Flu Shot has Unexpected Benefits During Pregnancy

 Posted on June 30, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  426 words  |  Trudie Dory

Nobody wants to get the flu, but some people, especially pregnant women, are very concerned about what they put in their bodies. A new study shows that the H1N1 flu vaccine has no additional complications for pregnant women, but also shows that getting a flu shot during pregnancy actually benefits the baby. Specifically, the study showed that H1N1 vaccination during the pandemic was associated with a significantly reduced risk of stillbirth, preterm birth and extremely small babies at birth. [Read More]

Hawaii Faces Huge Hurricane: Why That's So Rare

 Posted on June 30, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  437 words  |  Patria Henriques

A very big storm is coming for Hawaii, an island state that's largely avoided encounters with major cyclones in recent memory. Hurricane Lane is set to strike Hawaii from the southeast as a Category 4 storm, most directly threatening the Big Island. Officials have encouraged residents to stock up on supplies and prepare their homes for the storm, creating scenes more familiar in southeastern U.S. states. [Hurricane Season 2018: How Long It Lasts and What to Expect] [Read More]

Hidden Paintings Revealed at Ancient Temple of Angkor Wat

 Posted on June 30, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  777 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Each year, millions of visitors flock to Angkor Wat, an ancient temple in modern-day Cambodia. There, they marvel at the 900-year-old towers, a giant moat and the shallow relief sculptures of Hindu gods. But what they can't see are 200 hidden paintings on the temple walls. New, digitally enhanced images reveal detailed murals at Angkor Wat showing elephants, deities, boats, orchestral ensembles and people riding horses — all invisible to the naked eye. [Read More]

Homeopathy and the Folly of Watery Memory

 Posted on June 30, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  795 words  |  Fernande Dalal

The tide washes away memories, according to an ancient proverb. Bucking timeless wisdom, scientists last week said they have evidence that water maintains its own memory. This bizarre assertion, beyond known laws of physics, supports a bizarre healing tradition called homeopathy, which is beyond laws of reason. The scientists claim that water can remember a substance mixed in it after the substance has been removed and, as a result, the water becomes therapeutic. [Read More]

Images: Species of the Maya Biosphere Reserve

 Posted on June 30, 2023  |  1 minutes  |  94 words  |  Fernande Dalal

maya-biosphere-reserveThe heart of the Maya Biosphere Reserve, which will be protected under a new agreement between local communities, the Guatemalan governments and conservation groups. scarlet-macaw-120327A scarlet macaw in the Maya Biosphere Reserve. The bird is one of the most endangered species of parrots in the world, threatened by the destruction of their habitats. black-howler-monkey-120327The Maya Biosphere Reserve is also home to the black howler monkey (Alouatta caraya). jaguar-pantera-onca-120327Jaguars, the largest living cats in the Americas, are also found in the Maya Biosphere Reserve. [Read More]

Lab-Grown Skin Saves Dying Boy with Rare Disease

 Posted on June 30, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  618 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

A boy who nearly died from a rare skin disease has recovered thanks to an experimental treatment, his doctors announced this week. The treatment? Giving their young patient new skin using genetically modified stem cells. The young boy, named Hassan, was 7 years old when he was admitted to the Children's Hospital at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, in June 2015. At that time, a genetic disease called epidermolysis bullosa (EB) had destroyed about 60 percent of his skin. [Read More]

One nasal droplet's worth of coronavirus is enough to make you sick

 Posted on June 30, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  828 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Scientists deliberately infected young, healthy volunteers with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 — and now, they've shared their first results from that experiment.    The new study, published Tuesday (Feb. 1) in Springer Nature’s preprint database, In Review(opens in new tab), has not yet been peer reviewed, but it could provide insight into how mild COVID-19 unfolds, from the moment of exposure to the point that the virus is eliminated from the body. [Read More]

Quitting Religion? Mom and Dad Would Prefer a Slow Fade

 Posted on June 30, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  746 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

A slow fade from religious life may be less disruptive to your relationship with mom and dad than rejecting or changing religions altogether, a new study finds. The findings may not surprise anyone who has quietly stopped going to services except on major holidays, but they're important for social scientists studying family harmony. According to a 2008 report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 28 percent of Americans have rejected the religion of their childhood in order to switch faiths or to move away from religion as a whole. [Read More]

Scary Thought: Dinosaurs May Have Hunted at Night

 Posted on June 30, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  744 words  |  Trudie Dory

Some dinosaurs didn't go to sleep when the sun went down. Like many living animals, some paleo-beasts stayed awake or woke up to forage or begin the hunt for prey. This discovery, which relied on evidence within fossilized remains of dinosaur eyes, challenges the conventional wisdom that early mammals were nocturnal, or active at night, because dinosaurs had already taken the day shift. "When we look at living vertebrates today, living birds, lizards and mammals we see such a great diversity of when they're active during the day," [Read More]

Study Reveals Why Monkeys Shout During Sex

 Posted on June 30, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  293 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Female monkeys may shout during sex to help their male partners climax, research now reveals. Without these yells, male Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) almost never ejaculated, scientists found. Female monkeys often utter loud, distinctive calls before, during or after sex. Their exact function, if any, has remained heavily debated. Counting pelvic thrusts To investigate the purpose behind these calls, scientists at the German Primate Center in Göttingen focused on Barbary macaques for two years in a nature reserve in Gibraltar. [Read More]