• The unexpected gift of a strong immune system: we’re more attractive

    By Roberta Attanasio Why are we attracted to one face over another? What makes a face attractive and another one less attractive? “Research finds that features such as clear skin, prominent cheekbones, bright eyes, and full, red lips have been deemed attractive throughout recorded human history Research also finds a consistent preference for symmetrical and average faces. Although some argue…

  • How COVID-19 sets off ravaging inflammation in some people

    By Roberta Attanasio Back in March 2020, Jane Brody wrote in The New York Times “While most people focus, as they should, on social distancing, face coverings, hand washing and even self-isolation to protect against the deadly coronavirus now ravaging the country, too few are paying serious attention to two other factors critically important to the risk of developing a…

  • Night light

    Why you should sleep with lights off during the night

    By Roberta Attanasio In cities and towns all around the world, the nighttime glow of artificial light obscures views of the cosmos and contributes to an environmental problem called “light pollution.” Light pollution can also be present at smaller scale, for example in neighborhoods, or in homes. Often, this problem is caused by superfluous light. Solutions such as covering streetlights…

  • Breastfeeding regulates the immune system and improves babies’ health

    By Roberta Attanasio “As long as there have been babies, there have been breastfeeding mothers, providing infants with basic, essential nutrition. But for a surprisingly long time, there have also been baby bottles, used to feed infants when mothers couldn’t. ‘We talk about the golden age where everybody breastfed, and that age never happened,’ says Suzanne Barston, author of Bottled…

  • Salad

    George Bernard Shaw and the dreaded salad—being a vegetarian, then and now

    By Roberta Attanasio The ingenious playwright George Bernard Shaw was awarded the 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his work which is marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty.” He was a fervent vegetarian, and the same traits that characterized his work can be found in his staunch defense of…

  • Pythagoras by J. Augustus Knapp

    Pythagoras, the first campaigner for ethical vegetarianism

    By Roberta Attanasio An article published almost 120 years ago in the New York Times (1907) focused on several questions delving on “what and how a normal person should eat.” The article detailed the resulting debate, which included the voices of many scientists. One of the discussion points was vegetarianism, and a related question was: “Should we, then, being busy…

  • Cells containing Epstein-Barr virus

    New evidence for a link between Epstein-Barr virus and multiple sclerosis

    By Roberta Attanasio For years, Epstein-Barr virus has been a prime suspect in the effort to identify the cause of multiple sclerosis, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nearly 1 million people in the United States and an estimated 2.8 million people worldwide. A recently published study shows that, indeed, Epstein-Barr virus is the likely cause of multiple sclerosis—an inflammatory…

  • Prunes

    Bone loss? Osteoporosis? Don’t forget your prunes

    By Roberta Attanasio “I like a good prune. I mean, when it’s soft and sweaty like a candy bar on a hot day. When it’s a sinister Disney-villain shade of brownish purple, and it tastes of nothing but honey and caramel, what’s not to like?” Prunes are dried plums, rich in phenolic compounds. Carried from China along the Silk Road…

  • Pythagoras, fava beans, and favism

    By Roberta Attanasio Pythagoras—a cloak-wearing mystical leader with a handsome beard—lived about 2,500 year ago in a community that cherished numbers. He was a native of the Aegean Island of Samos, but later in his life migrated westward and founded a school in Kroton (now Crotone) in South Italy. The school was called the “Semicircle of Pythagoras” and followed a…