IN THE LATE 2000s, Rachel Carmody was spending a lot of time counting calories. An anthropology graduate student at Harvard, she was studying whether cooking changed the number of calories the gut can extract from food. When humans invented cooking thousands of years ago, she and her advisor Richard Wrangham wondered, had they opened the door to a new source of energy?
DURING THE past two decades, the number of annual cancer deaths in the United States has fallen by 27 percent, a remarkable improvement driven by new precision diagnoses and treatments tailored to individual patients. Today, oncologists can detect cancer in its earliest stages and deliver drugs that enlist the patient’s own immune system to improve their odds of survival. Yet cancer remains the second deadliest disease in the United States, claiming more than 600,000 lives every year. Its persistence underscores the urgent need for a deeper understanding of how cancer interacts with the body. Assistant professor of neurology Humsa Venkatesh believes she may have found a promising new pathway for highly effective cancer treatments in the most unexpected of places: the human brain.
New Scientist Magazine (October 7, 2023): This issue features ‘You And Your Microbiome’; How the microbiome changes our idea of what it means to be human; The best way to care for your microbiome to keep it healthy as you age; and more…
Daniela Hernandez | WSJ (September 14, 2023) – Research shows that moderate amounts of physical stress can help your body stay healthier for longer.
Video timeline:0:00 Stress exercise 0:38 Baseline longevity test 2:41 Training 3:17 The results 4:59 What can you do about it?
That’s why longevity hacks, like intermittent fasting and ice baths, are blowing up on social media. I put myself through a strenuous 10-day workout plan to learn why and how the most active form of stress–exercise–is actually your best bet for a longer, healthier life.
‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (September 18, 2023) – Three essential articles read aloud from the The Economist. This week, the future of the Middle East, Wall Street’s race to wealth management (10:00), and how London’s bus drivers revolutionised health (17:40).
Literary Review – August 2023 Issue: How Sugar Became King; Oil, Resin, Vinegar & Paint – “Albrecht Dürer: Art and Autobiography” By David Ekserdjian; Shopping & Plucking – “How to Be a Renaissance Woman: The Untold History of Beauty and Female Creativity” By Jill Burke and more…
Albrecht Dürer: Art and Autobiography By David Ekserdjian
Dürer’s Lost Masterpiece: Art and Society at the Dawn of a Global World By Ulinka Rublack
The German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) was fortunate in his initials. The stylised ‘AD’ that he routinely inserted into his paintings and engravings, and even the preparatory drawings, seemed to imbue his productions with an almost divine stamp of approval. Most German painters of the era did not sign their work, but Dürer was eager to assert creative ownership of his productions, obtaining legal protection of his sole right to the trademark monogram.
The World of Sugar: How the Sweet Stuff Transformed Our Politics, Health, and Environment over 2,000 Years By Ulbe Bosma
There was a time when commodity histories were everywhere. They tended to focus on consumption and trade over very long distances. Ulbe Bosma’s TheWorld of Sugar is much more than this sort of book. It is one of the most accomplished longue durée case studies in the history of capitalism that we have, concerned not just with trade and consumption but with production also. At every turn it subverts both critiques and celebrations of capitalism, and our understanding of much else besides. It is an extraordinary achievement.
DW News (July 31, 2023) – While large language models like chatGPT have captured global attention, a more hidden but equally revolutionary application of AI is unfolding in the realm of science.
Renowned researchers like Nir Barzilai have long advocated for a shift in focus towards curing aging itself, but recent advancements could allow us to harness the power of AI to living not just longer, but healthier lives.
In this video, we talk with the scientists behind the groundbreaking discoveries of new anti-aging molecules and visit a lab in Berlin where similar discoveries are made.
There’s nothing like an icy drink or frozen treat to help tame summer swelter, keep you hydrated, quench thirst, and satisfy a sweet tooth. Unfortunately, cool treats are often over-processed and packed with added sugars. Keep your cool with less processed, fruit-forward icy drinks and treats that are as healthy …
Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter (July 2023): Food Allergy, or Intolerance?; Sugar substitute Erythritol associated with higher heart attack and stroke risks; Plant-based Cookouts; Create a Powerful Pantry, and more…
Stanford Medicine Magazine (Summer 2023) – The new issue of Stanford Medicine magazine explores how the environment and health interact — and ways to counter negative impacts.
The COVID-19 pandemic, from which we’re still struggling to emerge, has expanded our working vocabulary, gifting the public lexicon with new, if admittedly mostly gloomy, words and concepts. (Examples: spike protein, intubation, N95, rapid antigen test.) We may not flood our speech with these terms, but we’re at least passingly familiar with them now.
Among the human senses, smell — or more formally, olfaction — is often considered the most dispensable. In a recent survey, 1 in 6 college students said they would rather lose their sense of smell than their little left toe, and 1 in 4 would forgo their sense of smell to keep their phone.
But for people who’ve found themselves suddenly unable to smell — a more common predicament since the COVID-19 pandemic — the loss can be surprisingly, profoundly devastating.
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious