Losing weight is challenging. But as anyone who has ever successfully lost weight knows, it’s avoiding weight re-gain that’s the real challenge.

This is true no matter what method you follow to lose weight. For example, studies show that people who follow very low calorie diets (between 800-1,200 calories per day) regain between 26% and 121% of their lost weight five years after treatment. People who follow behavioural weight management programs (such as WW, formerly Weight Watchers) regain between 30-35% of their lost weight after one year.

The first investigation of the genomic diversity of individuals buried at Machu Picchu and adjacent places around Cusco, the Inca capital finds that the mitmas - slaves - and members of the empire who were forced to serve elites and lived, worked, and died at Machu Picchu, the renowned 15th century Inca palace in southern Peru, were a diverse community representing many different ethnic groups.

Although researchers in fundamental science have a tendency to "stick to what works" and avoid disruptive innovations until they are shown to be well-tested and robust, the recent advances in computer science leading to the diffusion of deep neural networks, ultimately stemming from the large increases in performance of computers of the past few decades (Moore's law), cannot be ignored. And they haven't - the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson, for instance, heavily used machine learning techniques to improve the sensitivity of the acquired particle signals in the ATLAS and CMS detectors.

Unless you hate movies, you know this weekend was "Barbenheimer" - two highly regarded, very different films were on track to smash some records. And they did. "Barbie" did over $150 million while "Oppenheimer" did $80 million, a combined total unmatched for two competing opening weekends and "Oppenheimer was the first time a movie had exceeded $50 million when another opening went past $100 million.

Summer is supposedly a period where people take it a tad easier, spend some vacation time away from anything that is work-related, and "tune out" of the deadlines and rythms of daily work activities that dominate their existence at other times of the year. 

Espresso is a coffee extraction process where hot water is forced through finely ground coffee at a barometric pressure of nine - which means nine times the usual pressure you feel at sea level, which translates to about 130 pounds per square inch, about 400 percent of your car tires.

Some people drink it diluted with water, an Americano, or with milk, as a latte. In modern times, some people even drink it cold. If an in vitro (cell culture) study holds up, people may even drink it to help ward off Alzheimer's disease. 

With allied epidemiologists placed inside the US Environmental Protection Agency, and scientists pushed to the side, environmentalists feel like they are about to get a win when it comes to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that have been common for 80 years.

And it will be a win - for the yacht payments of their lawyers. For the public, we will be no safer, we're not being harmed now, but the costs to 'clean up' a problem we don't have will be onerous. And we're all going to be harmed by that.

In recent years, there have been efforts to reconsider cancers of the uterine cervix oropharyngeal, penile, vulvar and anal as sexually transmitted diseases.

The reason is because of their link to human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is everywhere and has been longer than is even known, there are over 100 types, and most of the time if anything happens it is benign lesions such as warts and condyloma. But a few thousand times per year it is more serious and subtypes like HPV16 can lead to malignant transformed cells which may develop into precancerous lesions or even cancer. In about a third of cases those cancers are linked to HPV and an HPV infection can be transmitted during sexual activity.

Environmental Working Group, the Extinction Rebellion of affordable produce, is always in a war on strawberries - unless they only contain pesticides their organic industry corporate donors use or sell.

For the scientifically literate, those with at least the intellect of 17th century peasants who understood 'the dose makes the poison', strawberries are healthy and safe. as is the rest of the EWG Dirty Dozen list that just happens to never include organic food sprayed with toxic chemicals the day it's shipped to Whole Foods.

This year, strawberries will be even better than usual. There are two reasons: rain and a cooler spring. Those mean larger fruit, and also extended shelf life, which means less waste. That is a win on every level.

There is a lot of concern about the ability of ChatGPT to replace lower-skilled workers but it will probably make them better. In the 19th century a phrase went, "God man but Sam Colt made them equal" and ChatGPT could give those without inherent gifts that same leg up soon.

The days when you could seem smart by having a good memory and confident delivery style may be over, which means greater equity for all.