Alien Parasites Threaten Sci-Fi Space Travelers (Infographic)

 Posted on May 5, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  238 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Director Ridley Scott brought us the chest-bursting Alien in his 1979 movie by the same name. The director is now back on the big screen with "Prometheus," a film set in the "Alien" universe that opens June 8. Will the aliens of "Prometheus" rival the original Alien in pure parasitic glory? We're not sure, but nothing gets the science fiction horror genre going like alien parasites. While Scott's Alien is mostly into gore, other parasitic alien creatures are more subtle. [Read More]

Beauty, Solace and Suicide: Two National Parks Top Grim List

 Posted on May 5, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  448 words  |  Fernande Dalal

A new report has placed the Blue Ridge Parkway and Grand Canyon National Park at the top of America's national parks in a grim statistic: suicide attempts. The research, published today (Dec. 2) in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, found that between 2003 and 2009, there were 286 suicide attempts on national park property. Of those, 194 succeeded in ending their lives. According to the report, more than three-quarters of suicides occur at home, but suicides in public places like national parks can be traumatic to both park staff and witnesses. [Read More]

Bees Can Solve Math Problems That Would Stump the Average Toddler

 Posted on May 5, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  623 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Bees don't just buzz around and make honey; they also do math problems in their free time that would stump the average 4-year-old. Last year, a group of researchers in Australia reported that bees understand the concept of "zero." Now, a new study by the same group suggests that the insects can also do basic addition and subtraction. The team reported its findings today (Feb. 6) in the journal Science Advances. A couple of decades ago, scientists thought that such higher-level processing was limited to human and some other primate brains. [Read More]

Deadly Fruit: Cause of Mysterious Brain Illness in India is Found

 Posted on May 5, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  601 words  |  Fernande Dalal

The mystery of why hundreds of children in an Indian city become sick every summer with a deadly brain illness has been solved, researchers say. According to a new report, the cause of the illness appears to be the lychee fruit, which is grown widely in orchards in the city of Muzaffarpur, where the illnesses occur. Critically, the children who get sick often eat the fruit on an empty stomach, which contributes to the development of the illness, the researchers said. [Read More]

Honey Works Better Than Cough Medicine

 Posted on May 5, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  641 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Honey is a better and safer treatment for children than over-the-counter cough syrup, a new study finds. Researchers at Penn State College of Medicine found that a small dose of buckwheat honey given before bedtime provided better relief of nighttime cough and sleep difficulty in children than no treatment or dextromethorphan (DM), a cough suppressant found in many over-the-counter cold medications. Honey did a better job reducing the severity, frequency and annoyance of nighttime coughing resulting from upper respiratory infection than DM or no treatment. [Read More]

How 'Parenthood' Helped Erase the Stigma of Mental Illness (Op-Ed)

 Posted on May 5, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  596 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Brian Dyak is president, CEOand co-founder of the Entertainment Industries Council (EIC), and executive producer of EICnetwork.tv. He contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Emotions ran high last month during the final episode of the popular NBC series "Parenthood." The series, centered around the Braverman family, brought honest conversations about depression, substance use, mental health, aging, cancer and other difficult topics into viewers' homes and lives. [Read More]

How Your Belly Fat Is Linked to Your Immune System

 Posted on May 5, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  493 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

You may not love your belly fat, but one large sheet of fat that stretches across your abdomen serves an important purpose: This fat, called the omentum, plays a role in the immune system, according to a new review. No matter your weight, everybody has an omentum. The fatty structure connects many organs in the abdomen, including the spleen, the stomach and the colon. It resembles "an apron that hangs in front of the abdominal organs," [Read More]

Lay Off 'Pot Cures Cancer' Claims, FDA Warns

 Posted on May 5, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  347 words  |  Trudie Dory

Medical marijuana may help with several health conditions, but it's certainly not a cure for cancer. Now, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is cracking down on companies that claim their cannabis products can get rid of cancer. The FDA issued warning letters to four companies that sell products containing cannabidiol (CBD) and claim the ingredient can treat or cure cancer, according to an FDA statement released yesterday (Nov. 1). [Read More]

Medical Mystery: Why Are Some Obese People 'Metabolically Healthy'?

 Posted on May 5, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  715 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Obesity often brings with it a host of health problems, such as high blood pressure, diabetes and risky cholesterol levels. But a lucky few appear to buck the trend: They are obese, and yet don't have any of these typical risk factors for heart disease or diabetes, a new study finds. Researchers analyzed information from about 1.3 million U.S. adults who were either overweight or obese. None had previously been diagnosed with diabetes. [Read More]

Mysterious Earthen Mounds Discovered in Ancient Cambodian Cities

 Posted on May 5, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  814 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Using airborne laser-scanning equipment, archaeologists have discovered vast fields of dome-shaped earthen mounds, arranged into gridded patterns, in 1,000-year-old Cambodian cities. The scientists are puzzled as to what these vast "dome fields" (as archaeologists sometimes call them) would have been used for around 1,000 years ago, calling them "the most enigmatic features" from this archaeological landscape. In addition to the dome fields, archaeologists also found mounds shaped into geometric patterns, such as spirals. [Read More]