6 Secrets to Unlocking Your Cat's Personality

 Posted on April 25, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  808 words  |  Patria Henriques

Get to know your catWhy would little Mittens hide under the bed at the slightest sound, whereas Felix loves to cuddle with strangers? What makes Moxie scratch and bite when Henri would never unsheathe his claws? Despite the fact that cats are the second-most popular pets in America, scientists are just now figuring out what makes one cat friendly and another a grouch. From pedigreed breeds to domestication, here are six secrets to a cat's personality. [Read More]

Acne in Women Can Signal Hormone Problems

 Posted on April 25, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  447 words  |  Patria Henriques

Acne in adult women is common, but in some cases, it can signal an underlying hormonal disorder, experts say. Identifying such cases is important, not only to better treat women's acne, but to correct hormone imbalances that can lead to other health problems, said Dr. Kanade Shinkai, a dermatologist at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, who specializes in acne treatments. However, doctors often simply give women prescriptions for acne treatments, such as antibiotics, which typically don't work for acne caused by hormone imbalances, Shinkai said [Read More]

Autism Identified Early By Fixation on Geometry

 Posted on April 25, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  556 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Fixation on geometric patterns might be an early sign of autism in toddlers as young as 14 months old, a new study suggests. Identifying autism early is important because children may benefit from beginning treatments earlier, the researchers say. The new findings could help to create test to evaluate children, said study researcher Karen Pierce, an assistant professor of neuroscience at the University of California San Diego. "The miracle of plasticity of a young and developing brain [means] the brain is responsive and connections are being formed early on," [Read More]

Hidden Risk? Marijuana May Be Bad for Your Heart

 Posted on April 25, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  845 words  |  Trudie Dory

A healthy 21-year-old man had a heart attack after smoking marijuana, and the doctors who treated him believe the drug is what caused his heart attack, according to a new report of this case. In fact, experts say that there have been other cases of cardiovascular problems related to smoking pot, and that growing evidence suggests there may be a link between the drug and heart problems. The young man at the center of the new case was a regular marijuana and cigarette smoker, according to the case report. [Read More]

Hurricane Irma: How Do You Safely Evacuate 5.6 Million People?

 Posted on April 25, 2023  |  9 minutes  |  1764 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

With the buzz saw of Hurricane Irma zooming ever closer to Florida, the state has issued evacuation orders for about 5.6 million people, one of the largest evacuation orders the country has ever seen. The evacuation orders covered several counties and about a quarter of Florida's total population. Already, gridlock turned some interstate highways into parking lots, and gas shortages plagued many areas, ABC News reported. Hotels in nearby states are filling up, and hundreds of makeshift shelters are being hastily assembled for those who have no place to go during the storm. [Read More]

Images: How the Bird Beak Evolved

 Posted on April 25, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  456 words  |  Trudie Dory

Researchers led by Bhart-Anjan Bhullar, a paleontologist and developmental biologist at Yale University and developmental biologist Arhat Abzhanov at Harvard University reverted the beaks of chicken embryos into Velociraptor-like snouts. Here's a look at the chicken experiment and results. [Read the full story on the chicken embryos with dinosaur snouts] A modern beak The dinosaur-nosed chicken embryos revealed that simple genetic tweaks might have led to the development of beaks in the ancestors of birds. [Read More]

In Photos: Ancient Skeletons Reveal the Ancestors of Polynesians

 Posted on April 25, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  302 words  |  Patria Henriques

Lapita skullDNA extracted from roughly 3,000-year-old skull found on the island of Vanuatu (shown here) reveals that the first people to settle Polynesia came from Taiwan or northern Philippines. The skull was found inside a vessel made by the Lapita, the ancient culture that colonized all of Polynesia. Ancient skeletonAn approximately 3,000 year old burial in the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu that is source of one of the ancient DNA samples reported on in this study. [Read More]

Man Infected With Smallpox-like Virus Through Sex

 Posted on April 25, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  484 words  |  Fernande Dalal

A man in San Diego was infected with the vaccinia virus — the virus in the smallpox vaccine — in June, 2012 after having sexual contact with someone who'd recently been vaccinated, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What's more, the infected man also passed the virus along to another unvaccinated individual during sexual activity, a phenomenon known as tertiary transmission, the report said. [Read More]

Melanoma: Symptoms, Treatment and Prevention

 Posted on April 25, 2023  |  7 minutes  |  1390 words  |  Patria Henriques

Melanoma is a type of skin cancer that begins in the skin's pigment-producing cells, called melanocytes. These cells make melanin, which is responsible for the color in skin, eyes and hair. The National Cancer Institute said that only 2 percent of all skin cancers are melanoma, so it is very rare. It is also very dangerous. Of all types of skin cancer, melanoma is the deadliest. In 2017, the National Institute of Health (NIH) estimates that there will be 87,110 new cases of melanoma and 9,730 deaths. [Read More]

Mysterious Giant Squid Finally Caught on Film

 Posted on April 25, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  378 words  |  Trudie Dory

The notoriously elusive giant squid has been filmed for possibly the first time in its natural habitat after a Moby Dick-style hunt for the deep-sea beast. A Japanese-led team filmed the silvery cephalopod last year off the Ogasawara Islands, about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) south of Tokyo, according to news reports. The footage is to be broadcast in the United States this month. "It was shining and so beautiful," team leader Tsunemi Kubodera, a zoologist at Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science, told AFP. [Read More]