Health Trotter

July 07, 2021 at 09:25PM As a heatwave continues to cook the Pacific Northwest of the United States this week, heat records have fallen like dominos throughout the rest of the northern hemisphere. Even the United Nation’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which registers global temperature extremes, admitted that it was having trouble keeping up. “So many records have been broken that it is difficult to keep track,” the organization wrote in its latest report on exceptional heat. Seattle set an all-time record of 104°F (40°C) on June 27, then immediately broke it the next day, with a high of 107°F (41.7°C). Portland hit 112°F (44.4°C). Last Wednesday, the Canadian mountain town of Lytton broke the country’s all-time record, reaching 121.3°F (49.6 °C), a temperature I last experienced when reporting in Jacobabad, Pakistan, long considered to be one of the hottest cities on earth . [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Indeed, the latest report from the European Union’s C...

July 07, 2021 at 04:30PM Jane Gilbert knows she doesn’t get the worst of the sticky heat and humidity that stifles Miami each summer. She lives in Morningside, a coastal suburb of historically preserved art deco and Mediterranean-style single-family homes. Abundant trees shade the streets and a bay breeze cools residents when they leave their air conditioned cars and homes. “I live in a place of privilege and it’s a beautiful area,” says Gilbert, 58, over Zoom in early June, shortly after beginning her job as the world’s first chief heat officer, in Miami Dade county. “But you don’t have to go far to see the disparity.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] A mile or two inland, in lower income, mostly Black and Latino neighborhoods like Little Haiti, Little Havana and Liberty City, tree cover can be as little as 10%, compared to around 40% in upscale coastal areas, according to Gilbert. Residents wait for buses on unshaded benches. Many can’t afford to buy or run an AC unit. “Yo...

July 07, 2021 at 02:17AM The pseudo-scientific formula that explains most human bonding is basically time + affection + togetherness = relationship. So what happens to humans and their interconnectedness when two of the key elements—time and togetherness—are removed or increased? Can digital communication replace human to human contact? How do couples cope with stressful events they have never before encountered? This is the focus of a series of studies published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships , which has dedicated several special issues to relationships in the time of COVID-19. “When COVID hit it became clear to me that… it would be really important for us to provide a space for relationship science to showcase their work,” says Pamela Lannutti , the d irector of the Center for Human Sexuality Studies at Widener University in Chester, Penn., and one of the editors of the series of issues. So the journal put out a call for researchers who had begun resear...