Posts:
By Giovanni Cambizaca Something I’ve noticed recently is that I’m hearing a lot more birdsong. I don't know if that’s because my world is suddenly a lot quieter, or if that same stillness is encouraging the birds to lift up their voices. Whatever the reason, it’s a...
By Debbie Moore-Black, RN They scream and holler and march. Open up the U.S. This is a hoax. On the contrary, coronavirus is deadly. Invisible, the virus makes its trek across the world. Nurses and doctors and respiratory therapists are being named heroes. Signs and...
By Dr. Francis Collins There’s been a lot of excitement about the potential of antibody-based blood tests, also known as serology tests, to help contain the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. There’s also an awareness that more research is needed to...
By Alex Berezow, PhD When your dog looks longingly at you as you eat breakfast, out of compassion and sympathy, do you ever find yourself pouring some orange juice into his bowl? Of course not. You might get bitten. Or, at the very least, you'll get a puzzled look. He...
By Josh Bloom, Ph.D It's only one trial, and we don't even know if the report is correct. But a leaked draft report indicated that remdesivir was ineffective in its first controlled trial. Let's assume that this is true and we see the same from other trials. If so,...
By Giovanni Cambizaca When I drive out of the city towards home, I often think that the foothills of the Cajas look a little bit like Switzerland. If I could put bells on the cows, the effect would be almost complete. When we think about Switzerland, I suppose...
Author’s note: Fat is a controversial topic but let’s cut through the chatter and delve into fat facts. This is the first of an updated three-part series about dietary fats. I'm not writing about "diets" per se, in this column. As reported by the Harvard School of...
By Dave Sherwood Chile will push ahead with previously announced “release certificates” for recovered COVID-19 patients despite a World Health Organization warning that there was no evidence they are protected from a second coronavirus infection. Paula Daza,...
Telecoms engineers have told Radio 1 Newsbeat they're being threatened and harassed by people who believe they're working on 5G, which has been wrongly linked to coronavirus. Claims about any link have been branded complete rubbish by scientists. But the union and...
Researchers at a Hong Kong university say they have developed an antiviral coating which could provide 90 days of “significant” protection against bacteria and viruses such as the one causing COVID-19. The coating, called MAP-1, took 10 years to develop and can be...
By Roger Theodos As I sit here in Buenos Aires, exiled by a travel ban from my home in Ecuador, I am comforted by the words of the travel writer Paul Theroux: “The most enlightening trips I’ve taken have been the riskiest, the most crisis-ridden, in countries gripped...
By Kevin Pang What happens when an aging prizefighter, a quirky gadget, and iconic ’90s marketing combine to take over the world? In case you missed it, this is what the world’s most successful infomercial looks like: George Foreman—buff, bald, and swaggering—sports a...
I found out through Facebook. On a recent Friday evening, I was scrolling through posts and noticed one from a young friend who lives in the U.S., who wrote, “Friends, please send love and healing thoughts. My husband has a high fever, 102 degrees with aches and he’s...
By Amanda Elizabeth Kowalczyk What do naked mole rats, elephants, bats and whales have in common? They are all exceptionally long-lived mammals, and recent research suggests that studying commonalities in the ways they evolved extreme life spans may provide fresh...
By Giovanni Cambizaca This April we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day. Whether you think our future will be like Greta Thunberg’s nightmares or something more manageable, it is clear that the climate is changing. The closer you are to the planet’s...
The llama could become humanity's new "best friend", perhaps. An unexpected ally in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic that plagues the world. It is not something new, of course. The Incas already made the most of it for its meat, its wool, and also as a pack...
By Mesdfin Fedadu Elvis Francois, the orthopedic surgery resident who has gone viral with his top-notch live performances at hospitals, knew from adolescence he wanted to help heal the world through medicine. But through music? Not so much. Two years after becoming an...
It's been one month since I published this column on the importance of obtaining sufficient vitamin D from food and from sunshine because vitamin D is essential for a healthy immune system. Since that time researchers have been working hard on identifying links...
By Sandra Gutierrez G. The Centers for Disease Control and Protection has encouraged people to wear cloth masks at all times while outside. Research shows that although they’re not great protection against airborne Covid-19 particles, they’re better than nothing. And...
Editor's note: As people try measures against coronavirus transmission, such as cleaning and sanitising their groceries to remove any potential droplets on surfaces, many are wondering if freezing or refrigerating their shopping is enough to kill the virus. Healthy...
