There's one thing almost everyone takes for granted when talking about mental stress: that it's a singular feeling, more or less intense, more or less manageable. A vague burden, hard to describe, that brings with it some anxiety, some insomnia and moments of irritability. However, that assumption might be incorrect, or at least quite incomplete.
We see them on the ground, on sidewalks, at the edge of gutters. Then the rain comes, cars go by, seasons change, and after a while they're gone. Or rather: we no longer see them. Because in the meantime, they've simply changed shape.
A titanium ring, a few sensors and an app to manage everything: at first glance, it's not exactly the heart of a health revolution.
There are objects that enter our lives with the promise of making our lives easier, but disappear just as quickly. Disposable e-cigarettes are one of the clearest examples of this contemporary paradox: a few days of use, a perfectly working lithium battery, followed by a noiseless journey to the trash can.
Sewage doesn't lie. At the Nosedo wastewater treatment plant, on the southeastern outskirts of Milan, a faithful portrait of citizens' consumption habits (including food, tobacco and drugs) is drawn every year.
EFSA has published the conclusions of its re-evaluation of sucralose, the sweetener E 955 used in many light and sugar-free products.
Two hundred million people worldwide live above two thousand meters. Science has barely cared about this for decades - the focus was mainly on the extreme altitudes of four- and five-thousand meters - leaving this huge group of people in a blind spot of medical research. This is precisely why Eurac Research, the private research center headquartered in Bolzano, wants to fill that gap - and to do so it needs people willing to spend a month in a mountain hut.
PFAS in water has been increasingly discussed for several years, and not only in technical or scientific circles. The subject pops up in local news, in daily concerns, in political choices. And each time the same problem recurs: these substances persist, accumulate, move. Disappearing is an entirely different story.
Frequent waking, the Moro reflex (startle reflex) and difficulty falling asleep make nights fragmented and often grueling.
The discovery fascinates archaeologists, but also raises troubling questions about the acceleration of climate change.