Employee mental health services have become a billion-dollar industry. New hires, once they have found the restrooms and enrolled in 401(k) plans, are presented with a panoply of digital wellness solutions, mindfulness seminars, massage classes, resilience workshops, coaching sessions and sleep apps. These programs are a point of pride for forward-thinking human resource departments, evidence […]
A rare North Atlantic right whale calf spotted off the coast of South Carolina is expected to die after its head, mouth and lips were split open, likely by a boat propeller, officials said. The calf was seen with its mother on Jan. 3 with serious wounds, and “is likely to die as a result,” […]
The story of the Forest of Immortal Stories begins not so long ago, in 2019, when Elena-Mirela Cojocaru, beloved wife of Ion Cojocaru, mayor of the hamlet of Nucsoara, died after a struggle with cancer. Mr. Cojocaru himself soon fell ill with a heart ailment; as a remedy his doctor told him to walk in […]
A decade ago, a funny money mystery fell into the hands of scientists and students at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru in Lima. The university had been acquiring 19th- and 20th-century Peruvian coins from local dealers, and graduate students in the chemistry department were analyzing the pieces for their thesis work. But one coin, […]
People taking the wildly popular drugs Ozempic, to treat diabetes, and Wegovy, to combat obesity, are slightly less likely to have suicidal thoughts than people who are not taking them, researchers reported on Friday. Millions of people take Ozempic and Wegovy, which are considered to be among the biggest blockbusters in medical history. But last […]
Charles Darwin was 22 years old when he first peeled a banana. “Maukish & sweet with little flavor,” he noted in his journal from Santiago, the main island in the Cape Verde archipelago off the coast of West Africa. He preferred oranges and tamarinds, feasting at every opportunity on tropical fruit after three awful weeks […]
Crucial Events on the Path Back to the Moon NASA wants to put American astronauts on the moon’s surface in the years ahead with the Artemis III mission. Before that can happen, though, many things have to go right, and two of the most important are scheduled for 2024. The first is the Artemis II […]
Meet the Millers, George and Roxanne, proprietors of the world’s largest collection of mechanical puzzles: physical objects that a puzzler holds and manipulates while seeking a solution. In total, the Miller collection — an accumulation of collections, and collections of collections — amounts to more than 80,000 puzzles. It comprises some five thousand Rubik’s Cubes, […]
On Dec. 11, NASA engineers anxiously gathered at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., to view a cat video, wondering if it would be in the pristine high definition for which they had hoped. To their relief, it was. For the first time, high-definition video — this one of a lab employee’s cat named […]
When the going got tough in the Paleozoic Era, trilobites rolled up. Armed with sturdy exoskeletons, these ancient arthropods curled up like armadillos to avoid predators or dangerous environmental conditions on the seafloor. Many trilobites have been found with their exoskeletons fossilized in a curled position, as if holding a perpetual stomach crunch. But few […]
