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'As if a shudder ran from its brain to its body': The neuroscientists that learned to control memories in rodentsIn this adapted excerpt from "How to Change a Memory," author and neuroscientist Steve Ramirez recounts the events that led him and his colleagues to discover memories could be artificially controlled in rodents by zapping their brains with lasers.
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Future pandemics are a 'certainty' — and we must be better prepared to distribute vaccines equitablyBook Months before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, efforts were already underway to ensure low-income countries would get access to future vaccines against the infection. The book "Fair Doses" tells that story and discusses the ongoing fight for vaccine equity around the world.
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'The papyrus also recommends putting a clove of garlic in your vagina before bed': The texts that reveal the baffling healthcare for women in ancient EgyptIn this excerpt from "Born: A History of Childbirth," author and historian Lucy Inglis reveals records from ancient Egypt that show how female physicians treated issues of "the womb," how men reacted to periods, and how the first known pregnancy test actually worked.
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'The Big One' could be even worse than COVID-19. Here's what epidemiologist Michael Osterholm says we can learn from past pandemics.The new book "The Big One" describes lessons learned from past pandemics and how they might be applied to mitigate the dangers of future outbreaks.
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'Foolhardy at best, and deceptive and dangerous at worst': Don't believe the hype — here's why artificial general intelligence isn't what the billionaires tell you it is"Unfortunately, the goal of creating artificial general intelligence isn’t just a project that lives as a hypothetical in scientific papers. There’s real money invested in this work, much of it coming from venture capitalists."
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'How could it have been allowed to happen?': The threat of 'superbugs' was known from the first antibiotic, but we've failed to stop it.Book "What are sometimes called superbugs — microbes resistant to every available drug — are not merely the stuff of nightmares. They are taking lives right now."
7 CommentsBook -
'An up-tempo version of Darwinian evolution': How a mega freeze in Florida may have caused Burmese pythons to evolve at a blindingly fast speed"The 2010 cold snap may have created a subset of pythons better able to survive cold temperatures — and thus better adapted to spread beyond the northern boundaries of its current range."
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'Heat is the final boss. Heat is a different beast': The planetary peril no one will be able to avoid"What will be new about heat deaths is the extent to which the lived environment will become physically uninhabitable for everyone, old and young, middle-aged, healthy and ill."
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'An artist would be challenged to create such replicas': How looking closer reveals the beauty and lethal efficiency of insects"When a dragonfly hunts, it hovers perfectly still and positions itself between its prey and a shadow cast behind it by, say, a tree, concealing its position. It's a bit like creeping up on someone in a forest hiding behind branches."
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