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It takes a lot of energy to grow a baby – ask anyone who's been pregnant. But scientists are only now finding out how much.In a study published Thursday in the journal Science, Australian researchers estimated that a human pregnancy requires nearly 50,000 food calories over the course of nine months. That's the equivalent of about 50 pints of Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream, and much more than the researchers expected.Previous estimates were lower because scientists generally assumed that most of the energy involved in reproduction ends up stored in the fetus, which is relatively small.But Dustin Marshall, an evolutionary biologist at Monash University, and his students found that the energy stored in a baby's tissues represents only about 4% of the total energy c...

Russian forces continued to advance heavily into northeastern Ukraine on Saturday, closing in on a village about 10 miles from the Kharkiv Outer Ring and raising fears that the city, Ukraine's second largest, could soon be in the range of Russian artillery.The Ukrainian army said Saturday that Russian troops attempted to break through its defenses near the village of Lyptsi, which lies directly north of Kharkiv. The attacks were repelled, but battlefield maps compiled by independent groups that analyzed publicly available videos of the fighting showed that Russian troops had almost reached the outskirts of the village.Ukraine's Khartia Brigade, which is defending Lyptsi, posted a video on Telegram on Friday afternoon in which Russian soldiers could be seen advancing on foot toward...

The two-story library has oriental rugs, shaded lamps dotting the desks, and rows of hardback books lining the walls. It is the architectural centerpiece of the offices of OpenAI, the start-up whose online chatbot, ChatGPT, showed the world that machines can instantly generate their own poetry and prose.The building, which was once a mayonnaise factory, looks like a typical tech office, with its communal work spaces, well-stocked micro-kitchens and private nap rooms spread across three floors in San Francisco's Mission District.But then there's that library, with the feel of a Victorian-era reading room. His shelves offer everything from Homer's "The Iliad" to David Deutsch's "The Beginning of Infinity," a favorite of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.Built at Altman's request an...

Humanitarian aid trucks began disembarking in Gaza on Friday morning through a temporary pier built by the US military, the first aid supplies sent to the enclave by sea in two months. But the new shipments of food and other supplies fall far short of what aid groups say is needed to address the staggering levels of hunger and deprivation in Gaza.A day earlier, the US military said it had anchored the floating dock and causeway to the Gaza beach, a key step in completing the sea corridor announced by the Pentagon in March. U.S. officials and international aid groups have said sea shipments can only supplement deliveries through land passages, not replace them.No American troops entered Gaza on Friday, the US military said, stressing that it was only providing logistical support for the d...

When a patient with a severe traumatic brain injury is in a coma, in intensive care, unresponsive and on a ventilator, but not brain dead, when is it time to withdraw life support? A small study on the fate of people in such situations suggests that doctors and patients' families might make better decisions if they waited even a few days longer than usual.Often, a doctor meets with family members within 72 hours of the patient's admission to the ICU to discuss the patient's prognosis and whether they want to keep their loved one alive or remove life support.Experts say many doctors would describe the outlook as grim: most likely death or severe disability. Results reported on patients who have had severe traumatic brain injuries show that most of the time the decision is to r...

Ukraine has asked the Biden administration to provide more information on the location of Russian forces and military targets inside Russia as Ukrainian troops struggle to hold their ground in the war, according to U.S. and Ukrainian officials.A group of members of the Ukrainian parliament also met with members of Congress in Washington to push for the United States to allow Kiev to use American weapons in Russia.Ukraine's demands have become more urgent in recent weeks as Russia has taken advantage of delays in American weapons shipments and stepped up military operations in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine.But White House officials said the administration's long-standing policy remained unchanged: The United States does not encourage or allow attacks inside Russia. Ame...

While protests over the war in Gaza were taking place just blocks away, last week's Met Gala was largely devoid of political statements on the red carpet. That the organizers of fashion's most powerful annual show (one for which this year tickets cost $75,000) managed to achieve this goal proved surprising to many observers. Less than two weeks later, however, a rapidly growing online protest movement is taking shape. At least it is on TikTok, the social media platform sponsoring the Met event.Blockout 2024, also known as Operation Blockout or Celebrity Block Party, targets high-profile figures who participants believe are not using their profiles and platforms to speak out about the Israel-Hamas war and broader humanitarian crises. Here's what's happened so far, what s...

Lawyers representing Israel defended the military operation in Rafah on Friday as “limited and localized,” arguing before the United Nations Supreme Court that judges should not seek to limit Israel's actions in Gaza.During a hearing at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Israel responded to a South African petition for the court to order an immediate halt to the ground assault in Rafah.Israeli forces have advanced into the outskirts of Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city, over the past week and a half, ordering mass evacuations and stepping up shelling ahead of a long-anticipated invasion of the city. According to the United Nations, more than 630,000 people have fled the area, many of them already displaced from other parts of Gaza.The hearings are part of South Africa&...

As a journalist covering sex and intimacy, I spend a lot of time listening to experts extol the virtues of open and honest communication. To have good sex – and to continue having it over time – couples need to be willing to talk about it, they say.But some people would rather abandon their relationships than have those conversations, said Jeffrey Chernin, a marriage and family therapist and author of "Achieving Intimacy: How to Have a Loving Relationship That Lasts" — especially if things in the bedroom bed are not good. particularly well.“One of the things I often say to couples who are having problems is, 'I wish there was another way to get through this,'” she said. “But the only way I know to have a better sex life, or get your sex life back, is to talk about it.”Dr. Cherni...

Struggling to contain Russia's advance on the battlefield, Ukraine is increasingly pushing the battle against Russia beyond the front lines in a bid to disrupt its military operations and put pressure on its economy by targeting airfields , logistics hubs and critical energy facilities with missiles and drones.This strategy was put on full display last Friday, when a series of explosions hit fuel depots, oil facilities and a power plant in southwestern Russia and in Crimea, the Russian-occupied Ukrainian peninsula. Just a day earlier, Ukrainian missiles had hit an airport in Crimea, destroying at least three planes.The Russian Defense Ministry said it shot down more than 100 Ukrainian drones on Friday, a figure that would represent one of Ukraine's largest airstrikes against Russi...