Category: Science and Health

Face masks protect their wearers from life-threatening respiratory infections of all kinds. However, they also pose harmful psychological effects, such as reducing facial identification and emotion recognition, making it difficult for people to understand what those who wear them are saying. Wearing masks throughout the workday also results in a lack of focus, as well […]

The number of Israeli children suffering from orthopedic trauma as a result of jumping on trampolines – small ones indoors, large ones in gardens, on balconies and at Gymborees – has increased significantly in recent years. Large trampolines were responsible for half of the cases, which resulted in even more serious injuries, according to a […]

Most of us have a little darkness now and then. You know, those days when, for whatever reasons, we feel a bit heavy, disconnected or less motivated than usual. Sometimes the feeling comes after loss or sudden change. It could be sadness or grief, or just generally feeling blah. Or maybe it shows up out […]

How many times in your life have you been told or advised, “Just try to be yourself”?  I am sure like many people, you have heard this advice from loved ones or friends perhaps before going on a job interview, meeting people for the first time, going on a date or giving a presentation to […]

I always liked the joke about the doctor who told his elderly patient that he had two bad pieces of news for him. “What’s the first?” “I’m sorry, Mr. Jones, but your memory is so bad that I’m afraid you are really senile.” “What else?” “You have diabetes.” “Oh well, as long as I’m not […]

When the great bustard (Otis tarda) – the heaviest living bird capable of flight – doesn’t feel well in the wild, it doesn’t make an appointment with a veterinarian. Instead, the impressive, colorful and threatened species seems to self-medicate with specific plants for which it searches.  The ground-nesting bird – found in open grasslands and […]

One of the most universally observed commandments in Jewish tradition is the mitzvah of circumcision. In the mishnah at the bottom of yesterday’s daf, sage after sage waxes poetic about why circumcision is so great.  On today’s daf, the Gemara continues this discussion by sharing a number of stories about Abraham, considered the first Jew […]

A technique to measure the long-term effects of antibiotic combinations – “cocktails” – has been developed by researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. These combinations are of intense interest to the scientific and medical communities because the use of single antibiotics often leads to the rapid development of bacterial resistance to these […]

Computers can never replace physicians, but a deep-learning system developed at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa has been found to decipher breast cancer scans better than a human ever could. One in eight women in Israel will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in her life. The disease occurs in men […]

Training on a treadmill and using virtual reality (VR) may improve walking and cognition and relieve depression among relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, according to a new study. Led by researchers at Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center and the Sackler Medical Faculty at Tel Aviv University (TAU), it was conducted with colleagues at The University […]