The highest court in the land rejected a Colorado law that barred mental‑health professionals from attempting to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. In an 8‑to‑1 decision, the justices held that the ban was a form of viewpoint‑based speech restriction and therefore subject to str
In Mammoth Lakes, a ski town in California’s Eastern Sierra, three people lost their lives last year to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome—a rare illness caused by a rodent virus. The deaths shocked residents because the infections happened in winter, a season when the disease usually stays low. The v
After a big disaster, people are more likely to get lung infections from food or drink that gets into the lungs. The danger comes not just from the event itself, but also from changes in the environment that make it harder to swallow safely. Researchers have looked closely at how swallowing therapy
A 20‑year‑old woman has filed a lawsuit against Meta and Google, saying that their apps caused her to lose control of her life and damage her mental health. The case raises the question: can a company be held responsible for how much we use their products? She argues that social media can beco
The story starts with a man who had finished almost ten years in a typical office job in the San Francisco Bay Area. He owned a car, lived in his own house, had emergency cash and no debt. Still, he felt something was missing. In 2022 he quit the job, bought a one‑way ticket to Italy and decided to
The fight against gout is growing more urgent as people eat faster and live busier, pushing the disease toward younger ages. Traditional medicines sometimes fail or cause side effects, so scientists are turning to nature’s own toolkit—alkaloids—to find safer solutions. These naturally occurring comp
The idea that you can live off a single number for retirement has long been tied to the 4 percent rule. That rule said you could withdraw four percent of your initial savings each year, adjusting for inflation, and expect the money to last thirty years. It was based on a mix of stocks and bonds that
The state of New York faces another year of budget delays, a pattern that began when Governor Kathy Hochul assumed office in 2021. The annual deadline of April 1 has yet to be met, and lawmakers seem more concerned with policy disputes than with the numbers themselves. Senator Andrea Stewart‑Cousin
NASA is gearing up to send a crew of four astronauts on Artemis II, the first manned trip around the moon in over 50 years. The launch is slated for April 1, and after about eight minutes of flight the Orion capsule will leave Earth’s gravity. It will circle the planet before heading toward the moon
A team of scientists created a special platinum alloy that breaks the usual symmetry seen in metals. By mixing platinum with iron, cobalt and copper, they made the atoms line up unevenly and stretch in different directions. This irregular arrangement adds more nearby metal atoms around each platinum
