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YOUR WEEKLY CHECKUP

This week: How viruses are crucial to humans' development and survival; why rabies is still a threat; how nature does our overstressed brains a favor; how the government is trying to make schools safer from COVID-19.

PHOTOGRAPH BY LENNART NILSSON, TT/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY (COMPOSITE OF TWO IMAGES)

‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ FROM THE ARCHIVES‌ ‌ ‌

How viruses shape our world

Mammals may carry at least 320,000 different species of viruses. When you add the viruses infecting nonmammalian animals, plants, terrestrial bacteria, and every other possible host, the total comes to ... lots. And beyond the big numbers are big consequences: Many of those viruses bring adaptive benefits—not harms—to life on Earth, including human life.

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE

THE RETURN OF POLIO: It was almost eradicated. This year it staged a comeback. (New York Times) +

MONKEYPOX: We had the tools to contain it. So why are cases rising at such an alarming rate? +

ILLUSTRATION BY MARKOS KAY

How did viruses and cells evolve into predator and prey?

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY NIAID-RML

There are more viruses than stars. Why do only some infect us?

THE PERFECT PATHOGEN

PHOTOGRAPH BY NOEL CELIS, AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Rabies kills 60,000 people a year. Why is it still such a threat?

Rabies surprised public health officials earlier this year when a wild red fox bit nine people—including a U.S. congressman—in Washington, D.C. Within a day, a lab confirmed that the fox had tested positive for the deadly disease. "We tend to think of it as this disease from the past, but someone dies of it every 10 minutes around the world."

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

RELATED: The controversial quest to make a 'contagious' vaccine +

PHOTOGRAPH BY LUCAS FOGLIA

‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ FROM THE ARCHIVES‌ ‌ ‌

This is your brain on nature

Motivated by large-scale public health problems such as obesity, depression, and pervasive nearsightedness, scientists are looking with renewed interest at how nature affects our brains and bodies. Building on advances in neuroscience and psychology, they've begun to quantify what once seemed divine and mysterious: When we spend time in green space, "there is something profound going on."

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE

RELATED: 'Nature deficit disorder' is a thing. Here's how you and your family can avoid it. +

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

NG STAFF

As school begins, federal funds pour in

As of this month, just 30 percent of children between ages 5 and 11 were fully vaccinated compared to 60 percent of those aged 12 to 17.

TRACKING COVID IN THE U.S.

How much virus does a person with COVID exhale? New research has answers (Nature)

The end of quarantine? What people should know about the CDC's new COVID-19 guidelines (CNN)

How multiple COVID-19 infections can harm the body

The odds of getting COVID from a housemate are 'about a coin flip' (The Atlantic)

If no one else is wearing a mask, should you?

MORE HEALTH NEWS

PHOTOGRAPH BY KATHERINE TAYLOR, THE NEW YORK TIMES VIA REDUX

How a game-changing transplant could treat dying organs

Early success with a procedure called a mitochondrial transplant offers a glimmer of hope for people fighting for survival after cardiac arrest, stroke, and more.

Are we born fearing spiders and snakes?

The new U.S. monkeypox vaccine strategy offers more doses—and uncertainty (NPR)

FDA moves to make over-the-counter hearing aids available to millions (Washington Post)

A rapidly spreading E. coli outbreak in Michigan and Ohio is raising health alarms (NPR)

An old medicine grows new hair for pennies a day, doctors say (New York Times)

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