Many of us dread being alone. We find isolation uncomfortable or downright scary. If you want to know just how eager we are to avoid it, consider a scientific study that offered people a choice between giving themselves electric shocks or being alone with their thoughts for 15 minutes. Believe it or not, many chose…
Month: March 2022
2020 was a time warp
Fourteen thousand years ago, a star called Vela died. Its core collapsed first and then, in a violent burst, propelled the shattered star’s body out into space. Vela’s death bled into the interstellar medium, blasting cosmic radiation out in every direction. For 800 years, the guts of this star traveled from its location in the…
You can survive winter and not spread Covid-19. Here’s how.
Winter and the holidays can be hard even in typical years: short days, cold winds, and family stress, to name a few. But the ongoing US Covid-19 surge, with more than 200,000 new virus cases reported every day since December 7 (about double what they were a month before), is putting the hallmark activities that…
The isolation of 2020 is doing weird things to our bodies
“I am seeing tons of hair loss,” Mona Gohara says. Patients come to Gohara, a dermatologist and professor at the Yale School of Medicine, for all kinds of reasons from skin cancer screenings to cosmetic procedures. But this year more than ever, they’re worried about their hair. It’s not a coincidence. Stress — like, say,…
Mountain gorillas are distancing, too — from humans
There are around 1,000 mountain gorillas left in the wild, and about 460 of them live in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. In the park’s very dense, high-altitude forest (hence the name “impenetrable”), veterinarian Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka is working to keep them alive through the Covid-19 pandemic. No gorilla has come down with Covid-19, but…
I was always terrified of wasting time. A cancer diagnosis made me reconsider.
The room didn’t spin like they say it does. My life didn’t flash before my eyes. I had no difficulty understanding the verdict: It was incurable. Click Here: They could offer no prognosis. They had some general ideas about how they might treat me; it was considered “manageable” in its normal form, but in my…
How we can encourage people to wear masks — for others’ sake
Governors, mayors, and public health officials are sounding the alarm about rising levels of Covid-19 across every part of the country. The disease is surging, the death toll is soaring, and it’s clear that some states need more restrictive measures to control the spread. What continues to frustrate so many leaders is that nine months…
In 2020, scientists documented hundreds of new species. Here are a few.
It’s the year 2020, and scientists are still discovering new species of life on Earth. No one knows exactly how many types of life are yet undescribed in the scientific literature; estimates range from around 86 percent to as high as 99.99 percent. And even though we’re living through an age of great biodiversity loss,…
The 4 major unknowns of how vaccines will affect the Covid-19 pandemic
Two highly effective Covid-19 vaccines are now being administered across the United States, and more are in the pipeline. Almost 2 million people have already received the first of two doses of these vaccines, and officials are aiming to immunize one-third of the US population by the end of March 2021. It’s a stunning accomplishment…
History for Ardscoil Rís as they take a first colleges title back to Limerick
Updated Thu 8:10 PM Ardscoil Rís 1-17 St Kieran’s College 0-15 Robert Cribbin reports from Croke Park ARDSCOIL RÍS OF Limerick captured their first ever All-Ireland senior hurling colleges title after claiming a five-point victory over Kilkenny aristocrats St Kieran’s College in Croke Park this afternoon. Click Here: Ardscoil Rís were appearing in their fourth…