Author: Lance Garrison
April 12, 2024 — Creamy, thick, and velvety: Without emulsifiers, your favorite ice cream or muffin might not taste the same. Yet research warns that there is a darker side to these substances, from polysorbate-80 to carrageenan. Evidence links emulsifiers with upset gut microbiome, inflammation, and several conditions, from heart attacks to breast cancer. What’s more, emulsifiersdon’t necessarily equal junk food. Such substances can be found in many foods that are often considered healthy, such as some low-fat Greek yogurts, trail mix bars, or oat milk. There are over 100 different emulsifiers that can be added to foods. They prevent separation of oil and water, improving texture.…
From this telling use of Chinese Communist history and even more telling English-language alteration, you can proceed to a reading like the one offered initially in this essay by Reason magazine’s Peter Suderman, where the entire story of interstellar conflict, between an earthbound humanity and advanced aliens who have a way to observe our every move and impede our scientific progress while their invasion fleet gradually approaches, reads as a commentary on China’s “surveillance authoritarianism.” As with earthlings under the high-tech eye of the aliens, so with the subjects of China’s regime: Like Liu’s invasion-shadowed human beings, Suderman writes, “Chinese…
April 12, 2024 – When a mother in Atlanta, GA, noticed measles symptoms in her son earlier this year after returning from an international trip, she knew just bringing him straight into a local emergency room may put others at risk.She kept him in the car outside the ER while alerting staff inside.“We were able to immediately bring the child in and immediately put him in an isolated room and mask and avoid potential exposures, but it could have gone very differently,” said pediatric infectious disease specialist Matt Linam, MD, whose colleagues at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta treated the patient.The…
To the Editor:Re “Political Dissent Is Under Attack on Campus,” by Paula Chakravartty and Vasuki Nesiah (Opinion guest essay, April 8):As an N.Y.U. alumnus and an academic, I am disturbed by the authors’ implication that at N.Y.U. it is solely the Palestinian voice in the complex tragedy that is being suppressed.Academic freedom requires academic responsibility, which is lacking when it is suggested that the suffering of the Palestinian people is the only acceptable topic for outrage, and it is assumed that sufficient balance is provided by a single sentence noting opposition to antisemitism.The problem is also seen in the failure…
April 12, 2024 – Scientists and researchers have long raised concerns about the potential increased risks of autism and ADHD from taking acetaminophen during pregnancy, even though the FDA and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have said it’s safe to use when you’re carrying a child.But new findings should bring comfort to pregnant people who need pain relief, given that full-dose aspirin and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have been shown to pose serious risks to pregnant patients. Taking over-the-counter pain relievers with acetaminophen, such as Tylenol, during your pregnancy will not increase your child’s risk of having autism, attention deficit…
Listen to and follow ‘Matter of Opinion’Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicThis week, the “Matter of Opinion” hosts debate how religious voters will react to Donald Trump’s betrayal of anti-abortion positions, the evolution of Christianity as the domain of the right and whether religion is actually as powerful as it seems in modern U.S. politics.Plus, Ross finds aliens, again.(A full transcript of this audio essay will be available within 24 hours of publication in the audio player above.)Recommended in this episode:Thoughts? Email us at matterofopinion@nytimes.com.Follow our hosts on X: Michelle Cottle (@mcottle), Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) and Carlos Lozada (@CarlosNYT).“Matter…
“Choking” has moved from porn to pop culture to the dorm room. And the consequences for young women could be very serious.
Produced by ‘The Ezra Klein Show’Back in 2018, Dario Amodei worked at OpenAI. And looking at one of its first A.I. models, he wondered: What would happen as you fed an artificial intelligence more and more data?He and his colleagues decided to study it, and they found that the A.I. didn’t just get better with more data; it got better exponentially. The curve of the A.I.’s capabilities rose slowly at first and then shot up like a hockey stick.[You can listen to this episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” on the NYT Audio App, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google or…
Going into Alex Garland’s astonishing new film, “Civil War,” I expected to be irritated by the implausibility of its premise. I’m not talking about the idea that America could devolve into vicious internecine armed conflict. That seems possible, if not probable. In one 2022 poll, 43 percent of Americans said they thought a civil war within the next decade was at least somewhat likely. I wouldn’t go that far, but I won’t be surprised if political violence spikes after the upcoming election and eventually spirals out of control. I’m pretty confident, however, that if the sort of war Garland depicts…
President Biden wants the world to believe that the biggest obstacle facing Ukraine is Republicans and our lack of commitment to the global community. This is wrong.Ukraine’s challenge is not the G.O.P.; it’s math. Ukraine needs more soldiers than it can field, even with draconian conscription policies. And it needs more matériel than the United States can provide. This reality must inform any future Ukraine policy, from further congressional aid to the diplomatic course set by the president.The Biden administration has applied increasing pressure on Republicans to pass a supplemental aid package of more than $60 billion to Ukraine. I…