Many Americans believe that vaccines are unsafe, but will jab themselves full of performance enhancers. They think seed oils cause chronic disease, but beef tallow is healthy. They'll say you can't trust federally insured banks, but you can trust the millionaires who want you to invest in their volatile vaporware crypto tokens. They think food additives are toxic but support an administration removing all restrictions on pumping pollutants into the air and water. They'll insist that you can't trust scientists, because they're part of the conspiracy. The podcaster selling you his special creatine gummies, though' He seems trustworthy. The coronavirus wasn't the only epidemic to hit the United States in the past decade. Americans are also facing a bizarre epidemic of gullibility and cynicism'gullicism, if you need a portmanteau'that is drawing people into a world of conspiracism and falsehoods, one where facts are drowned out by a cacophony of extremely loud and wrong voices. Reliable information is both more available and harder to find than ever'and those who spread misinformation have been rewarded with positions of power, platforms they can exploit to further pollute the information environment....

The eating habits of American adults have, in recent years, begun to resemble those of hobbits. Maybe you, too, have scarfed down scrambled eggs at home in the morning, only to arrive at the office and supplement them with a protein bar for second breakfast and a bag of chips for elevenses. The late-afternoon pastry and banana-bread mocha latte have proliferated'and for humans, at least, may become an existential threat to dinner. Blame the coronavirus pandemic; blame Ozempic; blame inflation. Whatever the cause, intermediary bites and sips make up a growing portion of Americans' daily consumption, especially among young people, as my colleague Ellen Cushing wrote in 2024. The shift has now become so pronounced that restaurants are adapting to it. Chains that primarily offer meals are rolling out smaller and cheaper options'solid and liquid alike'in the hope of capturing customers who just want a snack. And in the past two years, the nation's fastest-growing restaurant brands have been those specifically oriented toward that audience....

Of all the ways that governments can try to help people, cash transfers can seem like one of the most straightforward. Their popularity has been growing: Over the past decade, dozens of American cities have launched cash-transfer pilots. During the coronavirus pandemic, governments worldwide dramatically expanded their own programs' reach. And as AI reshapes work, the idea of guaranteed income'a specific kind of recurring, no-strings-attached cash payment'is moving into the mainstream. Yet while the provision of cash has saved many lives in dozens of low- and middle-income countries, it has seemingly produced only modest health gains in the United States. Guaranteed-income pilots also haven't delivered the dramatic health improvements associated with cash-transfer programs elsewhere. Why does cash save lives in Tanzania but barely move the needle in Texas' From our work studying cash-transfer programs across 37 countries, we've come to see a consistent logic behind why cash succeeds in some places and falls short in others. Cash transforms health when four particular conditions are met. Most U.S. cash-transfer pilots have lacked them. But one major American policy does come close: the federal food-assistance program SNAP. Its success offers a road map for what effective cash assistance can look like in this country, if we choose to build on it....

In a narrow strip of land along the Andes mountain range in central Chile, an Indigenous community has long celebrated the bark of a rare tree for its medicinal properties. Modern science only recently caught up to the tradition, finding the so-called soapbark tree contains potent compounds for boosting the human immune system. The molecules have since been harnessed to make the world's first malaria vaccine and to boost the effectiveness of vaccines for everything from shingles to Covid-19 and cancer. Unfortunately, unsustainable harvesting has threatened the existence of the tree species, leading the Chilean government to severely restrict lumbering. The soapbark tree's story is not unique. Plants are the foundation of industries such as pharmaceuticals, beauty, agriculture, and forestry, yet around 45 percent of plant species are in danger of going extinct. At the same time, human demand for plant products continues to rise. Ashley Beckwith SM '18, PhD '22 believes meeting that demand requires rethinking how plants are grown. Her company, Foray Bioscience, aims to make plant production faster, more adaptable, and less damaging to fragile natural supply chains....