Blood Test Could Predict Oral Cancer Recurrence
Posted on April 2, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 366 words
| Arica Deslauriers
A new blood and saliva test that looks for traces of the human papillomavirus (HPV) can predict whether some people with oral cancers will have their cancer come back, early research suggests.
It helps to know as soon as possible that cancer has returned, because tumors that are caught early are easier to treat.
In the study, the researchers analyzed blood and saliva samples from 93 people with head and neck cancers; about 80 percent of these patients had cancers that tested positive for HPV.
[Read More]Doomsday Revised: New Prediction Claims World Will End on Oct. 7
Posted on April 2, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 717 words
| Fernande Dalal
The world just won't seem to end on schedule.
The 2012 Mayan apocalypse was a total bust. The "super blood moon" of September 2015 failed to lead to rains of frogs and fire. And the May 2011 predictions of judgment day by an Oakland, California, radio preacher failed to pan out.
Or did they?
Falling into a long tradition of repurposing and revamping old doomsday predictions, an online Christian group is insisting that the now-deceased preacher, Harold Camping, was right, and that his prophecies forecast the end of the world.
[Read More]History's 1st Emoji? Ancient Pitcher Shows a Smiley Face
Posted on April 2, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 361 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
The iconic smiley face may seem like a modern squiggle, but the discovery of a smiley face-like painting on an ancient piece of pottery suggests that it may be much older.
During an excavation of Karkemish, an ancient Hittite city whose remains are in modern-day Turkey near the Syrian border, archaeologists came across a 3,700-year-old pitcher that has three visible paint strokes on it: a swoosh of a smile and two dots for eyes above it.
[Read More]Humans Are Still Evolving, Study Says
Posted on April 2, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 686 words
| Trudie Dory
Humans, like all other organisms on Earth, are subject to the pressures of evolution. New research suggests that even in relatively modern societies, humans are still changing and evolving in response to the environment.
"Whether humans could or could not evolve in modern times could have interesting implications," study researcher Emmanuel Milot, of the University of Quebec in Montreal, told LiveScience. It could help us understand changing trends for the different traits of a population.
[Read More]In Photos: 130,000-Year-Old Evidence of Humans in California
Posted on April 2, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 347 words
| Trudie Dory
Broken bonesScientists have found what they are saying could be the oldest evidence of human activity in North America — the marked bones of a mastodon dating back some 130,000 years. The spiral fractures and other marks on the mastodon bones found in coastal San Diego County suggest they were processed while fresh, the researchers said. The findings, detailed in the journal Nature, suggest that a still-unknown hominin species was living in North America way before humans were thought to have arrived in the Americas.
[Read More]Men's Scent Depends on Women's Perceptions
Posted on April 2, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 632 words
| Patria Henriques
If the sweaty guy standing in line next to you smells like vanilla—or urine—you may have whiffed a steroid in his body odor called androstenone.
The chemical can take on either a vanilla or "woodsy" urine scent, depending on which version of a mutated odor gene carried by you, the person doing the smelling, a new study has shown.
"People who express different variants of this receptor perceive this odor differently,"
[Read More]Restless Legs Syndrome: Symptoms and Treatment
Posted on April 2, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 1049 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a disorder that affects more than 5 million adults in the United States, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Also, about 1 million school-age children suffer from moderate to severe RLS. The disorder occurs twice as frequently in women than in men, according to the NINDS.
SymptomsThe characteristic sign of RLS (sometimes called restless leg syndrome) is an intense urge to move the legs.
[Read More]Strange Old Skull: Human or Not?
Posted on April 2, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 474 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
A strange ancient skull recently uncovered adds to mounting evidence that humans and Neanderthals interbred and suggests that humans evolved considerably after settling the European continent some 40,000 years ago.
Modern humans emerged from Africa about 150,000 years ago, according to the leading theory (which has been challenged in recent years). The newfound skull is thought to be from sometime in the first 5,000 years of human habitation of Europe.
[Read More]Top Baby Name List Reveals Surprising Celebrity Inspirations
Posted on April 2, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 687 words
| Trudie Dory
The annual results are in, and Emma and Liam again top the list of the most popular baby names in America.
But while these two names have been ruling the roost for several years running, there is a lot less consensus in American naming practices than the top-10 ranking would indicate, said Laura Wattenberg, who runs the website namerology.com and authored the book "The Baby Name Wizard: A Magical Method for Finding the Perfect Name for Your Baby"
[Read More]Why Scientists Are Stabbing Pig Carcasses with Samurai Swords
Posted on April 2, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 608 words
| Arica Deslauriers
Pay no attention to the person wielding a samurai sword and hacking away at a pig carcass — he's doing it for science.
The bloody exercise was done to analyze wounds from both machetes and Japanese samurai swords in order to better identify murder weapons from the cut marks they leave behind.
Lest you think the research is purely academic, it actually started during the investigation of murder cases where the victims were slain using the Japanese samurai swords known as katanas, said study lead author Penny McCardle, a consultant forensic anthropologist to the Newcastle Department of Forensic Medicine in Australia.
[Read More]