In Before Times, what fascinated me the most about the sense of smell was the fact that odors often trigger strong memories. (One of the scientific explanations for that is that smells take a direct, unfiltered route to brain areas related to memory and emotion.) Now, after a year of covering the coronavirus pandemic, when I think about the sense of smell, I think of only one thing: losing it through Covid-19 related “anosmia.”

That Covid-centered mindset is typical of the way many people think right now: It’s hard to focus on all the marvelous things that have nothing to…

Today, U.S. pharmaceutical company Moderna said that its coronavirus vaccine seems to be effective against the new coronavirus variants that have emerged in the United Kingdom and South Africa. Overall, that’s good news, especially in light of the scary headlines about the U.K. strain you might have seen over the weekend. “In addition to spreading more quickly, it also now appears that there is some evidence that the new variant […] may be associated with a higher degree of mortality,” U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said during a press briefing on Friday, warning that the strain would potentially lead to…

The new year can spur the urge to make changes to your lifestyle. Diet advice tends to be heavily marketed this time of year with claims of benefits to health and self-esteem. But diets are often restrictive and exclusionary, and even if they provide short-term benefits, they tend to be unsustainable in the long term and in some cases can lead to disordered eating. Scientists and nutrition experts recommend looser, more inclusive approaches to eating, such as the pesco-Mediterranean diet, an eating pattern that’s high in plants, nuts, whole grains, extra-virgin olive oil, and fish or seafood. …

If there’s one thing we’ve learned in 2020, it’s that human beings can forge connections on screens to temporarily replace real face-to-face human interaction. And I’m not just talking about daily Zoom calls with your colleagues. Spending time with fictional characters on television or in movies can mimic the benefits of seeing real-world friends or loved ones, reports science writer Markham Heid in Elemental — especially, if you’re rewatching your favorite shows or movies.

Medium’s Sam Zabell also explains why binge-watching her favorite Christmas movies brings comfort: human brains are conditioned to feel good when we watch our favorite, cheesy…

“It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” is one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time. “Everyone telling you, ‘Be of good cheer,’” sings Andy Williams in his 1963 holiday tune. But this holiday season, it might take a little more than a nostalgic song to get into the holiday spirit. For some people, that might be a mug of eggnog or a glass or two of wine. There’s a widespread assumption that alcohol cheers you up and reduces stress. And while it’s true that alcohol is an anesthetic and can blunt the brain and body’s response…

What Metallica has to do with me pondering whether I should travel to Germany for Christmas and spend time with my parents.

In a normal year, I would see my parents (70 and 68 years old) at least twice. They would fly to the best city in the world for a summer vacation, spend a few weeks with me and take videos of Central Park squirrels and firetrucks passing by. In December, I would travel to my small hometown in Germany near Cologne for Christmas and sleep in my childhood bed (I’m 6'4), right under a fading, dusty ‘Ride the…

I’m European, and today’s headlines disheartened me. With an average of more than 100,000 new infections per day over the past week, Europe now accounts for about one-third of new cases reported worldwide, the New York Times reports. That means the “Old World” has overtaken the U.S. in new cases of Covid-19. A surprise? Not really, unfortunately.

While Europe actually had the virus under control for a while, the mistakes that lead to the situation on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean are reminiscent of what went wrong in the U.S, and particularly in certain U.S. states: In several…

Men are nearly twice as likely to become severely sick and die from Covid-19 compared to women, research has shown. Now, a new study from Yale, published on Wednesday in Nature, gives new clues as to why men fare so much worse with the coronavirus.

It’s the first study to look at the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 by sex, and it found that men produce an overall weaker immune response to the virus than women. …