Articles

I started smoking when I was 13. My habit began with me smoking one cigarette with friends, periodically, on the walk to and from school. That escalated into me having my own pack and sharing with the friends who wanted one. During the early years I could stop smoking when I wanted to. In the...

Often referred to as the “King of Tropical Fruit”, durian fruit is a succulent fruit based in Southeast Asian countries. It is a soft fruit that is guarded by thorns and it normally grows in a season from June to August. Durian fruits are large in size as they can typically grow to a diameter...

A popular culinary condiment with many medicinal uses, ginger is a lot more than just an ingredient. For thousands of years, this marvelous spice has been an integral dietary component of multiple cultures. Its culinary, aromatic and medicinal properties have made this great condiment one of the top natural foods to treat or prevent a...

A big year for workout firsts, 2013 gave us plenty of new opportunies to get active. Not only were fitness fads a hot topic in the research world, but they also made their way to the forefront of our social media, fashion and social lives (yes, people now go on SoulCycle dates!). Here’s a brief...

Originally proposed by George Vernon Hudson, a New Zealander working after-hours as an entomologist and wanting extra daylight for his research, DST was first implemented in 1916 in Europe to divert precious fuel resources from lighting to the war effort. Thus was born a double-edged sword: the theft of an hour of sleep in exchange...

Usually when someone says, “Eat dirt!” they mean, “Die! I hate you! Die!” But apparently dirt-eating might be… healthy. Say what?! That’s right: NPR’s blog The Salt recently reported on the “under-the-radar” practice of eating a white clay known as kaolin. As nutritional anthropologist Sera Young told NPR’s Linda Chen, clay, when eaten, might act as “a mud mask for...

There’s no real cure for the common cold, except to get through it as best you can. Oof. That’s a punch straight to the gut. But don’t worry, there are a few things you can do from the comfort of your own home to help soothe common-cold symptoms like fever, runny nose and a sore...

Don’t get me wrong: I like water just fine. Consuming enough of it, however, has always been a challenge for me. Living at sea level meant that hydration could be a somewhat casual affair, but things got serious during a surf trip to Costa Rica: After days in the hot sun, dehydration bit me in...

If you’re served a piece of chicken that has a pinkish hue, are you immediately paranoid you’ll get salmonella? Turns out, your fears aren’t unfounded: Every year, approximately 42,000 cases of salmonella are reported in the U.S. — but because many milder cases aren’t diagnosed or reported, the actual number of infections may be 29...