian evolution

Smithsonian | 
Yes, birds are technically modern dinosaurs. But sometimes it’s tough to tell where the non-avian dino ends and the bird begins ...
Confusion over the origins of smallpox vaccine could leave us ‘vulnerable to a future outbreak’

Confusion over the origins of smallpox vaccine could leave us ‘vulnerable to a future outbreak’

Smithsonian | 
Not only is there the potential for smallpox (or at the very least, something very similar) to resurge, but unbeknownst ...
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Gut microbes could be the key to universal blood

Smithsonian | 
Blood transfusions must match the blood type of a donor to that of the recipient; otherwise, the recipient’s immune system ...
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Preparing for motherhood: Do the father’s genes play a role?

Smithsonian | 
[A] father may have the ability to dictate a mother’s attentiveness to their offspring—before it’s even born. The paternal genes ...
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Sperm carries more than just a father’s genetics

Smithsonian | 
Eat poorly, and your body will remember—and possibly pass the consequences onto your kids. In the past several years, mounting ...
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