During my semester abroad in Seville, Spain, the local cuisine was among the biggest changes I faced. I admit I was a bit apprehensive at first, but my attitude quickly changed to one of excitement and openness. I have been told that trying new things will not you, and, observing that philosophy, I found Spanish food to be delicious and full of flavor. In addition to great taste, Spanish cuisine can be very healthy: multiple studies have found that the diet of the Spanish culture reduces the risk of several diseases, including heart disease and cancer.

Over the past few months, there has been worry about a major volcanic eruption located in the southwestern region of the Canary Islands. An underwater volcano just 70 meters off the coast of the island of El Hierro has been spewing rocks, debris and gas since early July. Concerns were further provoked by a swarm of 8,000 tremors over the course of four months that have been continuously intensifying to a Richter magnitude of 3.4. These earthquakes are the result of magma moving towards the surface of the Earth’s crust. The pressure build-up ruptures the crust and the released tension generates seismic activity that can be felt on the island.

Fear not, you can’t lose anything in your vagina! If after inserting something into the vagina a person is still struggling to retrieve it, don’t worry: the vagina is not a deep abyss. T

In the morning when you read the Mount Holyoke News and pour a delicious  bowl of Reese’s Puffs, do you ever stop to think about the tert-butylhyrdoquinone (TBHQ) and butylated hydrooxytuluene (BHT) you are about to consume? Or as you sip your YooHoo at lunchtime, I bet you are unaware that you are drinking dipotassium phosphate through a straw. Don’t forget to apply your sexy titanium dioxide lip-gloss before you go out to the party. Put this way, all of these compounds seem misplaced–as if they belong in the chemistry laboratory, not in household products. Yet TBHQ, BHT, dipotassium phostphate (which is also the active ingredient in a pesticide) and titanium dioxide are just four of the thousands of chemicals we can come into contact with in common household products and food items. But how safe are these compounds for humans?

This year a series of extreme weather events took many by surprise in the United States; including the Mississippi floods, record high summer temperatures, severe droughts in Texas and Oklahoma, an EF-5 tornado in Joplin, MO that caused 116 deaths and the most recent Nor’easter snowstorm. These and other such events have caused increasing alarm about global climate change. Recently, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, established by the United Nations Environmental Program and the World Meteorological Organization in 1988, released a special report on the connection between extreme weather events and climate change.

The asteroid 2005 YU₅₅ passed no closer than 201,700 miles to the Earth, or a fifth shorter of the distance of the moon’s orbit. YU₅₅ is 1,300 feet wide, roughly the size of an air craft carrier, and, despite some conspiracy theorist fears, it had no effect on our planet. Even though the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) assured the world that YU₅₅ would not impact Earth, some believed that this was a white lie in order to prevent widespread panic.

Not even a month had passed since Harold Camping’s second Armageddon prediction, when the fragmented doomsday comet Elenin left our Solar System safely behind. Just last week a freak Oct. nor’easter wrecked havoc leaving many New Englanders without power, and now a moderately sized asteroid is scheduled to make a close to Earth flyby on Nov. 8 and 9.

Over the summer, while shadowing at an OB/GYN office, I was surprised how many women were misinformed or uneducated about Human Papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is more common than most people realize. In fact, about 75-80 percent of people in the United States will have it at some point in their life.

Is there a specific time of the month that I should perform a breast self exam? This is a great question. There is some controversy in the medical community about whether self breast exams are the most accurate way to screen for breast cancer.

Go ahead, play with yourself. Don’t be ashamed or embarrassed. It is your body, and it deserves your attention.