Science and Technology

Alcohol is one of the most commonly used psychoactive substances worldwide. Many people treat modest drinking—one glass of wine with dinner, a beer after work—as harmless or even beneficial. That view is increasingly challenged by medical evidence showing that even small amounts can raise the risk of injury and disease, interact dangerously with other conditions and medicines, and contribute to long-term harm at a population level. This article explains why “a little” isn’t always harmless, with concrete mechanisms, data, examples, and practical steps.What “a little” meansStandard drink definitions: In the United States a standard drink contains about 14 grams of…

Following nearly thirty years of distinguished service, NASA astronaut Suni Williams has revealed her retirement, drawing to a close a career shaped by resilience, leadership, and groundbreaking accomplishments. Her final assignment, an unforeseen nine-month stretch in orbit during Boeing’s Starliner test mission, has risen as a defining moment in contemporary space exploration.The announcement, confirmed by NASA on Tuesday, formally ends Williams’ tenure in the astronaut corps and transforms what was meant to be a short-duration test flight into her final journey to space. While the agency did not specify the precise timing behind her decision, the retirement caps a career…

Forgetting a person’s name at an awkward moment is nearly universal. Proper names feel different from other words: they slip away while common nouns and facts remain accessible. Understanding why this happens requires looking at how names are stored and retrieved in the brain, how attention and emotion affect encoding, and how age, stress, and language experience change retrieval dynamics.Why proper names stand outProper names are labels with low semantic redundancy. Unlike the word “dog,” which connects to traits, actions, and contexts, a name like “Sarah” has few intrinsic clues linking it to meaning. That sparsity produces several predictable effects:Weak…

Health anxiety, defined as an excessive fear of having or developing a serious medical condition, appears in many forms and intensities, and people often turn to the internet, social media, and symptom-checking apps as their main health information sources. Although easily accessible details can support and inform patients, the same abundance of information can intensify and prolong their worries. This article describes how and why information frequently heightens health anxiety, provides illustrative examples and data-supported trends, and outlines practical approaches for both individuals and clinicians.How are health anxiety and cyberchondria defined?Health anxiety ranges from occasional worry to persistent, distressing preoccupation…

Value-based care shifts the focus of health systems from the volume of services delivered to the outcomes that matter to patients. The central premise is simple: pay for value, not for volume. That reframing affects clinical decisions, payments, measurement, and patient engagement, and it can reduce unnecessary interventions while improving quality, equity, and affordability.The meaning behind value-driven careValue-based care seeks to optimize health outcomes for every dollar invested by:Measuring outcomes: emphasizing clinical results, functional abilities, patient-reported measures (PROMs), and overall experience instead of tallying visits or procedures.Aligning payment: implementing incentives that promote prevention, coordinated care, and demonstrable results, including shared…

Apple’s move to adopt Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence represents a major turning point in the way the company intends to bring sophisticated AI capabilities to millions of users around the globe.Instead of delaying progress to finalize its own large-scale model, Apple is emphasizing rapid deployment, dependable performance, and a refined user experience as it readies a long-awaited enhancement to Siri.Apple confirmed that it will integrate Google’s Gemini AI model into the next generation of Siri, scheduled to arrive later this year. The announcement, made jointly by both companies, highlights a multi-year agreement that allows Apple to use Gemini alongside Google’s…

Robust research indicates that exercise serves as a clinically significant approach to easing depressive symptoms across diverse age groups and environments, although its impact does not manifest uniformly for all individuals or routines; consequently, grasping the appropriate dose encompassing frequency, intensity, duration, and modality, as well as tailoring it to each person, becomes crucial for achieving consistent improvements in mood.What the evidence showsMultiple randomized trials and meta-analyses indicate that exercise delivers a modest yet meaningful antidepressant effect, with pooled standardized mean differences typically ranging from about -0.3 to -0.6, reflecting symptom relief that many individuals find clinically significant.Benefits appear across…

New images of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS nearing Earth have been captured by astronomersNew insights into comet 3I/ATLAS highlight its distinctive composition and active tails as it approaches its nearest point to Earth this month. The interstellar traveler, hailing from outside our solar system, has captivated scientists' attention since it was first identified in July 2025.Comet 3I/ATLAS is only the third interstellar object ever detected traveling through our solar system, making every observation crucial for understanding its trajectory, composition, and behavior. Both the Hubble Space Telescope and the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) mission have captured detailed…

Unprecedented dinosaur trackways unveiled in Bolivia’s Carreras PampasOver 16,000 fossilized footprints unearthed in Bolivia present a vivid glimpse into the movements of theropod dinosaurs from over 100 million years ago. These tracks, preserved along an ancient shoreline, offer rare insights into how these predators navigated their environment during the late Cretaceous period.The Carreras Pampas site, situated within Bolivia’s Torotoro National Park, has revealed an extraordinary concentration of theropod footprints, with scientists recently identifying 16,600 impressions. This number exceeds any previously recorded tracksite in terms of sheer volume. The preserved tracks cover approximately 80,570 square feet (7,485 square meters) and include…

The scientific revolution of the seventeenth century marked profound progress in understanding the natural world, and among its most significant contributors was Robert Hooke. An English polymath, Hooke’s acute observational skills and innovative experiments transformed biology, most notably through his discovery regarding cells. His meticulous work laid the foundation for future advances in microbiology and cellular biology—a legacy that persists centuries later.Robert Hooke and the Development of the Compound MicroscopeRobert Hooke was not solely a scientist but also an inventor and architect, famed for enhancing scientific instruments. During the 1660s, he refined the compound microscope, a device composed of multiple…