Did your mother ever say, "you should eat your greens"? Well, she was right; you should definitely eat your greens — and you should make sure she's eating hers, too.In recent years a growing body of evidence has shown that diet can play an important role in staving off Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Now scientists are starting to work out the details of what such a diet looks like.You've probably been hearing about the Mediterranean diet for years, based on its known benefits for h ...read more

The recently launched James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is set to help rewrite our understanding of the cosmos. Already, astronomers have looked further back into the early universe than ever before — and crucial to the telescope capturing light from over 13 billion years ago are its massive mirrors.The primary mirror, with its iconic hexagonal shape, is more than two stories in diameter and consists of 18 separate segments. All of these segments must be perfectly smooth, flat and scratch-free ...read more

You’ve likely been hearing it in the media for weeks now: A giant mass of seaweed, some 5,000 miles wide, is headed for Florida, where it will engulf beaches with tons of icky and decaying seaweed, emitting a noxious gas all the while.Inevitably, stories about this massive swath of seaweed tend to call it a blob, stirring up images of some 1950s B-movie monster coming to absorb the Sunshine State, beaches, tourists, retirees and all. In reality, the so-called blob, while big, is well-known to ...read more

Whether it’s fascination, fear or a mixture of both, sharks capture our imagination. Hollywood hysteria aside, there are a lot of things they do to keep our attention. Sharks can be bulls or tigers. They can be hammers or cookie cutters. Some of the stranger ones can even be bioluminescent ghosts, while others that even can reproduce asexually.But were sharks always this diverse? What were the earliest sharks like, and when did some sharks come to dominate the marine food chain?Ancient SharksI ...read more

Type the question “is LASIK dangerous?” into a search engine, and the top results are from medical providers and eye clinics that assure the procedure is safe.LASIK, which stands for Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis, is an in-office procedure meant to correct vision so a person no longer has to wear glasses or contacts. It’s a popular procedure, and about 600,000 people undergo it yearly.But last July, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began drafting guidance for practition ...read more

As March was drawing to a close, a powerful solar flare exploded from the Sun, causing X-rays and ultraviolet radiation to rocket toward Earth. Peaking at 10:33 p.m. Eastern Time on March 28, 2023, the flare was of the strongest kind — an X-class flare, according to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center. Traveling at the speed of light, the radiation reached Earth almost immediately, causing ionization in parts of the upper atmosphere on the sunlit side. This, in turn, triggered a blackout of ...read more

Shortly after eating or drinking, you might find yourself with a burning sensation in your chest, otherwise known as heartburn. Maybe you feel something rising from your stomach to the back of your throat, or even find yourself having to swallow it or spit it out.Any of these symptoms may point to gastroesophageal reflux disease, also known as GERD, says David Estores, a gastroenterologist at the University of Florida College of Medicine. What Are the Symptoms of GERD?Heartburn and acid regurgit ...read more

American writer and activist Rebecca Solnit once described blue as “the color of where you are not.” In the context of sparkling oceanic horizons or cloudless summer skies, you might add that it’s where many of us want to be — especially when water is involved.Whether we’re talking Caribbean Sea, alpine lakes and rivers or a simple fountain in a park, there’s something magnetic about water. The human psyche, generally speaking, is drawn to it.Just consider the trend of cities and tow ...read more

This article was originally published on Dec. 1, 2022.Queen Nefertiti is best known for the elegant limestone bust signifying her role as the Great Royal Wife of Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten. The Egyptian artifact highlights her long neck, high cheek bones and flawless features. But many scholars think there may be more to Nefertiti than just beauty. They contend that Nefertiti was also Egypt’s leading lady, a powerful figure who took over after her husband’s death. Nefertiti ruled during the ...read more

The world’s most popular sport has more than 250 million players in over 200 countries. Every week it fills stadiums with many millions more. This sport, soccer, is played by two teams of 11 players who cooperate to score goals while preventing their opponents from doing so. For each team, a game can have one of three outcomes — win, draw or lose. This kind of game is usually part of a bigger business to determine the best team. The most common process is a league structure in which teams p ...read more