Luciano Pavarotti’s “trademark” was the harmonious blend of vocal talent and personal charisma. His forty-year career on the stage was built on a distinctive personality and a genuine zest for life.
Between Notes and Goalposts
Luciano Pavarotti performed at the world’s most renowned opera houses but was born and died in the same city — Modena. There, in northern Italy, he was born on October 12, 1935, and he died there 72 years later.
As a child, he was the son of a “singing baker” and a factory…

A team of researchers from Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Nottingham conducted a study measuring how human stress affects pet dogs’ heart rates. Historically, dogs served mainly for hunting, guarding, and herding livestock, but today they mostly act as companions. Even though modern pet dogs often have easier lives than their ancestors, they still face many stressors — including stress transmitted from their owners. A few years ago, French scientists found that an owner’s behav…

In the largest study of its kind, researchers concluded that obesity is a primary driving force behind the development of dangerous chronic diseases.
A team of scientists from the University of Exeter (UK) analyzed 71 serious diseases to determine which are triggered by obesity (a condition defined as a body mass index, BMI, of 30 or higher).
The researchers used genetic and medical data from thousands of individuals who participated in previous studies. They found that obesity contributed to t…

Fire, Water, and Organ Solos
They were flower children with coupons in their pockets.
The early ’90s in a young and promising Eastern European country—the largest in the region—were full of stark contrasts. Colorful dreams of a bright future clashed with the grayness of everyday life and the looming threat of poverty. The first “threads” from Polish and Yugoslav markets stood out against dull Soviet clothing and “Kravchuchkas” (small Soviet cars) just beginning to circulate.
The streets staged t…

Remember the song “I Like to Move It, Move It” from the animated film Madagascar, performed by the lemurs? It turns out their knack for singing in rhythm is no mere fantasy.

An international team of researchers studied the rhythmic compositions of Madagascar’s native indri lemurs. Scientists from the University of Warwick (UK) and the University of Turin (Italy) concluded that, alongside humans and gibbons, indris are the only mammals that show sensitivity to musical rhythm. According to the ne…

A team of researchers from the University of Edinburgh says this advance in cardiac diagnostics could significantly reduce hospital admissions. The AI tool can quickly identify patients who can be sent home.
Researchers trained a new artificial intelligence algorithm named CoDE-ACS on data from 10,038 patients. All were admitted to the hospital with suspected heart attack. The AI can now make diagnoses very quickly.
Compared with current methods, the software can rule out heart attacks in twice…