ArcaMax

The Olympics allow us to witness the human body's peak abilities. But as major cities get more polluted, air quality can interfere with performance. At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, six fewer outdoor world records were set than in 2004 in Athens, a fact many attributed to poor air quality.

But you don't need to be an Olympic athlete for ...Read more

When European missionaries headed into the jungles of West Papua in Indonesia in 1974, they discovered a tribe of cannibalistic people living in trees (different "floors" were designated depending on how well various members of the group got along). That contact is thought to be the first time the Korowai became aware that other humans existed. ...Read more

Mr. Rogers told kids who watched his PBS TV show (1968 to 2001) that they were special and he liked them just the way they were. These days, kids are thrown into a less gentle world -- Common Sense Media estimates that 90 percent of movies, 68 percent of video games (kids start playing them around age 4) and 60 percent of TV shows depict violent...Read more

Free diving is the sport of diving without oxygen tanks to extreme depths. The record currently is 253.2 meters (831 feet) set by Herbert Nitsch in 2012. (The record for holding your breath underwater is 9 minutes for women, and 11 minutes for men.)

Not many people can boast of such amazing lung power, but new research is showing that you may ...Read more

During Arizona's population boom in the 1990s (about 1.5 million new inhabitants) a morning drive-time radio host in Phoenix told his listening public that if they were parking their car outside (temps were heading to 100 plus), put a package of microwavable popcorn on the dashboard. On the way home from work they'd have freshly popped corn.

...Read more

Many celebrities have credited e-cigarettes for helping them quit smoking, but Katherine Heigl might have brought the most attention to vaping with her appearance on "The Late Show With David Letterman" in 2010. She and Letterman smoked from her e-cig. "This oughta get it done," said Letterman. "I know," agreed Heigl. "You have no excuse now to ...Read more

Emma Stone purposely gained 15 pounds of muscle in three months to play Billy Jean King in the movie "Battle of the Sexes." How? She drank high-calorie protein shakes and worked out with a strength trainer five days a week.

Chances are, if you've packed on an extra 15 pounds, it isn't all muscle and it didn't sneak up on you. It may be hard to ...Read more

In the 1994 Jim Carrey film "The Mask," timid bank clerk Stanley Ipkiss discovers a magical mask that transforms him into a manic, confident (and green) playboy with supernatural powers.

As the movie showed, masking can cause a lot of trouble. A few months ago we told you about a medical masking: The Food and Drug Administration warned that too...Read more

Norway's Svalbard archipelago is the northern-most inhabited region of Europe. There, the sun never sets during the summer, producing a midnight sun. Makes you wonder, "How do those folks sleep?" That's because you know instinctively that if it's daylight out, your body thinks, "Hey, time to do stuff."

But in lower latitudes -- like the U.S. --...Read more

"The Prostate Monologues" by sportswriter Jack McCallum tried to blow the cover off the all-too-often hushed-up topic of prostate cancer diagnosis, treatment and life post-treatment. And while it didn't get turned into a celeb-packed play like Wendy Wasserstein's "The Vagina Monologues" (and why not?!!) it does shed much-needed light on the ...Read more

Everyone loved the X Games and the thrill of Marcus Kleveland's gold-medal performance in Snowboard Slopestyle this year in Aspen, Colorado. But we're even bigger fans of the Center for Science in the Public Interest's version. Its Xtreme Eating Awards gives "prizes" (the Worst Visceral Effects) to the Xtreme Eating opportunities at chain ...Read more

Hippocrates, who lived in Greece 2,500 years ago, is considered the father of medicine because he used observation and deduction to understand and treat illness. His take? "All diseases begin in the gut."

Now, we know this isn't entirely true (a tick bite delivering Lyme disease is an outside invader, for example), but ever more evidence is ...Read more

Humans have set some wacky, but impressive, weightlifting records: Most weight lifted using teeth? 620 pounds. Most weight lifted with the little finger? 242 pounds. And 182 pounds is the record weight lifted with an ear using a clamp.

We hope you're not trying these risky forms of weightlifting. But if you're not experimenting with some form ...Read more

Everyone loved the X Games and the thrill of Marcus Kleveland's gold-medal performance in Snowboard Slopestyle this year in Aspen, Colorado. But we're even bigger fans of the Center for Science in the Public Interest's version. Its Xtreme Eating Awards gives "prizes" (the Worst Visceral Effects) to the Xtreme Eating opportunities at chain ...Read more

"It goes without saying," wrote columnist Erma Bombeck, "that you should never have more children than you have car windows." While she was thinking about keeping the tykes entertained (in a pre-digital world) and preventing squabbling in the back seat, she could have been talking about the windows of opportunity that parents have to make sure ...Read more

When you're in a hotspot, like Nawabshah, Pakistan, where the hottest April day ever (122.4 F) was recorded this year, it would be hard to imagine that voluntarily going into a traditional Finnish sauna with 20 percent humidity and temperatures of at least 150 F would be a boon to your health and happiness. But according to a study published in ...Read more

On the Big Island of Hawaii, the Kilauea volcano is spewing toxic sulfur dioxide gas, creating what's known as "vog" (volcanic fog). That toxic yellow cloud not only reduces visibility, irritates the skin and stings the eyes and throat, but, say recent evacuees, it also leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

That's not always the case with sulfur. ...Read more

Sometimes fast is good: Ashley Henderson, 22, of San Diego State University recently ran the 100-meter dash in 10.98 seconds, making her the fastest woman on the planet in 2018. (She did it in 10.96 in 2016, but Florence Griffith Joyner's 1988 world record of 10.49 still stands.)

But sometimes fast isn't good, like when it's fast food that ...Read more

In one episode of the animated series "Rugrats," Angelica tries to kick her cookie addiction. But when she finds a stash of them, the gang chases her (and the cookie jar) into the laundry room, where the cookies go flying into a tub of soapy water. Angelica eats them anyway. Suddenly, she feels sick and begins burping bubbles. "Never let me eat ...Read more

In the late 18th century, Napoleon Bonaparte offered a reward to whomever could figure out how to safely preserve food for his traveling army. Nicholas Appert set to work, and found the solution (although 15 years later), sealing heat-processed food in glass jars with wax. In 1810, Englishman Peter Durand was the first to preserve food in a ...Read more