Rachel Feltman Sarah Kaplan The Washington Post

A European and Russian robot that was supposed to touch down on Mars on Wednesday probably crashed during landing.

Q: I'm so glad that it's finally fall - I love this weather. But as usual, I've got a cold. It seems like everyone gets sick as the seasons change. Is this true? Does "catching a chill" really make you sick, or is it something else?

Now and then health awareness articles use the attention-grabbing statistic "XYZ has more germs on it than a toilet seat!" Is this actually a useful comparison? Is the sheer number of germs what we should worry about? And how germy (and dangerous) is the seat, anyhow?

A European and Russian robot that was supposed to touch down on Mars on Wednesday probably crashed during landing.

Q: I'm so glad that it's finally fall - I love this weather. But as usual, I've got a cold. It seems like everyone gets sick as the seasons change. Is this true? Does "catching a chill" really make you sick, or is it something else?

Now and then health awareness articles use the attention-grabbing statistic "XYZ has more germs on it than a toilet seat!" Is this actually a useful comparison? Is the sheer number of germs what we should worry about? And how germy (and dangerous) is the seat, anyhow?