Category: Science and Health

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen’s biology department and colleagues in Zurich, Switzerland, and elsewhere have found that people who do well on human empathy tests are also measurably better at decoding the emotional sounds of animals. Such individuals are better at knowing when an animal is having a good or bad time than other […]

I’m a collector of old knick knacks, as I suppose many Jews are. We collect stories, memories, and practices, but also family heirlooms: Shabbat candlesticks, old menorahs, seder plates, kippot from bar mitzvah celebrations across our lifetimes.  Prized among my collected memorabilia is a Hanukkah menorah that my great-grandparents brought with them from the old […]

Until fairly recently, the question of Judaism’s attitude toward recreational drug use would have been relatively straightforward. Judaism considers the preservation of human health to be among its highest values, and the prevailing opinion among health authorities has long been that recreational drugs are dangerous and lack any medical value. Judaism also mandates respect for […]

Chickens were found to be infected with the H5N1 strain of avian influenza at a farm next to Mishmar HaSharon, near Netanya, on Wednesday, according to the Agriculture Ministry. The affected farm contains about 128,000 birds. All coops within a 10-kilometer radius have been placed in quarantine and the Veterinary Service is conducting testing at […]

Jewish women of Ashkenazi origin have a 1-in-40 chance of developing a gene mutation that causes breast cancer.  The mutation, which occurs on the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene, increases the breast cancer risk for young women and raises the risk as they age. The chance of getting breast cancer from these gene mutations is significantly […]

Today’s daf has a number of moving meditations on the value and power of Torah. If you haven’t read it yet, I want to encourage you to do so — both because they are beautiful, and because they are not the part of the daf that we’re going to focus on here. The Talmud today […]

Ancient Roman citizens had three names: the praenomen, the nomen and the cognomen. The praenomen was the name their parents gave them. The nomen was the name of their extended family (what today we might call their last name). And the cognomen was an additional name that gave further identifying information about an individual, either […]

The mishnah on our daf begins chapter 8 of Tractate Nedarim. The forsworn item in our mishnah today is wine. In recent weeks we have studied vows to abstain from cooked foods, pickled foods, fish, milk, meat, dates, grapes, olives, cabbage, beans, garlic, lentils, vegetables, and grains — among other consumables. Generally, commentators view this […]

If everyone would take the time to to walk in a silly an inefficient manner as shown in an iconic 1970 Monty Python for just a few minutes each day, it can help the world reach global physical activity targets, a new study has found. The findings of this study, fun facts of which can […]

For many years, people with mental health problems have hidden their condition from friends and even relatives because of the stigma attached to psychiatric illness.  Six years ago, people with mental health challenges agreed to have life-sized posters of themselves displayed at Boston’s Logan Airport in a project called “Deconstructing Stigma.” Now, after a year […]