Frank Wilczek has a special fondness for rainbows.

It's not just the show-stopping, full-arc-across-the-sky rainbows that catch the Nobel laureate's eye. He's equally transfixed by the array of color that shows up on soap bubbles, in sprays of water and in prisms.

"There are rainbows all over the place, once you start paying attention," he ...Read more

I see we’re still doing that thing where we look at someone in a swimsuit and pretend we’ve accessed their full medical history and most recent blood panel.

This time our “patient” is singer and model Yumi Nu, who appears on one of Sports Illustrated’s four new swimsuit issue covers. She looks gorgeous and remarkably comfortable, in ...Read more

MIAMI — Dozens of Miami Senior High School students shuffled from the scorching heat outside into their school’s freezing auditorium one Wednesday evening.

The small group of students weren’t there for classes, theater club rehearsals or detention. They were there to learn more about the rising sea levels that threaten Miami — and what ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- The young voice on the public address system at La Mirada High baseball games makes you turn your head to see if the voice matches the person.

It does.

Ryan Zurn, the 10-year-old son of head coach Jimmy Zurn, handles the job with the professionalism of someone much older.

"He's wise beyond his years," his father said. "He's ...Read more

The Garden Guy made a trip across town to chat with son James and came away giddy on one hand and grumpy on the other because I had been scooped. I am used to being the dud when it comes to comparing my plant partnerships with his, but this time he showed me up with a new variety. I’m the new variety guy, not this whippersnapper, but he was ...Read more

Sysamone Phaphon and Eunice Kim grew up with very different approaches to cannabis.

For Phaphon, 37, the Bay Area founder and chief executive of KhuenPhu, a CBD wellness brand based on Asian healing traditions, it's been part of her life for as long as she can remember. Her father grew it in the family garden right alongside lemongrass and ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- Karah Weiser was about to trudge on to yet another store in search of the specialty hypoallergenic baby formula her 4-month-old needs. But first she paused, took another look at the half-empty store display, and snapped a picture.

“Boothwyn Walmart,” the 32-year-old Drexel Hill mother wrote alongside the photo she uploaded ...Read more

We are all being made much more aware of how we have to exercise our brains to keep them in shape for the long term. Many people do puzzles like crosswords and sudoku, but I have a suggestion for another means of brain building that will make your life better as well as the lives of others.

As a therapist, I am constantly using my brain to ...Read more

CHICAGO -- On a Friday afternoon in the summer of 2019, Chicago resident and ride-share driver Teddi Burgess picked up a couple of passengers from Portillo’s in River North.

As the ride got underway, one passenger in the front of Burgess’ car started yelling. When Burgess asked the other in the rear seat if they could help calm the front ...Read more

A question I get all the time, from clients and strangers alike, is “Do dating apps work?”

Here’s the thing: Any app can be efficient or successful, depending on what you put out there and how proactive you are in the process. If you put up six mediocre pictures and no writeup and expect to attract quality people, you’ll be sorely ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — When Maryna Bondar and her husband knew they would be moving from Ukraine to the United States, the culmination of a years-long immigration process, they never expected that something they didn’t pack would prove to be the heaviest to carry: a sense of guilt.

By pure accident of timing, the couple were admitted into this ...Read more

Every day my inbox fills with emails from public relations firms, angling for a plug for an author's book or a new study on children. I delete most of them as quickly as they appear, but I nearly always read the ones on youth and mental health.

Suffice it to say the findings are not good. I often ponder over them, as we have a whole string of ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — For the 16 years that she's owned Lasting Impressions Weddings, Sarah Trotter has counseled her clients to be flexible when picking a date for their nuptials. She's still offering that advice, although this year it has a taken on a whole new dimension.

Be flexible about the day of the week. Be flexible about the time of day. Be ...Read more

Q. My ex and I broke up three years ago. We have a daughter who is now 4. About a year and a half ago, my wife and I had another little girl. My ex is very jealous, and our daughter has told me that her mommy has told her my youngest daughter is not her sister. It’s very confusing for a 4-year-old and I’m appalled that she would do such a ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Like most new moms, 26-year-old Veronica Gutierrez's life revolves around feeding her 3-month-old daughter, Alessandra.

For the first month, that meant mostly formula. But that formula was hard to find. She drove from store to store, so shaken by the empty shelves she began pumping her breast milk around the clock, in hopes she ...Read more

I am an over-the-moon, first-time grandmother-to-be who can’t seem to do what many have done before me. That is, make the baby a quilt.

The baby’s 89-year-old great-grandmother made one. By hand. She apparently sat in front of the TV for weeks and stitched together dozens of one-inch squares, which she presented at the couple’s baby ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — Meet Freeway. He's a teenage mischief maker, a land-loving sea lion fishing for freedom.

And now the pinniped, who earned notoriety in January when he shut down a busy San Diego freeway a couple miles from the ocean, is back.

Last month, someone spotted him wandering up a storm drain in Logan Heights, about a half-mile from where...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- About 1,500 pickleball players, all 50 years old and older, are competing this week in a national championship in Fort Lauderdale. An additional 1,000 people have attended to watch and cheer on their friends, family and favorite teams. The oldest player this year is 92 years old.

“I think everyone that picks up the ...Read more

Q: My best friend’s 6-year-old daughter is an only child and a spoiled brat. She screams at her parents when she doesn’t get her way, always wants to be first at everything and is extremely bossy with other children. For whatever strange reason, my children want to play with her. How can I discourage the friendship? Should I talk to my ...Read more