Research
Even a Little Alcohol Can Harm Your Health, Research Shows
What types of cancer does alcohol increase the risk for? Almost everyone knows about the link between cigarette smoking and cancer, but few people realize that alcohol is also a potent carcinogen. According to research by the American Cancer Society, alcohol contributes to more than 75,000 cases of cancer per year and nearly 19,000 cancer […]
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Microsoft Bets Big on the Creator of ChatGPT in Race to Dominate A.I.
OpenAI is led by Sam Altman, who became well known in Silicon Valley as the head the start-up builder Y Combinator. Mr. Altman, 37, and his co-founders created OpenAI in 2015 as a nonprofit. But he soon remade the venture as a for-profit company that could more aggressively pursue financing. A year later, Microsoft invested […]
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Scientists Don’t Agree on What Causes Obesity, but They Know What Doesn’t
By the end of the conference, the attendees were no closer to a unifying theory for the global rise in obesity — a condition that’s been with humans since at least Hippocrates but started to become widespread only after the debut of MTV. Yet in that short period, scientists, including many in the room, have […]
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Just 2 Minutes of Walking After a Meal Is Surprisingly Good for You
Walking after a meal, conventional wisdom says, helps clear your mind and aids in digestion. Scientists have also found that going for a 15-minute walk after a meal can reduce blood sugar levels, which can help ward off complications such as Type 2 diabetes. But, as it turns out, even just a few minutes of […]
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How Scientists Are Reviving Cells in Dead Pigs’ Organs
The pigs had been lying dead in the lab for an hour — no blood was circulating in their bodies, their hearts were still, their brain waves flat. Then a group of Yale scientists pumped a custom-made solution into the dead pigs’ bodies with a device similar to a heart-lung machine. What happened next adds […]
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Vitamin D Supplements Don’t Help Another Condition, Study Finds
The idea made so much sense it was almost unquestioningly accepted: Vitamin D pills can protect bones from fractures. After all, the body needs the vitamin for the gut to absorb calcium, which bones need to grow and stay healthy. But now, in the first large randomized controlled study in the United States, funded by […]
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‘Parentese’ Is Truly a Lingua Franca, Global Study Finds
We’ve all seen it, we’ve all cringed at it, we’ve all done it ourselves: talked to a baby like it was, you know, a baby. “Ooo, hellooooo baby!” you say, your voice lilting like a rapturously accommodating Walmart employee. Baby is utterly baffled by your unintelligible warble and your shamelessly doofus grin, but “baby so […]
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Do Cancer Centers Push Too Many Tests?
Say a postcard arrives in the mail, a reminder to make an appointment for a mammogram. Or a primary care doctor orders a PSA test to screen a man for prostate cancer, or tells him that because of his years of smoking, he should be screened for lung cancer. These patients, trying to be informed […]
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With ‘How to Change Your Mind,’ Taking a Trip With Michael Pollan
In late 2012, the best-selling author and journalist Michael Pollan (“The Omnivore’s Dilemma”) was at a dinner party in Berkeley, Calif. Among his fellow diners was a prominent developmental psychiatrist, in her 60s, who spoke at some length about a recent LSD trip. This pricked up Pollan’s ears. His first thought, as he shared during […]
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