Tag Archives: health

What Are ‘Missed Period Pills,’ and How Do They Work?

Cari Sietstra first learned about menstrual regulation when they were working on the Myanmar-Thailand border. At the time, abortion was broadly criminalized in both countries. But if a person’s period was late, it was relatively easy to get access to pills that would induce menstruation in just a few days. …

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The Foods the World Will Lose to Climate Change

There’s no denying it: Farming had a rough year. Extreme weather spun up storms and floods, unseasonal freezes and baking heat waves, and prolonged parching droughts. In parts of the world in 2023, tomato plants didn’t flower, the peach crop never came in, and the price of olive oil soared. …

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The Age of Crispr Medicine Is Here

Jimi Olaghere used to end up in the emergency room so often that the hospital reserved a bed for him. Sickle cell disease dominated his life. A genetic defect he was born with meant that instead of having flexible, round red blood cells like most people do, his were sticky …

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The Toxic Truth About Your Christmas Tree

This story originally appeared on High Country News and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Perhaps no single Christmas custom is more ubiquitous than putting up the Christmas tree. It originated in eastern Europe more than 500 years ago, when people decorated evergreen trees with roses or apples as …

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Energy Drinks Are Out of Control

Whenever he visited his local branch of Panera Bread in Fleming Island, Florida, it was Dennis Brown’s habit to order three drinks in a row. On September 28, and again on October 2, and the 4th, 5th, 7th, and 9th—the day Brown died—his drink of choice was Panera Bread’s Charged …

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Biophysicists Uncover Powerful Symmetries in Living Tissue

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Luca Giomi still remembers the time when, as a young graduate student, he watched two videos of droplets streaming from an inkjet printer. The videos were practically identical—except one wasn’t a video at all. It was a simulation. “I was …

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