Smelly Situation: Why Some Flowers Reek
Posted on April 23, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 810 words
| Trudie Dory
An enormous blossom that reeks of rotting flesh has bloomed at the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C. But the plant, aptly nicknamed the corpse flower, or titan arum, is only one of several hundred species of plants that produces stinky blooms reeking of dung and rancid carrion.
But even in that relatively small number, there are a surprising variety of flowers that pursue this strategy, said Andreas Jürgens, a researcher at South Africa's University of KwaZulu-Natal.
[Read More]Spain Lays Claim to Columbus' Remains
Posted on April 23, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 885 words
| Trudie Dory
MADRID, Spain (AP)—Spanish researchers said Friday they have resolved a century-old mystery surrounding Christopher Columbus's burial place, which both Spain and the Dominican Republic claim to be watching over. Their verdict: Spain's got the right bones.
A forensic team led by Spanish geneticist Jose Antonio Lorente has compared DNA from bone fragments that Spain says are from the explorer—and are buried in a cathedral in Seville—with DNA from remains that are known to be from Columbus' brother Diego, who is also buried in the southern Spanish city.
[Read More]The 10 Strangest Places Where Life Is Found on Earth
Posted on April 23, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 733 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
IntroEarth is the only place in the universe that we know is home to life. It turns out that life can be found nearly everywhere on Earth, evolving ways to survive -- including a recent discovery of arsenic-eating bacteria -- even in the strangest, seemingly inhospitable places on the planet and off it.
Bubbling tarBubbling lakes of hot tar hardly seem like they would be able to host living things, but it turns out they can apparently teem with microbial life.
[Read More]The Healthy Geezer: Can Alcohol Give You Gout?
Posted on April 23, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 479 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Question: Can drinking alcohol give you gout?
Answer: Gout, which is one of the most painful forms of arthritis, is caused by a build-up of crystals of uric acid in a joint. Alcohol can lead to increased production of uric acid so it puts you at a higher risk of getting gout.
Alcohol leads to gout in multiple ways:
It contains purines, proteins that are broken down into uric acid. Purines are found naturally in your body and in some foods.
[Read More]Tiny Grasshopper Found Hidden in Van Gogh Painting, 128 Years Later
Posted on April 23, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 661 words
| Trudie Dory
There's a secret hidden in a Vincent van Gogh painting.
It remained undetected for 128 years, until Mary Schafer, a paintings conservator at Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Missouri, discovered it with the aid of a surgical microscope — imbedded in the paint in the foreground of van Gogh's 1889 work "Olive Trees" are the remains of a tiny grasshopper.
"I came across what I first thought was the impression of a tiny leaf,"
[Read More]Toasty November means 2020 might nudge out 2016 as hottest year on record
Posted on April 23, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 514 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Global temperatures soared last month, making this November the hottest ever recorded, according to a new report.
Unless temperatures dip dramatically in December, 2020 could potentially overtake 2016 as the hottest year on record — if not, the years will likely tie for the title, according to current estimates.
This concerning news comes from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), a program of the European Commission that tracks global temperature trends.
[Read More]Twin Pregnancies: Slower Labor Is Normal
Posted on April 23, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 525 words
| Arica Deslauriers
Labor takes longer in women pregnant with twins, a new study shows, suggesting that these mothers and their doctors could wait a few more hours before opting for cesarean delivery.
Using a national database of labor and delivery information from several clinical centers, the researchers found that twins required about one to three hours more than single babies to complete the first stage of labor. During this first stage, the cervix opens until it is wide enough for the baby to pass through; the second stage of birth is the actual delivery of the baby.
[Read More]What's the Dollar Value of a Human Life?
Posted on April 23, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 462 words
| Patria Henriques
Putting a price on human life may seem callous, but for safety analysts, it's simply necessary. They judge whether a certain safety regulation would be cost-effective by comparing how much it would cost to implement with how many dollar's worth of human lives it's likely to save.
"You can't simply say that every life is infinitely valuable," said John Mueller, a political scientist at Ohio State University whose work focuses on national security and risk analysis.
[Read More]$182,000 for Appendix Removal? Why Hospital Bills Vary Widely
Posted on April 22, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 620 words
| Patria Henriques
Just how much does it cost to remove your appendix? Depending on your case and the hospital you go to, your bill could vary by tens of thousands of dollars, a new study suggests.
The results show the charges for treating appendicitis at hospitals in California ranged from about $1,500 to more than $182,000.
Moreover, patients usually have no idea what their bill will be when they enter the hospital, said study researcher Dr.
[Read More]A Mysterious New Form of DNA Was Just Discovered in Human Cells
Posted on April 22, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 855 words
| Trudie Dory
When you think of DNA, odds are, you picture the famous double helix, a ladder-like structure elegantly twisted like a corkscrew.
But DNA doesn't always assume this form. The existence of one shape of DNA in humans, in particular — a four-stranded knot of genetic code — has been controversial among scientists for years. Because this so-called i-motif loves acidic environments (a condition that scientists can create in the lab but doesn't naturally occur in the body), many scientists thought that it couldn't possibly exist in human cells.
[Read More]