It turns out that having a Walmart in the neighborhood is associated with a slight weight loss in the surrounding population. Researchers are at a loss (pun intended) to determine the reason this might be. But their guess is that … Continue reading →
I grew up in an era in which abortion was both difficult to obtain and physically dangerous. Today’s commonplace alternative of raising the child as an unwed single mother was socially unacceptable in the extreme. Effective birth control was nowhere … Continue reading →
It’s an odd fact that in recent decades a startling proportion of Presidents have been left-handed, and no one really has a clue why, although guesses abound. The list includes Truman, Ford, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II—as well … Continue reading →
I’m with Rachel Lucas on this one. Boy, am I ever. Rachel has unearthed a study that should be nailed to the doors of every nursing home in America. It found that the widespread practice of talking to the elderly … Continue reading →
Susan Estrich has written a lovely tribute to Tony Snow. Yes, Susan Estrich, she of the grating voice (with an abrasive timbre almost identical to that of Carol Channing) and the liberal viewpoint. But that didn’t stop her from liking … Continue reading →
In my continuing quest to lighten up and at least slightly de-Obamafy this page, I’m weighing in on the pressing question posed by this Time Online piece: does breast augmentation lead to—or is it a sign of—impending divorce? Since I’m … Continue reading →
Are you a nightowl, like me? Do you want to change your wicked ways? And, if so, how badly do you want it? For instuctions on how to go about doing it, take a look at this entertaining and informative … Continue reading →
It’s called miracle fruit, and it seems like something out of Brave New World. It’s not an item engineered by modern science, though, but an African berry that’s been known to Westerners since the 18th century. Recently it’s become the … Continue reading →
One of the more formative experiences of my life was reading Theodor Rosebury’s book Life On Man back when it first came out in 1969. It revealed that our efforts to sanitize the world and rid it of those seemingly … Continue reading →
Dichotomies such as left brain vs. right brain are understood to be interesting concepts, but too simplistic in describing what is an unbelievably complicated and still very mysterious organ: the brain. Of course, it’s the brain itself doing the studying, … Continue reading →
[Part I.] Science is certainly far from infallible. That’s especially true of studies related to human beings, on whom any sort of research is notoriously difficult to perform and evaluate. The variables are myriad and uncontrollable, and ethics ordinarily prevents … Continue reading →
[This is the first part of two.] So this is what it’s come to. Our largely successful struggle to eradicate the once-common infectious diseases of childhood through the mechanism of vaccines has been so successful that many parents voluntarily eschew … Continue reading →