By John Liebmann The first half of 2026 has been filled with many events that are deeply concerning, but this was also the occasion for the release on May 15 of Pope Leo’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas. In it, the pope explained that the Catholic Church has long been working for nuclear disarmament because great technical […]

Psychiatry is beginning to give more serious attention to deprescribing: the supervised reduction or discontinuation of psychiatric medications when they are no longer useful, necessary, or tolerable.  Prominent psychiatrists are developing guidance on how and when patients should taper off medications. The experts, whose recommendations appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open and

The human body may contain a more extensive internal fluid network than standard anatomy has long recognized. The interstitium consists of interconnected fluid-filled spaces under the skin, around organs, and between tissues. Once considered isolated pockets, these spaces may form a continuous system for the movement of fluid, particles, immune signals, and possibly disease processes.

The arrival of smartphones may have played a direct role in the sharp decline in U.S. fertility after 2007. The theory is not that phones biologically reduced fertility, but that they changed the social conditions under which dating, sex, partnership, and family formation occur. Less in-person contact, more screen time, altered adolescent social life, and

A sound installation at the Park Avenue Armory transforms water, porcelain, motion, and accident into music. French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot filled three circular pools with 30,000 gallons of water and hundreds of porcelain bowls. Water currents slowly move the bowls across the surface, causing them to drift, collide, ring, clink, and separate. The work, Clinamen, has

A small Babylonian tablet brought to the British Museum in the late twentieth century preserved one of the most startling flood traditions in ancient literature. Irving Finkel, a leading cuneiform scholar at the British Museum, eventually identified it as part of the Atra-hasis flood tradition, a Mesopotamian story older than the biblical Genesis account. The

The Story of Ferdinand remains one of the most quietly radical children’s books ever published. Ferdinand is a bull who does not want to fight. While the other bulls run, jump, and butt their heads together, Ferdinand prefers to sit under a cork tree and smell flowers. His refusal to perform aggression makes him gentle, but

A single molar from Chagryskaya Cave in Siberia is changing the way researchers understand Neanderthal medical skill. The tooth, from an adult Neanderthal, contained a deep cavity reaching the pulp chamber, along with scratches around the hole. Fine-pointed stone tools found at the cave may have been used to remove decayed tissue. Scans and experiments

Lester Wright became a symbol of extraordinary aging when he ran the 100-meter dash the day after his 100th birthday. He completed the race in 26.34 seconds at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, finishing ahead of competitors aged 86 and 92 as a crowd of 38,000 stood and cheered. Though the time was never officially

White phosphorus is one of the most terrifying substances used in modern warfare. It ignites on contact with air, burns at extremely high temperatures, produces thick smoke, and can cause severe injuries to skin, eyes, lungs, homes, fields, forests, soil, and water. Its use is permitted in some military contexts, especially to create smoke screens,