Science

Don't Let Deep sea Become 'Wild West', Guterres tells World Leaders
Don't Let Deep sea Become 'Wild West', Guterres tells World Leaders

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Monday the world could not let the deepest oceans "become the wild west", at the start in France of a global summit on the seas. World leaders are attending the UN Ocean Conference in Nice as nations tussle over contentious rules on mining the seabed for critical minerals and the terms of ...

Man Who Let Snakes Bite Him 200 Times Spurs New Antivenom Hope
InterviewsMan Who Let Snakes Bite Him 200 Times Spurs New Antivenom Hope

Tim Friede was feeling particularly down on the day after the September 11 attacks, so he went to his basement and let two of the world's deadliest snakes bite him. Four days later, he woke up from a coma. "I know what it feels like to die from snakebite," Friede told AFP via video call from his home in the small US town of Two Rivers, ...

Doping on the Loose, Health Under Threat
SpotlightDoping on the Loose, Health Under Threat

On May 26, 2025, the president of the Lebanese Order of Pharmacists, Joe Salloum, called on the authorities to “put an end to the unchecked sale of performance-enhancing stimulants in gyms and on social media.” In gyms and across social media, doping stimulants are being openly sold under the guise of dietary supplements. These ...

Pharmaceutical Counterfeiting: Lebanon Sick from Its Own Medicines
Pharmaceutical Counterfeiting: Lebanon Sick from Its Own Medicines

It heals; it soothes; it saves. Or at least, that’s what we think. Because not all medicines sold in Lebanon are what they claim to be. Many products escape control: copies without active ingredients, or made from toxic substances disguised in a reassuring appearance. A Medicine Almost Like Any Other The World Health Organization’s ...

Screen Addiction: Understanding the Message Behind the Symptom
ExplainerScreen Addiction: Understanding the Message Behind the Symptom

The underlying logic of “mindset therapy” is the reinforcement of the self. It urges individuals to push their limits, reinvent themselves, “raise their vibration” – as if the essence of psychic life were a relentless pursuit of performance. But for Freud and Lacan, desire is never aligned or resolved. It remains blocked, unstable, ...

Segmented Sleep: Rethinking the Myth of Uninterrupted Rest
SpotlightSegmented Sleep: Rethinking the Myth of Uninterrupted Rest

For decades, the standard was clear: a good night’s sleep had to be long, uninterrupted and last between seven and nine hours. This is what we call monophasic sleep. Yet, this way of sleeping is neither as universal nor as natural as we might think. In reality, our ancestors didn’t sleep the way we do, and recent research suggests that ...

Time Machine: How Carbon Dating Brings the Past Back to Life
Time Machine: How Carbon Dating Brings the Past Back to Life

From unmasking art forgery to uncovering the secrets of the Notre-Dame cathedral, an imposing machine outside Paris can turn back the clock to reveal the truth. It uses a technique called carbon dating, which has "revolutionised archaeology", winning its discoverer a Nobel Prize in 1960, French scientist Lucile Beck said. She spoke to AFP in ...

In a Hotter Future, what Comes After Coral Reefs Die?
SpotlightIn a Hotter Future, what Comes After Coral Reefs Die?

The fate of coral reefs has been written with a degree of certainty rare in climate science: at 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming, most are expected to die. This is not a far-off scenario. Scientists predict that the rise of 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) will be reached within a decade and that beyond that point, many coral simply cannot ...

Skin, Hair, Nails: Beauty Begins on Your Plate
SpotlightSkin, Hair, Nails: Beauty Begins on Your Plate

Every day, the cosmetics industry promises us radiance, firmness, hydration and purity, with a heavy dose of high-tech molecules and luxurious packaging. Yet, more and more scientific studies are pointing to a fundamental truth: skin beauty begins in the gut. American dermatologist Whitney Bowe, in her book The Beauty of Dirty Skin, describes the ...

At Saint Joseph Hospital, a Tobacco-Free Day... Full of Breath
At Saint Joseph Hospital, a Tobacco-Free Day... Full of Breath

In the bright hall of the Saint Joseph University Hospital, it wasn’t the sound of carts or the hurried footsteps of medical staff that one could hear this Friday, but bursts of voices, laughter and at times, softly whispered confidences. To mark World No Tobacco Day, the establishment had traded the silence of care for the lively buzz of a ...

Half the World Faced an Extra Month of Extreme Heat Due to Climate Change: Study
Half the World Faced an Extra Month of Extreme Heat Due to Climate Change: Study

Half the global population endured an additional month of extreme heat over the past year because of manmade climate change, a new study found Friday. The findings underscore how the continued burning of fossil fuels is harming health and well-being on every continent, with the effects especially under-recognized in developing countries, the ...

Dermatitis and Staphylococcus: Your Smartwatch Could Be Carrying Both
SpotlightDermatitis and Staphylococcus: Your Smartwatch Could Be Carrying Both

They’ve become an extension of our bodies. Whether tracking sleep, heart rate, calorie burn, or simply serving as extensions of our messaging apps, smartwatches cling to our wrists day and night. But beneath their seemingly neutral tech surface, they can become insidious vectors of skin imbalances and dangerous pathogens. The threat doesn’t ...