Why Do Teens Hurt Themselves?The Science of Self-Injury

 Posted on April 24, 2023  |  7 minutes  |  1459 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Over the last couple decades, more young people appear to be pulling out razor blades and lighters in order to injure themselves, according to anecdotal reports from counselors. Their intent is not to die, just to inflict harm, a behavior known as non-suicidal self-injury. A recent study on the mental health of college students, presented in August at the American Psychological Association Meeting, found empirical evidence to document these observations. The results show that at one university, the rate of non-suicidal self-injury doubled from 1997 to 2007. [Read More]

World's Fastest Shark Treks Epic Distances

 Posted on April 24, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  398 words  |  Fernande Dalal

A mako shark fitted with a GPS tag six months ago in the waters off New Zealand has already traveled a whopping 8,265 miles (13,300 kilometers), a distance that came as quite a surprise to scientists, according to the New Zealand Herald. The shark, nicknamed Carol, is a shortfin mako, the world's fastest shark, according to a release from New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric (NIWA) Research, which helped fund the tracking project. [Read More]

'Glacier blood' could be key to understanding impacts of climate change

 Posted on April 23, 2023  |  6 minutes  |  1176 words  |  Trudie Dory

Atop the French Alps, thousands of feet above sea level, the normally white snow sometimes appears stained with blotches of what appears to be dark red blood, some of which extend for miles.  But no, these aren't the sites of violent mountaintop massacres — the spooky red stains, known as "glacier blood," actually come from microalgae that live in the snow, and scientists recently trekked into the Alps to study these mysterious organisms. [Read More]

Charlie Sheen Has HIV: What It's Like to Live with the Virus

 Posted on April 23, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  969 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Actor Charlie Sheen's announcement this morning that he is HIV positive may seem like bleak news, but like others infected with the virus, he could have a relatively normal life, doctors say.      "I am, in fact, HIV positive," Sheen, 50, told Matt Lauer on the NBC show "Today," adding that when he learned of his status about four years ago, it was "a hard three letters to absorb." "It's a turning point in one's life," [Read More]

Dominant Meerkat Mamas Force Others to Wet Nurse

 Posted on April 23, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  494 words  |  Patria Henriques

Meerkats may look cute and cuddly, but for some meerkats, motherhood is a raw deal. Dominant females often kill the young of subordinate females, which then often stick around to serve as her "wet nurses," new research finds. A variety of mammals are known to nurse another female's offspring, a phenomenon called allolactation. The practice benefits the nursed offspring and their mother, but few studies have investigated what's in it for the wet nurses. [Read More]

Fish Evolved to Survive GE Toxins in Hudson River

 Posted on April 23, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  650 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Some hardy fish bathing in toxins released by General Electric Co. into the Hudson River between 1947 and 1976 quickly evolved resistance to the poisons, researchers have found. The research team was able to pinpoint the genetic mutation responsible for the toxic toughness in these tomcods. The compounds in question, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and dioxin, have contaminated over 200 miles (320 kilometers) of the Hudson flowing to New York City. [Read More]

How the White Tiger Got His Coat

 Posted on April 23, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  415 words  |  Fernande Dalal

The strikingly beautiful, milky coats of white tigers are caused by a single change in a known pigment gene, a new study finds. Since their discovery in the Indian jungle centuries ago, white tigers, a variant of Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris), have had a certain mystique. Captive white tigers have been inbred to preserve the recessive white coat trait, leading some to speculate the trait is a genetic defect. But the genetic basis of tiger whiteness was not known. [Read More]

Innovative Wound-Healing Technique Could Save Limbs

 Posted on April 23, 2023  |  7 minutes  |  1373 words  |  Fernande Dalal

The fight is on to save human limbs: As the rate of diabetes continues to rise, the foot ulcers and chronic wounds that can come with the condition — and can lead to amputations in severe cases — remain a persistent problem. To address it, medical professionals are now turning to wound dressings made from human amniotic membrane, a tissue found in the human placenta. With this innovative approach to treating wounds, doctors are giving another option to patients whose wounds won't heal using existing treatments. [Read More]

Mysterious 'Man-Eating' Holes Appear in Sand Dune

 Posted on April 23, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  704 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Last summer, 6-year-old Nathan Woessner was walking across the sands of Mount Baldy in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore when he suddenly disappeared into a deep hole. It took a team of rescuers about three hours to pull Woessner to safety from beneath 11 feet (3.4 meters) of sand and sediment, according to the Chicago Tribune. More holes have appeared in Mount Baldy, forcing officials with the National Park Service (NPS) to close part of the park, located 55 miles southeast of Chicago on the shores of Lake Michigan. [Read More]

Online Dating: Why it Fails

 Posted on April 23, 2023  |  6 minutes  |  1113 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

The next time you log onto a dating site, you might want to add “mysterious” to your list of desired traits, because the less you know about a potential mate the better. A new study of romantic relationships finds that as online daters got to know another person over time, their initially sweet notions turned sour. The researchers suggest that inflated expectations can lead to major disappointments when daters meet in person. [Read More]