The last time there was a significant slowdown in the massive network of climate-shaping ocean currents around the North Atlantic, they seemed to plunge Europe into a deep cold for more than a millennium. That was nearly 12,800 years ago, when not many people had experienced it. But in recent decades, human-driven warming can slow … Read more
Some of the temperature extremes recorded in the southwestern United States, southern Europe, and northern Mexico at the beginning of the month would have been “virtually impossible” without the impact of human-caused climate change, According to research released on Tuesday. During the first half of July, hundreds of millions of people in North America, Europe … Read more
At her annual visit, the patient’s doctor asks if she plans to continue having regular mammograms for breast cancer, and then reminds her that it has been nearly 10 years since her last colon exam. It’s 76. Hmmm. Patient age alone may be an argument against more mammogram appointments. The independent and influential U.S. Preventive … Read more
Washington state health officials said Friday that three people have died and two have been hospitalized in the Puget Sound area after contracting foodborne listeria in what appears to be an outbreak. Officials noted that tests indicated that the five patients, three men and two women, contracted the disease between February 27 and June 30 … Read more
The patient was a 39-year-old woman who came to the emergency department at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Her left knee had been hurting for several days. The day before, she had a fever of 102 degrees. It’s gone now, but she still has chills. Her knee was red and swollen. What was … Read more
Language has always been considered the exclusive resource of human beings. But in the animal kingdom, birds, not primates, communicate at the level of vocal complexity and diversity closest to ours. Ornithologists have made progress in understanding the rich diversity of ways birds speak, thanks in part to large and growing databases of bird calls … Read more
This week’s challenge for new birders: Try joining a group on a walk, or going birding with at least one new birder. Let us know how it goes Comment here. And if you are already part of the birding community, let us know. Have you met friends – or even your spouse – through the … Read more
In 1966, scientists at Camp Century, a now-abandoned U.S. military base in the Arctic, drilled deep into the Greenland ice sheet, unearthing a nearly mile-long cylinder of ice along with 12 feet of frozen sediment beneath. “This was a pretty miraculous engineering feat that was really hard to replicate,” said Andrew Christ, a geologist who … Read more
Armed with machetes and chainsaws, cutting down fallen trees and wading through thick scrub, the archaeologists cleared a path down the rocky paths. Finally, they reach their destination on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula: a hidden city where pyramids and palaces rose above the crowds more than 1,000 years ago, with a ball court and terraces now … Read more
A tornado caused severe damage at a Pfizer drug manufacturing site in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, on Wednesday, threatening critical supplies to hospitals across the country. The company has estimated that a quarter of the injectable medicines it supplies to US hospitals are made at the Rocky Mount site, including those used during surgeries and … Read more