Covid Resilience

How would life be if we never felt any pain? If your answer to this question is "great" then you know nothing about the consequences of "congenital analgesia," a condition in which a person cannot feel physical pain from external stimulants since bi…

Your correspondent was musing just the other day. Enter one’s wife. “Are you thinking, dear?” she asked. “I am reflecting, receiving,” I replied. “What about, then?” she asked anew. “Atheists,” I replied, succinctly. “Oh, Lord, must you?” she exp…

It’s a land of tundra and toil; sacrifice and secrecy; fallacy and fight. They say Russia is a cold place in more ways than one. It’s no wonder given its tumultuous history. Maybe the cold is a means of survival because, sometimes, being numb is the…

In 1832, 100 km off the coast of Argentina, Charles Darwin observed numerous tiny crimson spiders, sized 2-3 mm, riding the breeze from the sea and then sticking onto the ropes and sails of the HMS Beagle, the ship on which he was touring around the…