Why Extreme Heat Is So Bad for the Human Body

Blistering temperatures aren’t just uncomfortable. They can quickly escalate to become life-threatening: According to data from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers, more than 700 people nationwide died from heat-related causes annually from 2004 to 2018. Some research suggests that the death toll will rise in the coming years as climate change makes extreme heat mo…

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Three ‘Missing-Link’ Planets Discovered Circling Nearby Star

Planets are like puppies—they come in all kinds of sizes, all kinds of colors and they’re often found in litters.

That’s not the way things used to seem. It wasn’t until 1992 that the first known planet orbiting a star other than our sun was confirmed. In the years since, the exoplanet population has exploded, thanks mostly to the Kepler Space Telescope, which went…

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Why the FDA Is Screening Cinnamon Imports for Lead

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating cinnamon apple puree and applesauce products amid reports of elevated blood lead levels in at least 34 individuals. 

Residents in more than 20 states have reported illness after exposure to cinnamon apple products offered by three brands: WanaBana, Weis, and Schnucks. The goods are manufactured in Ecuador and have since been rec…

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Wastewater Will Now Track Opioid Trends

Among the many lasting legacies of COVID-19 may be a newfound appreciation for the value of what we flush down the toilet and wash down the drain.

Wastewater can be a rich source of information about infectious diseases, like COVID-19, as well as flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), mpox and polio, since pathogens like viruses are shed in feces, urine and saliva, all of which is draine…

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Why AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 Vaccine Is Being Suspended

It’s the last thing public health officials want to see in the midst of a pandemic: more than two months after pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University scientists released their COVID-19 vaccine, countries in Europe and elsewhere are pausing its use amid disconcerting reports that a small number of recipients have experienced blood clots, some of them fatal.

It’s…

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Fear of Fentanyl is Driving Laws That Could Lead to Overdoses

Since the U.S. drug war was declared in 1971, various drugs have been identified as public enemy number one—from crack cocaine, in the 1980s, to prescription opioids in the early 2000s. Today, the primary villain is fentanyl, a synthetic opioid about 50 times more potent than heroin. In 2021, more than 71,000 people in the U.S. died after overdoses involving synthetic opioids—mostly…

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Why, When and How to Test At-Home for COVID-19

As we close in on two years of living with COVID-19, quick and accurate tests for COVID-19 remain an urgent priority. In fact, as schools reopen, businesses resume operations and people return to work, rapid testing could be the key to preventing Delta or any new variants of SARS-CoV-2 from flaring into even larger outbreaks.

But that’s only if testing is used in the right way, at t…

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Why Chuck Yeager Claimed He Had No ‘Right Stuff’

Frank Borman did not expect to hear a congratulations from Chuck Yeager one day in 1962—and that’s just as well because he didn’t get one. It wasn’t a surprise that Yeager wouldn’t extend much courtesy to the likes of Borman. There were rules, after all, and there was a hierarchy after all, and Yeager, who on Dec. 7 died at the age of 97, was then the commander of …

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Why Europe’s New Climate Rules Matter to American Companies

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The E.U. is in the middle of implementing its Green Deal program with a wide range of implications for how the world tackles climate change. Perhaps nothing is of more obvious import to global business leaders than the bloc’s coming climate disclosure rules, which are scheduled t…

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Why ESG Is So Confusing

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A few weeks ago, I wrote a story about the anti-ESG movement in Texas’s foray into insurance. Soon after, I received a very thoughtful response from a declared ESG opponent taking issue with the idea that ESG metrics are relevant for insurers. The one issue: he had used the term …

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