This summer, every meal feels like a risk. Just as the US is recovering from a major cyclospora outbreak stemming from tainted iceberg lettuce, salmonella has turned up in jalapeños, eggs, and even dog food. The jalapeño-related outbreak is now responsible for at least 431 illnesses and 57 hospitalizations in more than two dozen states.
Every week, it seems, a fresh opinion poll leads to shocking headlines: never have people been more afraid of the future, believed that their children won’t be as well off as them, or thought that their country is going in the wrong direction. Feelings of gloom about what lies ahead are particularly rife in the
Artificial-intelligence models can be used for tasks ranging from coding to taking meeting notes, depending on a laboratory’s requirements. Credit: da-kuk/Getty As artificial intelligence pervades scientific research, journals, institutions and classrooms are all adopting their own rules on how to use large language models. But how can individual laboratories decide on the best ways to
Time’s Second Arrow: Evolution, Order, and a New Law of Nature Robert M. Hazen and Michael L. Wong W. W. Norton (2026) Like evolution by natural selection, some ideas that start out as revolutionary can become so intuitive that they seem banal to future generations. Mineralogist Robert Hazen and planetary scientist Michael Wong must hope
A negative leap second could mean computer systems no longer run like clockwork. Credit: Florian Gaertner/Photothek/Getty The leap second could be scrapped as soon as October. The periodic adjustment to the world’s clocks, which has been done every few years since 1972, was already set to end by 2035. But authorities are considering an immediate
A recent study found that many women treated for recurrent UTIs didn’t have UTIs at all. Instead, their symptoms were caused by hormonally driven inflammation and pelvic floor dysfunction. BSIP/Universal Images Group/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption BSIP/Universal Images Group/Getty Images For stories on the science of healthy living, subscribe to NPR’s Health newsletter. Maria