Having trouble hearing? Just turn up your shirt. That’s the idea behind a new “acoustic fabric” developed by engineers at MIT and collaborators at Rhode Island School of Design. The team has designed a fabric that works like a microphone, converting sound first into mechanical vibrations, then into electrical signals, similarly to how our ears...
Two years after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, inflation, money issues and the war in Ukraine have pushed U.S. stress to alarming levels, according to polls conducted for the American Psychological Association. A late-breaking poll, fielded March 1–3 by The Harris Poll on behalf of APA, revealed striking findings, with more...
As COVID-19 upended societal norms when it swept through the United States in 2020, a second pandemic — or “infodemic”— was also on the rise. An analysis of Twitter users by researchers at the University of California, Davis, and University of Texas, Austin, suggests that Republican-identifying individuals who believe their local government has positive intentions...
In 1923, lead was first added to gasoline to help keep car engines healthy. However, automotive health came at the great expense of our own well-being. A new study calculates that exposure to car exhaust from leaded gas during childhood stole a collective 824 million IQ points from more than 170 million Americans alive today,...
The first study ever to examine sleeping behavior in a wild group of primates has challenged a central tenet of sleep science: that we must make up for lost sleep. Even after sleeping poorly, wild baboons still spent time on other priorities, such as socializing with group-mates or looking out for predators, rather than catching up...
Transmission of respiratory viruses depends partly on the rate of close social contacts in a population. A study publishing March 1st in PLOS Medicine by Amy Gimma at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and colleagues suggests that during the most restrictive period of lockdown in the United Kingdom, the number of reported contacts decreased by...
Many new mothers experience unwanted and intrusive thoughts about intentionally harming their babies, but those thoughts don’t appear to increase the likelihood that they will actually harm their newborn, according to a new UBC study. The researchers note that such thoughts should be discussed with new mothers as a normal, albeit unpleasant and likely distressing,...
Past research has shown that people drink more frequently and drink higher amounts of alcohol when they have more bars and restaurants in the neighborhoods where they live. But a new study, focusing on parents of young children, suggests it isn’t just where people live that’s important – it also matters where they spend their...
YouTube videos are the popular choice for online information on Botox and soft-tissue fillers – but these videos have ongoing problems with the quality of information provided, reports a study in the March issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). Videos produced by physicians are a better source of...
A new analysis from Indiana University, the nonprofit Rand Corp. and the University of Michigan highlights the changes in the U.S. health care workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that the average wages for U.S. health care workers rose less than wages in other industries during 2020 and the first six months of 2021....
