At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, millions of people in poor nations died literally gasping for breath, even in hospitals. What they lacked was medical oxygen, which is in short supply in much of the world. On Monday, a panel of experts published a comprehensive report on the shortage. Each year, the report noted,…
The idea was so tantalizing. Drugs in the GLP-1 class, which includes Wegovy and Ozempic, have proved miraculous in treating weight loss and other diseases. And some researchers hoped that the drugs could also help with some of the most difficult diseases to treat — those of the brain, like Parkinson’s. But now, at least…
In 1889, the naturalist Allan Octavian Hume wrote that he was puzzled by macabre decorations he observed in many birds’ nests: strips of dried snakeskin. “Are birds superstitious, I wonder? Do they believe in charms?” he wrote in “The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds.” If not, why were so many birds using pieces of…
