Ms. Mostofsky and her team studied information from the days immediately after receiving the news. She says several things could explain why the intense feelings after the death of a loved one could lead to a heart attack.

ELIZABETH MOSTOFSKY: “Grief causes feeling of depression, anger, and anxiety, and several studies have shown that these emotions can cause increased heart rate, higher blood pressure, and blood clotting. And those in turn, can increase the chances of having a heart attack.”

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Ms. Mostofsky says the family and friends of those mourning for a loved one should know about the increased risk of heart attack.

ELIZABETH MOSTOFSKY: “People should be making sure that the bereaved person is taking care of himself or herself, including taking regular medications, because they are at that heightened level of vulnerability at this time in their life.”

Her research paper was published in “Circulation,” the journal of the American Heart Association.

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MARIO RITTER: A few weeks ago, we talked about the science of plate tectonics. Plate tectonics explains why the Earth’s surface moves. It also tells how those changes cause earthquakes and volcanic activity. Today, we tell about a scientist who helped prove the theory of continental drift. Walter C. Pitman, the third, is an adjunct professor of geophysics at Columbia University. Now in his eighties, he works at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York.