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Mothers sometimes struggle to breastfeed, and Zoe, a 14-year-old orangutan, was no exception. Zoe had troubles breastfeeding and nurturing her first baby, Taavi, when he was born two years ago, leading keepers to hand-raise him. So, when Zoe gave birth in December 2022 to her second baby, the zoo’s veterinarian had an idea: ask a zookeeper who was a new mom to breastfeed her own baby in front of Zoe, as a live demonstration. (Hedgpeth, 4/1)

African mountain gorillas are picky eaters. They strip off the most delicious bits of plants and spit out the rest, leaving a trail of partially chewed leaves drenched in saliva. It turns out these slimy specimens can tell scientists a lot about not only the health of gorillas but also diseases that may afflict humans as well — and the interaction between the two. (Cimons, 3/25)

Over the course of their marriage, [Lesley] Hu had watched as her now ex-husband, Stephen O’Loughlin, became obsessed with pseudoscience, self-help gurus, and conspiracy theories, spending long nights watching videos online, then sharing the details of fantastical plots with Hu, their friends, and people he barely knew. The COVID-19 pandemic had only made things worse. O’Loughlin huddled for hours at his computer streaming YouTube clips and poring over right-wing websites—what he called “doing research.” (Pape, 4/1)

The bump on a young California girl’s hand was mysterious – and growing. It wasn’t until she had seen two doctors and undergone a biopsy that her family realized the cause: The child had gotten in the way of a hungry iguana with a sweet tooth, resulting in what may be the first documented infection of a rare bacterial infection in a human from an iguana bite. (Christensen, 4/2)

As the founding director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, Dr. Roland Griffiths has been a pioneer in investigating the ways in which psychedelics can help treat depression, addiction and, in patients with a life-threatening cancer diagnosis, psychological distress. ... Now he is learning to die. Griffiths, who is 76, has been diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic colon cancer. (Marcese, 4/2)

Paul Edmonds was diagnosed with HIV in 1988 and didn’t expect to survive. Now in full remission, he's telling his story of a medical breakthrough to offer hope. (Johnson, 4/3)

In 1976, a woman from Roanoke, Virginia, named Rhoda received a prescription for two drugs: estrogen and progestin. Twelve months later, a local reporter noted Rhoda’s surprisingly soft skin and visible breasts. He wrote that the drugs had made her “so completely female.” (Rosenthal, 4/4)

When Shakina Rajendram’s micro preemie twins were born last year, they were so tiny they fit in the palm of her hand. Her daughter weighed about 11 ounces, less than a soda can, and her son weighed about 14 ounces. (Free, 4/3)

One way to answer this question is to look at changes not in life span but in health-span — the number of years people are healthy and disability-free. (Smith, 4/3)

During the pandemic, the expansion of telemedicine proved transformative for many people, especially those in rural areas. It allowed patients to receive medical care and prescriptions virtually, without the need to meet a provider in person. On May 11, however, the pandemic public health emergency is set to expire, and the Biden administration has proposed new rules for prescribing certain medications online once it ends. If and when these proposals go into effect, doctors will need to follow different, more restrictive guidelines when writing online prescriptions for controlled medications. (Caron, 4/5)

The W.H.O.'s director-general lays out his five key global health priorities as the organization celebrates its diamond anniversary. (Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, 4/5)