Doctors know a lot about when to start medications to treat disease. But sometimes our focus on starting medicines means we can confuse providing more care with providing better care. And better care sometimes means fewer medicines, not more.

For instance, patients with high blood pressure who...

The influence of student poverty on student learning is indisputable. International studies demonstrate that in every country, children from disadvantaged backgrounds are much less likely to excel in school than their more fortunate peers.

The easy explanation has been...

In 2002, a conservative Christian pastor named Michael Dowd and his science writer wife, Connie Barlow, quit their jobs, sold their possessions, and purchased a van they decorated with symbols of a Jesus fish kissing a Darwin fish. Since that time, these...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state that insufficient sleep is a serious public health concern, because it can lead to many immediate dangers such as car crashes as well as long-term health problems like diabetes. The blame for sleep deprivation is often pinned on our...

Africa’s prosperity increasingly depends on China. Given recent signs of a slowdown in the world’s largest economy, Africa’s short- and long-term outlooks seem precarious.

The latest sign arrived on October 23 when China cut two...

Playboy’s decision earlier this month to jettison the nude images in its print edition lays bare the magazine’s own naked truth: it was always really a lifestyle magazine, with nudes simply acting as window dressing.

If it seems counterintuitive for a...

Earlier this month, Twitter launched a new feature called Moments, which offers a curated and frequently updated collection of tweets that the company describes as the “best of what’s happening on Twitter.”

Under the...

When we doctors sit down with patients in the hospital, discussions regarding diagnosis and prognosis are routine. For patients who need treatments such as antibiotics or chemotherapy beyond the hospital, our conversations span how best to arrange this therapy. And often, patients put their complete...

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced this week a new climate change action plan that rejects calls from activists to divest its endowment from the fossil fuel industry.

The best way for the university to tackle climate change, argued MIT senior leaders, is through active engagement of “fossil fuel giants that...

The latest hellish chapter in the Syrian refugee crisis is currently unfolding at Croatia’s borders. Thousands of refugees were forced to wait in knee-deep mud, as Croatia and Slovenia refuse to allow more than 2,500 people to cross over...