Click:路軌燈 The room didn’t spin like they say it does. My life didn’t flash before my eyes. I had no difficulty understanding the verdict: It was incurable. They could offer no prognosis. They had some general ideas about how they might treat me; it was considered “manageable” in its normal form, but in my case, there was no telling what would or wouldn’t work. They told me that if they could find an effective treatment, I should expect to be on it “for life.” The week of the 2016 election, my foot had gone numb — paralyzed, actually. I’d first arrived at the neurologist’s office unable to wiggle my toes,…

It’s the year 2020, and scientists are still discovering new species of life on Earth. No one knows exactly how many types of life are yet undescribed in the scientific literature; estimates range from around 86 percent to as high as 99.99 percent. And even though we’re living through an age of great biodiversity loss, the scope and breadth of life on planet Earth is still revealing itself to scientists around the world. This year, researchers at the California Academy of Sciences have described 213 new species in scientific journals: “101 ants, 22 crickets, 15 fishes, 11 geckos, 11 sea slugs, 11 flowering plants, eight beetles, eight fossil echinoderms, seven…

Updated Thu 8:10 PM Ardscoil Rís 1-17 St Kieran’s College 0-15 Robert Cribbin reports from Croke Park ARDSCOIL RÍS OF Limerick captured their first ever All-Ireland senior hurling colleges title after claiming a five-point victory over Kilkenny aristocrats St Kieran’s College in Croke Park this afternoon. Ardscoil Rís were appearing in their fourth ever final and after losing out in all three previous deciders to St Kieran’s in 2010, 2011 and 2016, Niall Moran’s side finally reversed the trend. Kieran’s themselves were in a seventh consecutive showpiece and they were hoping to make it five wins in six, and despite Harry Shine giving them an opening minute lead, they were…

Two highly effective Covid-19 vaccines are now being administered across the United States, and more are in the pipeline. Almost 2 million people have already received the first of two doses of these vaccines, and officials are aiming to immunize one-third of the US population by the end of March 2021. It’s a stunning accomplishment for a disease that was barely known to the world a year ago, and it means that an end to the crisis is in sight. Yet the US remains in the worst throes of the pandemic to date, with hospitalizations and deaths continuing to break records. Vaccines are critical in drawing down the pandemic as…

It’s year-end-list season. Usually, the Vox science team has some fun and compiles a year-end list of bad ideas in health and science that ought to die with the end of the year. In the past, we’ve targeted homeopathic medicine, declared it was time to end the relevance of the fatally flawed Stanford Prison Experiment, and dispelled myths about climate change. This year, though, we have only one target for intellectual demolition. With the end of 2020, let’s leave behind the idea of using herd immunity acquired through natural infections as a means of combating the Covid-19 pandemic. That’s a lot of words to describe a simple, terrible idea: that…

Close the bars. Open the schools. Public health experts have been repeating this same refrain since the summer, when many states and cities reopened businesses like bars, restaurants, and gyms — all areas where the coronavirus is thought to spread readily — without a clear plan to reopen school buildings. And the call has only gotten louder in recent weeks as cases skyrocket in a third viral wave and officials close schools while keeping indoor dining open. For example, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on November 18 that school buildings would close in the city in response to rising cases — but gyms and reduced-capacity indoor dining…

There’s a growing consensus in the climate change community that the key to transitioning the US economy from fossil fuels is to electrify everything — shift the electricity grid over to carbon-free power and shift other big polluting sectors like transportation and heating over to electricity. When it comes to transportation, electrification is going to be tricky. Not long ago, the consensus was that the cost and power limitations of batteries would make it difficult to fully electrify anything larger than passenger vehicles. But batteries have been progressing in leaps and bounds. Full electrification is still beyond the reach of huge vehicles, the long-distance airliners and container ships, but recently…

In the middle of March, while many Americans were panic-buying milk and toilet paper, Michael Redmond had other things on his mind: how to safely house the dozens of people who rely on his organization for a bed to sleep in every night. The executive director of the Upper Valley Haven social service agency in White River Junction, Vermont, had read the reports that the new coronavirus could easily circulate among people living in close proximity — retirement homes, prisons, or homeless shelters like his. So he contacted the state to ask for advice. “‘Don’t worry,’” he recalls an official telling him. ‘“We’ve entered into contracts with local motels. If…

Naas CBS 3-14 St Brendan’s Killarney 2-15 Richard Commins reports at Croke Park NAAS CBS BECAME the first Kildare school to lift the Hogan Cup after a high-quality encounter with four-time winners St Brendan’s Killarney in the Masita GAA All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Football Championship in Croke Park this afternoon. Two goals from man-of-the-match Kevin Cummins and one from Fionn Cooke proved crucial as Naas saw a six-point half-time lead whittled down to a single point with three minutes remaining with the Kerry school valiantly trying to pull off a dramatic comeback win. But in a riveting end-to-end encounter, one of the best matches played in Headquarters in recent years,…

Donald Trump clearly wants credit for the recent successes of the Covid-19 vaccines US companies are developing. “I came up with vaccines that people didn’t think we’d have for five years,” he said on Fox News Sunday. He’s now apparently not only taking credit for his administration’s Operation Warp Speed, which has pumped billions in to the vaccine development process, but for the vaccine formulations themselves. With each new, exciting development, Trump has taken credit. When the pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced promising results from its Covid-19 vaccine clinical trial with BioNTech, he claimed in a news conference the success was “as a result of Operation Warp Speed.” Trump’s comments about…