People have trouble living creatively when they don’t know who they are or what they’re about. The best thing to do if you’re blocked is to make radical changes and […]

A conversation with the CEO of Gay Men’s Health Crisis.

After three or four odors are blended together, even the best noses in the world have a difficult time distinguishing one original scent from another.

“There are some things that simply disgust us in a very, very instinctive, deep kind of way. And there are other things that we clearly learn to find either good […]

The cause of the so-called “Proustian experience” of recalling a vivid memory through taste is well documented, but its cause continues to confound scientists.

What’s remarkable about the olfactory system is that from the outside world to the highest level of brain tissue there are only two synapses.

Our olfactory system’s methods of molecular recognition provide a model for understanding all kinds of other receptors in our bodies.

Olfaction may be both the most primitive and the most sophisticated of our five senses.

A step-by-step explanation of how flavor makes it from our mouths to our brains, as well as a “shocking” interactive experiment for you to try at home.

Taste refers to our five sensitivities — sweet, sour, salt, bitter, and umami — while flavor is a “hedonic” sense involving smell, texture, and expectation.

A conversation with the chair of Columbia University’s Department of Biological Sciences.

Time’s Man of the Year in 1996 discusses how his background in physics helped him develop the Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Treatment (HAART) that revolutionized AIDS treatment in the mid-1990s.

Hill’s last boyfriend wasn’t pleased when she came out to him, but he doubted she was really gay because she hadn’t told her mother. So that’s exactly what she did […]

Even in 2010, people are still worried to share their HIV status with family members and co-workers. But as more people come out, the stigma will begin to abate.

AIDS is the most pressing public health issue of our time in this country, yet the media’s lack of coverage contributes to a widespread assumption that it is under control.

The Obama Administration has demonstrated a real commitment to fighting the issues of HIV and AIDS—notably through the creation of the first national AIDS strategy. Hill gives the President’s efforts […]

A conversation with the AIDS physician.

Despite being infected with HIV, some people have genetic traits that prevent the virus from progressing to AIDS, even without treatment from antiretrovirals. Known as “elite controllers” and “long-term nonprogressors,” […]

Despite what Obama advisor Ezekiel Emanuel says, we may be able to treat our way out of the epidemic if enough resources were applied wisely and correctly.

A 2008 Swiss study suggested that people on antiretroviral medication are non-infectious, which, if true, would help to combat the stigma attached to HIV.