Having often wondered whether the mixed nuts served at bars and restaurants are coated with wasabi or fungi, I decided to read up on the risks I was running each time I reached for communal masala peanuts. Sanchita Sharma reports.
Just watching or reading about disease and potentially-harmful substances can make suggestible people anxious enough to develop symptoms, reported researchers from Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany this week.
Whistleblowing — going public about wrongdoing in your workplace — takes a lot of moral courage, which is why we quickly make heroes of people who stubbornly stand up for truth in the face of money and muscle (both legal and illegal) of big corporations. Sanchita Sharma writes.
For my teenage son, the perfect life is having free wi-fi everywhere — not just at hotels, airports, trains and museums, but also at sidewalk cafes and cabs. Apart from keeping you connected with work and friends, it allows you to download apps on the go, writes Sanchita Sharma.
When NASA astronaut and chemical engineer Donald Roy Pettit is not on a space shuttle mission or going meteorite-hunting in Antarctica, he spends his time innovating.
You may have heard it, the story about Stamatis Moraitis, the Greek who moved to the US in 1943 from his home in the island of Ikaria in the Aegean Sea. When nine other doctors confirmed the diagnosis, he refused to get treated and went home to Greece to die. But he didn’t, writes Sanchita Sharma.
Journalists — both reporters and photojournalists — make it to the Forbes’ list of the “Most Stressful Jobs of 2013”, as do army personnel in conflict situations, senior corporate executives, PR executives and taxi drivers (all are far more stressed than cops, who barely make the list at number 10).
There was a time not so long ago when stress in popular entertainment was all about turning grey overnight, breaking into spots or losing hair in clumps. Sanchita Sharma writes.
Studies indicate this needs to change as healthy natter over dinner is as essential as the wholesome home-cooked meals being served. Sanchita Sharma writes.
It was an Oprah show, of all things, which convinced me that even when it comes to disease and death, the odds are stacked against women. No, this was not about men having more money for treatment or families spending more on treating men-folk and boy children.
It's tough to imagine Delhi's tough-as-nails Chief Minister Shiela Dixit as a star-stuck young woman. And it's completely unimaginable to think of her wanting to be like her favourite Bollywood actress. Sanchita Sharma writes.
Eating food high in fat and sugar during pregnancy can rewire your baby’s brain and turn her into a junk food addict even before birth, claimed a study this week that found junk foods had the same addictive effect on brain chemistry as opium, heroin, and morphine.
Bringing up baby is not easy. The stories about parenthood being the greatest adventure of your life are just smart window-dressing. Sanchita Sharma writes.
In 2011, 16.55 lakh children under 5 died in India, six times more than China’s 2.49 lakh. One reason for the staggering numbers is that 27 million babies — the highest in the world — are born in India. The others are malnutrition and under-vaccination, writes Sanchita Sharma.
Singletons have more than double the risk of having a heart attack than those who are married, reported a large population-based study from Finland this week. Sanchita Sharma writes.