Elena Gil admits she is an addict. "It started when I was kid," she says. "I've just always loved the way it feels." For years, Gil, a 25-year-old occupational therapy student, sought out her vice wherever she could, even bribing her boyfriend with home-cooked meals in exchange for a few minutes of pleasure. But now that the world's first tickling spa has opened in Madrid, she has a new way to satisfy her urges. There ...

Tommy Barrett is a dreamy-eyed fifth-grader who lives with his parents, twin brothers, two cats and a turtle in San Jose, Calif., the heart of Silicon Valley. He's an honor-roll student who likes math and science and video games. He's also a world-class expert on Animorph and Transformer toys. "They're like cars and trains and animals that transform into robots or humans--I love them!" he shouts exuberantly. And that is sometimes a problem. For a time, in fact, Tommy's fascination ...

When I'm in a restaurant, I don't know what to do," confides Glorian Persaud, 20, a pharmacy student, with a defeated tone in her voice. "There are a million spoons." I know what she means. Who hasn't confronted a bewildering array of silverware and goblets at a fancy eatery or corporate function? And let's not even talk about eating in Europe. Well, that will be remedied soon enough. I am embarking on a journey through the world of business etiquette, ...

When I was a medical student, I worked with a doctor who lied. One day, she lied by ordering a kidney stone CT scan on a patient whom she thought had appendicitis. Let me explain. I was working in the emergency department with this physician Here was the rub: the type of CT scan used for possible appendicitis cases — a CT scan with contrast — is a time consuming process. The patient has to drink a container ...

As a 19-year-old philosophy student in Paris, Jens Martin Skibsted had a watershed moment when the bicycle protest against cars he was riding in came to a sudden halt. The roadblock? A motorcycle demonstration. "I realized the absurdity of it," says the Danish entrepreneur, who turns 40 this year. "People are not going to change because an activist goes around shouting." So Skibsted took a different route. Instead of telling people they should get out of their cars, why not make ...

A former animal research technician was sentenced Friday to 44 years in prison for killing a Yale University graduate student days before her wedding in 2009 after anguished relatives described how plans to celebrate her marriage suddenly turned to unimaginable grief as they returned home with her in a coffin. Raymond Clark III, 26, apologized in New Haven Superior Court for strangling 24-year-old Annie Le of Placerville, Calif. Her body was found upside ...

Most people regard watching television as a passive activity. You sit, you watch. Occasionally, you change the channel. But a new study reveals that even this passive diversion may lead to actively damaging effects, particularly when it comes to issues of race. In a series of intricately designed experiments, psychologists at Tufts University demonstrate that subtle racial biases are often expressed by characters on popular television shows, and that viewers not only pick up these attitudes but ...

It happens to every medical student sooner or later. You get a cough that persists for a while or feel a funny pain in the stomach or notice a tiny lump under the skin. Ordinarily, you would just ignore it — but now, armed with your rapidly growing store of medical knowledge, you can't help worrying. The cough could mean just a cold, but it could also be a sign of lung cancer. A ...

"Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar!" The Arabic pronouncement that "God is great" sustained the Iranian revolutionaries as they marched through the streets of Tehran in demonstrations against the Shah. The invocation was heard again as students attacked the U.S. embassy, and as mobs last week marched about the captured compound, demanding death for the hostages. To what extent was the student action—and the Ayatullah Khomeini's endorsement of it—in accordance with Islamic law? Experts differ. Zaki Badawi, Egyptian director of the Islamic ...

David Koresh -- high school dropout, rock musician, polygamist preacher -- built his church on a simple message: "If the Bible is true, then I'm Christ." It was enough to draw more than a hundred people to join him at an armed fortress near Waco, Texas, to await the end of the world. The same message tempted Koresh to entertain a vision of martyrdom for himself. He would die in a battle against unbelievers, then be joined in heaven by ...