The bar in question is inside an upscale Italian restaurant in northern Wisconsin. The men are middle-aged with graying hair and glasses. But they’re both fit. They look like they might spend their spare time sailing. One wears a blue button-down shirt and jeans. The other is dressed in a polo shirt and camouflage shorts. Button Down […]
obesity
When I think back on the formative moments of my youth, it’s hard to top the Canada-Wide Science Fair of 1980. It was there, in Thompson, Manitoba, that I first truly experienced the transformative power of science to make daily life richer, better, more rewarding. No, it wasn’t my own engagement with the scientific method […]
A couple of weeks ago I found myself in a beautiful rural home that belongs to my parents’ friends, a slim and sophisticated couple who enjoys bird watching and international travel. I was meeting this pair—let’s call them George and Marsha—for the first time. I’m inherently nosy, so while the rest of the group chatted, […]
The country is in the midst of a public health crisis. Two-thirds of adults and a third of all kids in the US are overweight or obese. Although no single factor is responsible for the nation’s weight gain, soda seems to be at least partly to blame. A decades-long study published earlier this month found that […]
Britain in March 1946 was a dank, hungry, but optimistic place as people grappled with winter, rationing and the aftermath of World War 2. It was also the time that the country gave birth to something historically and scientifically remarkable. 13,687 babies born during one March week were weighed, measured and enrolled into what has, […]
In September, a rash of stories appeared about a study contradicting the claim that a class of proteins called sirtuins might be a possible anti-aging cure. “Longevity genes challenged,” Nature declared. “Longevity Gene Debate Opens Trans-Atlantic Rift,” wrote Nicholas Wade at The New York Times. “New study debunks longevity link for GSK’s sexy sirtuins,” wrote […]
When my husband and I moved to a suburb of Vancouver eleven years ago, many of our friends ribbed us wildly about our decision. Instead of living in a leafy urban neighborhood, a short walk from a good cappuccino, an organic fruit and veg store, and a pilates studio, we had, it seemed, forsaken civilization […]
I love sleep, but I’ve been getting far too little of it. My harried days have been stretching into late nights spent staring at the computer. And I’m not alone. The National Sleep Foundation estimates that the average American gets just 6.7 hours of sleep a night on weekdays. We’re all familiar with the side […]