It’s Always a Good Time for an Oyster Roast

The near lifelong friends Alexa Brazilian, Aaron Dickson Millhiser and Courtney Broadwater met in the late 1980s as children on Nantucket in Massachusetts, where their families would spend time each summer. They’d ride their bikes together and pass the days at Siasconset Beach, at the far eastern end of the island. In the years since,…

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Working With Your Hands Is Good for Your Brain

The human hand is a marvel of nature. No other creature on Earth, not even our closest primate relatives, has hands structured quite like ours, capable of such precise grasping and manipulation. But we’re doing less intricate hands-on work than we used to. A lot of modern life involves simple movements, such as tapping screens…

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Good News and Bad News for Astronomers’ Biggest Dream

The United States should commit $1.6 billion to building an “extremely large telescope” that would vault American astronomy into a new era, according to the National Science Board, which advises the National Science Foundation. In a statement on Feb. 27, the board gave the foundation until May to decide how to choose between two competing…

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Is Lying on the Floor Good for Your Health?

As a child, Josh Patner became accustomed to stepping over his mom, who used to lie down in the kitchen whenever her mother-in-law would call. “My grandmother would talk her ear off,” Mr. Patner, 61, recalled. To cope, his mother would “lie on the floor and hold the phone away from her head.” Mr. Patner’s…

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