Surrounded by the sheer expanse of the world’s biggest ocean, many Pacific island nations were among the last parts of the world untouched by Covid-19. Their extreme remoteness worked in their favor, and so did government decisions to slam borders shut early in the pandemic. The Marshall Islands, recognizing the risk of even a single […]

“We have to invest in sequencing the mild cases, and when we do that, we’re going to light up that battlefield where this virus is changing and evolving,” he adds. “We can wait for these dangerous variants to smack us in the face, or we can look at the evolution under the surface of this […]

Since January 27, England has dropped pretty much all its measures against Covid-19. Any person can saunter into any shop without a mask; work-from-home guidance has been scrapped; and all needs for a vaccine passport have been squashed. England will be the “most open country in Europe,” proclaimed health and social care secretary Sajid Javid. […]

Twenty-four years ago, Briana Pobiner reached into the north Kenyan soil and put her hands on bones that had last been touched 1.5 million years ago. Pobiner, a paleoanthropologist, was digging up ancient animal bones and searching for cuts and dents, signs that they had been butchered by our early ancestors trying to get at […]

The human brain is an incredible, complex web of connections. Cells called neurons send signals from region to region, and their communication allows us to do everything from forming thoughts to accessing memories. But for nearly 6 million Americans, neurodegenerative diseases like dementia, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and Alzheimer’s disease prevent neurons from functioning properly. […]

To understand the importance of those three ducks and the virus they were carrying, we need to take a quick tour through Flu School. Lesson One: The flu virus family tree is vast and sprawling; it contains types—A, B, C, D—and subtypes, designated with Hs and Ns. (Those are short for proteins that let the […]

Clinicians have also begun to report a particular side effect of Covid during pregnancy, which they are calling Covid placentitis. Placentitis is inflammation of the placenta, typically caused by an infectious agent, and is linked to stillbirths. And, more worryingly, the cases are not appearing in patients with the most severe presentations of Covid—they’re appearing […]

“I have actually been fielding a lot of calls from really desperate families who are at their wits’ end,” says Yvonne Maldonado, a pediatrician and professor of epidemiology and population health at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and principal investigator of the Pfizer vaccine trial there. “I don’t have great answers. It’s frustrating and […]

Just as medical care has evolved from bloodletting to germ theory, the medical spaces patients inhabit have transformed too. Today, architects and designers are trying to find ways to make hospitals more comfortable, in the hopes that relaxing spaces will lead to better recovery. But building for healing involves just as much empathy as it […]

Nobody likes a frozen butt. So when François Haman attempts to recruit subjects to his studies on the health benefits of uncomfortable temperatures, he gets a lot of, well … cold shoulders. And he doesn’t blame them. “You’re not going to attract too many people,” says Haman, who studies thermal physiology at the University of […]

In 1885, Xaver, a young Austrian blacksmith, left home to make it big. After finding a new job abroad, Xaver, a gentile, fell in love with Dina, the 17-year-old Catholic-Jewish daughter of his boss. He was subsequently fired. But that was just the beginning of this family drama. Dina ran away from home to be […]

An elegant ballet of proteins enables modern cells to replicate themselves. During cell division, structural proteins and enzymes coordinate the duplication of DNA, the division of a cell’s cytoplasmic contents, and the cinching of the membrane that cleaves the cell. Getting these processes right is crucial because errors can lead to daughter cells that are […]

A month ago, it felt like we could see the future. Boosters were rolling out. School-age kids were getting their second shots in time to see grandparents over winter break. Life in the United States was sliding toward something that looked like it might be normal—not pre-pandemic normal, of course, but maybe a post-pandemic glimpse. […]

But science—especially new science—routinely faces pushback. Early in the AIDS epidemic, scientists discovered HIV, the virus that causes the disease. “There were people here in the United States, all around the world, who said, ‘Well, I know that they identified this virus, and they’re saying it causes AIDS, but I don’t believe that’s true,’” says […]

During the pandemic, many people barely left their neighborhoods, let alone their own time zones. But vaccines are available, cabin fever is rampant, and the holiday travel season is upon us. And so, inevitably, is jet lag. The human internal time-keeping apparatus, known scientifically as the circadian clock, is a powerful force. It synchronizes functions […]

Our cells are packed with unrealized potential. Almost every human cell contains the genetic information it needs to become any other kind of cell. A skin cell, for example, has the same genes as a muscle cell or a brain neuron, but in each type of cell only some of those genes are switched on, […]

While rich countries hoarded doses, Covax, a joint initiative from several UN bodies formed to provide vaccines to poor countries, was supposed to be a knight in shining armor. Dreamed up at the beginning of 2020 by the heads of two Gates-funded nonprofits over scotch and nachos, Covax’s raison d’etre was to guarantee equal access […]

The pandemic didn’t miraculously disappear. When the clock struck midnight and marked the beginning of 2021, Covid-19 didn’t melt away like a fairytale princess’s party dress, alas, and we were all forced to stare down another year of fear. The good news is: We did it! The bad news is: Well, you know … We […]

That was thought to be the best the US could do, especially with the pro-business Trump administration about to take over. But researchers knew in advance that a growth promoter ban would be inadequate. They already had an example of why it wouldn’t work: A few years earlier, the government of the Netherlands had noticed […]