A Photographic Blast From the Past

In January 1972, the Environmental Protection Agency asked nearly 100 freelance photographers to roam the country in the pursuit of a single goal: documenting “the environmental happenings and non-happenings” of the decade. By 1977, the photographers had submitted more than 80,000 images for the project, known as Documerica. About one-quarter of the photographs were shown in public exhibitions but then filed away and largely forgotten.

Genome Study Points to Adaptation in Early African-Americans

Researchers scanning the genomes of African-Americans say they see evidence of natural selection as their ancestors adapted to the harsh conditions of their new environment in America.

Power in Numbers

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — His Ph.D. is in pure mathematics, in a subfield so esoteric and specialized that even if someone gets a great result, it can be appreciated by only a few dozen people in the entire world. But he left that world behind and, with no formal training, entered another: the world of molecular biology, medicine and genomics.

Animal Studies Cross Campus to Lecture Hall

Once, animals at the university were the province of science. Rats ran through mazes in the psychology lab, cows mooed in the veterinary barns, the monkeys of neuroscience chattered in their cages. And on the dissecting tables of undergraduates, preserved frogs kept a deathly silence.

Fighting Cervical Cancer With Vinegar and Ingenuity

Anuree Talasart, a nurse provider in Roi Et Province, Thailand, teaches a group of women about the female reproductive system.

POYAI, Thailand — Maikaew Panomyai did a little dance coming out of the examination room, switching her hips, waving her fists in the air and crowing, in her limited English: “Everything’s O.K.! Everything’s O.K.!”

The Hormone Surge of Middle Childhood

VIEWED superficially, the part of youth that the psychologist Jean Piaget called middle childhood looks tame and uneventful, a quiet patch of road on the otherwise hairpin highway to adulthood.

Cauliflower and Red Onion Tacos With Cotija Cheese

Cauliflower and Red Onion Tacos With Cotija Cheese

Vegetables bathed in vinegar are typical condiments in Mexico, but you can bring them to the center of the plate as a filling for a taco. If you want spice, add the chipotle, or garnish with some salsa. If salt is an issue, use ranchero rather than cotija cheese.

Lucky Foods to Ring in the New Year

Baked Giant Limas with Winter Squash and Sage

I love the fact that beans, lentils and greens symbolize prosperity in the New Year in places as disparate as the American South and the South of France. I wonder if it’s really because lentils and beans are round like coins and swell when they cook, or if it’s because that’s about all anybody can afford to eat after the excesses of the holiday season.

How Tanning Changes the Brain

The brains of frequent tanners may be similar to those of addicts.

People who frequently use tanning beds experience changes in brain activity during their tanning sessions that mimic the patterns of drug addiction, new research shows.

The Year in Fitness

If all the Phys Ed columns published this year have a single message, it is that now is a fine time to own a body. The diverse exercise-related experiments published in 2011 and covered in this space each week suggest that it’s possible to retain your cognitive powers, muscle mass, running speed and waistline, even as you age, and that a little exercise can go a long way in terms of physiological benefit. Recent, important science even tells us that coffee, chocolate and beer enhance exercise performance, which is fortunate, since I have no plans to give up any of those. As most of us prepare our exercise resolutions for 2012, now seems an ideal time to review the past year in fitness science and the lessons it contained, both encouraging and cautionary.

Debate Persists on Deadly Flu Made Airborne

Ron Fouchier led a team that took one of the most dangerous flu viruses ever known and made it even more dangerous.

The young scientist, normally calm and measured, seemed edgy when he stopped by his boss’s office.

“You are not going to believe this one,” he told Ron Fouchier, a virologist at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. “I think we have an airborne H5N1 virus.”

Seeing Terror Risk, U.S. Asks Journals to Cut Flu Study Facts

National Institute for Biological Standards and Control/Photo Researchers

The A(H5N1) virus largely affects birds and rarely infects people, but it is highly deadly when it does.

For the first time ever, a government advisory board is asking scientific journals not to publish details of certain biomedical experiments, for fear that the information could be used by terrorists to create deadly viruses and touch off epidemics.

Metal Hips Failing Fast, Report Says

A British registry found that the highest failure rates involved the Articular Surface Replacement device, which was recalled.

In a troubling development for people with all-metal artificial hips, a registry that tracks orthopedic implants in Britain reported on Thursday that the failure rate of the devices was increasing.

Health Fears Over Suspect French Breast Implants Spread Abroad

A breast implant manufactured with substandard silicone by a French company was removed from a patient at a hospital in Nice, France, on Wednesday.

PARIS — Health officials in at least a half-dozen countries are grappling with the intense anxiety of tens of thousands of women who received breast implants that were made in France with substandard silicone — and that have been rupturing at unusually high rates.

A Medical School More Like Hogwarts

Students and faculty from Vanderbilt School of Medicine compete in the Spirit Showdown against other colleges for the College Cup, an Olympic-style competition spanning two days in the fall semester. (From left: Jacob Ark, Beau Kelly, Megan Culler, Conrad Myler and Allison Martin.)

It’s been clear for several years now that while aspiring doctors may start medical school as happy and as healthy as their non-doctoring peers, four years later they aren’t.

The Haves’ Children Are Healthier Than the Have-Nots’

Every Monday, Sycamore Valley Elementary in Danville challenges its students to run a “Smile Mile” together after school. Some parents even run with their children. Photos of the student joggers’ grinning faces are posted in the cafeteria. On a recent Monday afternoon, there were 41 smiling faces on the wall.

Obesity Rate Falls for New York Schoolchildren

Schools have been emphasizing salads over high-fat foods. In September, Eric Goldstein, the Education Department's chief executive of School Support Services, showed off a salad bar in the cafeteria of P.S. 20 on the Lower East Side.

Cauliflower and Red Onion Tacos With Cotija Cheese

Vegetables bathed in vinegar are typical condiments in Mexico, but you can bring them to the center of the plate as a filling for a taco. If you want spice, add the chipotle, or garnish with some salsa. If salt is an issue, use ranchero rather than cotija cheese.