Demon with Forked Tongue Found on Clay Tablet in Library of Assyrian Exorcists
Posted on April 17, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 533 words
| Trudie Dory
An ancient drawing of a demon blamed for epileptic seizures has been discovered on a 2,700-year-old Assyrian clay tablet.
University of Copenhagen Assyriologist Troels Pank Arbøll was examining a tablet of ancient writing at the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin when he noticed the drawing of the demon — portrayed with horns, a tail and a snake-like forked tongue.
The tablet came from the library of a family of exorcists who lived in about 650 B.
[Read More]Dying and Desperate: The Lure of Quack Medical Clinics
Posted on April 17, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 706 words
| Trudie Dory
I had gone undercover to Tijuana, posing as a terminally ill cancer patient ...
The death of Coretta Scott King—widow of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and herself a major figure in the civil rights movement—brought new and much-needed focus on quack medical clinics in Mexico. Mrs. King died on January 30, 2006, of pneumonia, the result of complications from advanced ovarian cancer. She had entered an "
[Read More]Genetic Match? People Marry Those With Similar DNA
Posted on April 17, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 569 words
| Patria Henriques
Going on a first date? The chance that it leads to wedding bells may depend, in part, on how similar his or her DNA is to yours.
New research finds that people tend to pick spouses whose genetic profile shares similarities with their own. The effect is subtle (other similarities, such as similarity in education, have a larger influence), but it's important to understand that mating isn't truly genetically random, researchers report today (May 19) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
[Read More]Learning a Second Language Protects Against Alzheimer's
Posted on April 17, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 591 words
| Arica Deslauriers
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Want to protect against the effects of Alzheimer's? Learn another language.
That's the takeaway from recent brain research, which shows that bilingual people's brains function better and for longer after developing the disease.
Psychologist Ellen Bialystok and her colleagues at York University in Toronto recently tested about 450 patients who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Half of these patients were bilingual, and half spoke only one language.
[Read More]Loss of smell could be a symptom of COVID-19
Posted on April 17, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 574 words
| Fernande Dalal
Sudden loss of a sense of smell could be a sign of a COVID-19 infection, doctors recently reported.
The complete loss of smell, or anosmia, is already associated with viruses; about 40% of anosmia cases occur after a viral infection, according to a statement published online on March 21 by ENT UK at The Royal College of Surgeons of England, an association of ear, nose and throat physicians in the United Kingdom.
[Read More]Monkeys Have Been Cloned, Paving the Way for Human Cloning
Posted on April 17, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 750 words
| Fernande Dalal
Scientists in China have cloned two bouncing baby monkeys, theoretically opening the door for the cloning of humans.
However, the researchers stressed that they have no intention of cloning humans.
"I would think that the society and general public and the government will not allow the extension of application of these methods from non-human primates to humans," said Mu-ming Poo, director of the Institute of Neuroscience at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
[Read More]Raynaud's Disease: Types, Symptoms and Treatment
Posted on April 17, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 743 words
| Fernande Dalal
Raynaud's disease (also known as Raynaud's phenomenon, Raynaud's syndrome or simply Raynaud's) is a blood vessel disorder that causes the vessels in the body's extremities to constrict more than necessary when experiencing stress or cold temperatures. The constricted vessels prevent blood from reaching the surface of the skin. This causes the affected areas, typically fingers and toes, to turn white, blue, then red, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
[Read More]Robo First: Bot Assists with Tricky Cochlear-Implant Surgery
Posted on April 17, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 904 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
For the first time, robots have successfully performed a tricky, delicate operation that helped implant a hearing device into a deaf woman's ear, according to a new study.
A 51-year-old woman who was completely deaf in both ears due to a rare autoimmune disease underwent an operation to receive a cochlear implant in her right ear to help her hear again, the researchers said.
"The patient is progressing well with speech and language training, and is expressing high satisfaction on the benefits of having a cochlear implant,"
[Read More]Subscribe to your favorite magazines from just $3 for 3 issues!
Posted on April 17, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 597 words
| Arica Deslauriers
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[Read More]This 'Fossil' Cloud of Pure Hydrogen Gas Could Be a Time Capsule of the Big Bang
Posted on April 17, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 740 words
| Arica Deslauriers
Scientists expect to encounter a lot of strange things in the dark trenches of the universe: Hurricanes of dark matter, screaming skull nebulas and cannibal galaxies slowly devouring each other are all par for the course in our bizarre cosmos.
One thing that stargazers typically don't expect to find, however, is undeveloped real estate.
Recently, for just the third time ever, astronomers working at the W.M. Keck Observatory on Hawaii's dormant Mauna Kea volcano think they've pinpointed a massive, interstellar gas cloud that seems to have remained untouched throughout billions of years of the universe's development.
[Read More]