Daily Picks
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Science & Health, picked daily

Medicine, psychology, biology, physics, space and statistics — what a study actually found, and whether it replicates.

The Atlantic · Health
The Dark Side of MindfulnessMeditation, touted as a panacea for mental and physical ills, can cause severe and lasting side effects—anxiety, depression, even psychosis—for about 10% of practitioners.
Works in Progress
All the microbes you can’t haveA law written for industrial chemicals was mistakenly applied to genetically engineered microbes, caging many potentially world-benefiting organisms inside laboratories.
Nautilus
Your Home is Crawling With MicroplasticsA Dutch study finds microplastics in every home sampled, mostly generated indoors, and vacuuming may actually increase levels of the harmful polycarbonate kind.
The Conversation
Compared to driving, flying is extraordinarily safe – but why doesn’t it feel that way?People overreact to rare, catastrophic, and uncontrollable plane crashes, and in doing so they shift to driving, which is riskier, creating a net increase in deaths.
Your Local Epidemiologist
Does the shingles vaccine prevent dementia?Multiple studies link the shingles vaccine to a lower risk of dementia, but one new study found no association; the evidence is suggestive, not definitive, and only randomized trials will settle the question.
acx
Absurd Adventure And Amygdalectomy AdvocacyA brain cancer patient who lost his right amygdala in surgery found it eliminated his fear and depression, suggesting new avenues for psychiatric treatment, though not without side effects.
Noema Magazine
Optimized OffspringEmbryo screening and gene editing let wealthy parents pay to choose their children's genetic traits, but scientists say the methods are unproven and risk deepening genetic inequality — and human understanding of genes is too shallow to justify the 'optimization'.
The Conversation
Decades after 9/11, toxic dust and PTSD may be accelerating brain aging among first responders9/11 first responders exposed to toxic dust and trauma face significantly higher risks of PTSD and dementia, with their brains aging about three years faster than their actual age.
Nautilus
New Heart Attack Definitions Could Lead to Better Care for WomenA new heart attack classification, which moves several rare causes that disproportionately affect women into the primary category, promises to reduce missed and misdiagnosed heart disease in women.
Works in Progress
Just bury your trashLandfill is not an environmental disaster; in most cases it is cleaner and cheaper than recycling, and we should rethink our bias against it.
Your Local Epidemiologist
Measles deaths debacle, Covid-19 protection for immunocompromised, and moreBeyond vaccines, immunocompromised people have an overlooked option called Pemgarda, while the CDC's politicized handling of measles death data is eroding public trust in health data.
Uncharted Territories
Should We Eradicate Mosquitoes?Eradicating mosquitoes is feasible, and we should start with the few deadly species, since they contribute almost nothing to ecosystems yet kill hundreds of thousands of people annually.
Quanta Magazine
‘Stunning’ Percolation Proof Solves Decades-Old Puzzle About Phase TransitionsFive mathematicians solved a decades-old puzzle in percolation theory with an unexpectedly simple proof of supercritical sharpness.
Nautilus
New Test for Broken-Heart Syndrome Offers Insights into the Mysterious DiseaseA new blood test using five biomarkers and biological sex can distinguish broken-heart syndrome from heart attacks with nearly 90 percent accuracy, potentially sparing many patients from invasive catheterization.
The Conversation
When a mountain falls: How ice and rock triggered Nepal’s catastrophic flood – and why climate change is raising the risksRising temperatures in the Himalayas make rock and ice collapses more likely, creating temporary landslide dams that burst and cause deadly floods, while warning systems often fail in extreme events.
Renaissance Periodization
The fiber cheat codeDietary fiber is far more than a laxative; through multiple scientific mechanisms it affects gut microbiota, cholesterol, blood sugar, and appetite, making it a key component of a healthy diet.
Nautilus
I’m Part of the Team Writing the Next Bible of Psychiatry—For the First Time, the DSM Will Use Biology to Understand Mental DisordersAlthough adding biology to the DSM is progress, mental disorders still lack reliable biomarkers, so biological diagnosis faces huge challenges.
Nautilus
COVID Brain Fog May Not Be IrreversibleCognitive impairment after Omicron infection is reversible for most patients, but a vulnerable minority suffer irreversible and even progressive decline, urging targeted long-term cognitive care.
The Conversation
‘Must I take all my antibiotics?’ Why infectious disease experts are rethinking this longstanding ruleThe long-held belief that stopping antibiotics early fuels resistance is wrong; the real driver is antibiotic exposure itself.
Nautilus
This Is What Happens When 1,000 People Bury Their Underwear for ScienceBurying cotton underwear in the soil and measuring its decomposition rate reveals soil health effectively and engagingly.
Quanta Magazine
In Hilbert Space, All Things Are Quantumly PossibleQuantum mechanics describes all possible states of a particle in an abstract Hilbert space, which, though non-intuitive, is essential for understanding the quantum world.
404 Media
Scientists Discover Vast Underground 'Anomaly' on MarsUsing a new technique, scientists found that Mars's southern mantle is 400–750°F hotter than its north, offering a clue to the planet's mysterious two-faced geography.
Nautilus
How Conversations Can Shape RealityHumans' greatest superpower is not going solo but talking together to stitch memories into a shared story, imagine the future, and build nations.
Nautilus
Volcanoes That Made HistoryMajor volcanic eruptions have repeatedly reshaped human history by cooling the climate, which in turn triggered famines, plagues and even the fall of empires.
The Conversation
Disappearing lakes, old photos and AI are helping scientists map Arctic permafrost thaw in near-real timeAlaska's permafrost thaw is causing lakes to vanish overnight, and scientists are using old photos, satellite imagery and AI to track it in near-real time, helping communities prepare for ground collapse.
JSTOR Daily
How Kudzu Was Supposed to Save the SouthKudzu was once seen as the South's savior, but after agriculture changed, it was abandoned and demonized as an invader.
Works in Progress
The kill switch for harmful genesThrough siRNA technology, humans can precisely switch off specific disease-causing genes, which may usher in a new era of treating many intractable diseases.
Quanta Magazine
A New Framework for How the Brain Compresses Our Noisy WorldThe brain does not passively receive the world and file it away; it actively projects categories onto the world based on the body's immediate energetic needs.
JSTOR Daily
Not All Boredom Is the SameBoredom has two distinct causes—lack of meaning and a mismatch of attention—and only treating the right one actually relieves it.
Klement on Investing
Let the climate wars beginHigh climate risk and high conflict risk overlap heavily, and climate change is increasing the risk of war.

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