Prairie voles are stocky rodents and Olympian tunnellers that surface in grassy areas to feast on grass, roots and seeds with their chisel-shaped teeth, sprouting migraines in farmers and gardeners. But to Larry Young, they were the secret to understanding romance and love. Professor Young, a neuroscientist at Emory University in Atlanta, used prairie voles…
Robert B. Oxnam, an eminent China scholar who learned through psychotherapy that his years of erratic behavior could be explained by the torment of having multiple personalities, died on April 18 at his home in Greenport, N.Y., on the North Fork of Long Island. He was 81. His wife, Vishakha Desai, said the cause was…
Scientists observed a wild male orangutan repeatedly rubbing chewed-up leaves of a medicinal plant on a facial wound in a forest reserve in Indonesia. It was the first known observation of a wild animal using a plant to treat a wound, and adds to evidence that humans are not alone in using plants for medicinal…
Additional testing of retail dairy products from across the country has turned up no signs of live bird flu virus, strengthening the consensus that pasteurization is protecting consumers from the threat, federal health and agriculture officials said at a news briefing on Wednesday. But the scope of the bird flu outbreak in cattle remains unclear,…
A California company is recalling organic walnuts that were sold at natural food stores and coop retailers in 19 states because of an E. coli outbreak that has sickened 12 people and hospitalized seven, federal officials said. Gibson Farms, the company based in Hollister, Calif., is voluntarily recalling its shelled walnuts branded as Organic Light…
Recent revelations about a data analytics firm’s role in determining medical payments have heightened concerns about possible price fixing in health care and led to a call for a federal investigation. In a letter this week, Senator Amy Klobuchar asked federal regulators to examine whether algorithms used by the firm, MultiPlan, have helped major health…
In a tense Senate hearing on Wednesday, lawmakers sharply criticized UnitedHealth Group’s handling of the cyberattack that paralyzed the U.S. health care system, citing the failure of its security systems and the potential disclosure of sensitive medical information of millions of Americans. Democratic and Republican senators questioned whether the cyberattack of Change Healthcare, which manages…
Back Story: Aspirin reduces the odds of certain complications. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an influential panel of experts that issues national guidance, has for 10 years been recommending that women who are at risk for pre-eclampsia start taking baby aspirin when they are 12 weeks pregnant. Both the American College of Obstetricians and…
Every family has its archetypes, so here’s mine: My dad and my brother and I are all miserable. None of us are quick to experience joy, and all for different reasons — my dad is irritable, my brother is anxious and I’m bitter. The three of us combined could make one moderately unwell person. Instead,…
August 2021 Miles to nearest clinic offering abortions after 6 weeks Source: Caitlin Myers, Middlebury College As of Wednesday, Florida has banned abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. It will have far-reaching effects. In 2021, abortion was legal in every state, and the average American woman lived less than 25 miles from a clinic. But…
