With frequent and severe disasters repeatedly underscoring the dangers of climate change, scientists across the country have been working to understand the consequences for our hearts, lungs, brains and more — and how to best mitigate them. The work has relied largely on hundreds of millions of dollars in grantsContinue Reading
For the past two decades, Kevin Hall, a nutrition and metabolism scientist at the National Institutes of Health, has devoted his career to studying how people’s diets affect their health. He has led some of the world’s most important research on ultraprocessed foods, including one study that demonstrated, for theContinue Reading
After three years of contentious negotiations, the member nations of the World Health Organization have agreed on a draft of a “pandemic treaty” designed to help the global community better prevent and respond to health crises. The agreement is aimed at averting the fractious, faltering response to the Covid-19 pandemic,Continue Reading
A two-day meeting of vaccine advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention went smoothly. Tami Chappell/Getty Images/AFP Tami Chappell/Getty Images/AFP Despite concerns that the administration might meddle with a committee of vaccine advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, their first public meeting since President Trump’sContinue Reading
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a news conference autism rates on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. Jose Luis Magana/AP Jose Luis Magana/AP Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Wednesday declared that autism is a rapidly growing “epidemic” in the U.S. and vowedContinue Reading
In remarks laced with scientific inaccuracies, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said on Wednesday that autism was preventable while directly contradicting researchers within his own agency on a primary driver behind rising rates of the condition in young children. Mr. KennedyContinue Reading
I’m not a big weight room guy. In high school, I got called “Bird Legs,” and in college, I picked up the nickname “Stretch.” I tried to bulk up, but every time I tried, say, bench press, it just felt like too much work and not much fun. But asContinue Reading
CT scans use ionizing radiation to create cross-sectional images of the body, providing more detail than X-rays. kckate16/iStockphoto/Getty Images kckate16/iStockphoto/Getty Images CT scans diagnose afflictions from tumors to kidney stones to life-threatening diseases and injuries, such as aneurysms and blood clots leading to stroke. But the radiation emitted by thisContinue Reading
Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs, Montana is the state’s only psychiatric hospital for adults. Mental health advocates say it’s too hard to get someone committed to the hospital, and patients are discharged too soon, without a long-term treatment plan — which means they often end up homeless again. AaronContinue Reading
Something worrisome was happening at Spurwink, a mental health clinic in Portland, Maine. Many patients being treated for opioid addiction had gone missing for days, even weeks, skipping prescription refills and therapy appointments. The counselors feared their patients were relapsing on fentanyl. But those who reappeared did not show theContinue Reading
