Lose Your TV Remote? 50 Percent Chance It's in Your Sofa

 Posted on June 29, 2023  |  1 minutes  |  128 words  |  Trudie Dory

According to Logitech, makers of computer peripheral accessories and remote controls, the average American has four remotes in their living room. With all those clickers floating around, there's a good chance that you've lost track of one (or two) of them. Well, good news. Logitech's recent "Global Remote Control Trends Study(opens in new tab)" reveals that there's a nearly 50 percent chance that it's stuck between your sofa cushions. Here's the breakdown of where people lose their remotes: [Read More]

Most Oral HPV Infections Are in Men

 Posted on June 29, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  397 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

CHICAGO — The majority of people who have infections of human papillomaviruses (HPVs) in their mouths are men, a new study suggests. The researchers looked at more than 9,000 U.S. men and women who tested positive for an oral HPV infection, and found that 78 percent of them were men. When the researchers looked at the types of HPV that are linked to cancer, they found that 82 percent of people who tested positive for this risky group of viruses were men, according to the study presented here today (June 1) at the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology. [Read More]

Move Over, Oxytocin: Other Chemicals Also Shape Social Lives

 Posted on June 29, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  538 words  |  Trudie Dory

The "cuddle hormone" oxytocin gets all the attention, but a new study finds that other chemicals in the brain may play even bigger roles in people's interactions with others. In the study, researchers looked at people's genes for six different "social neuropeptides" — chemicals in the brain that are involved with social interactions — and found that two have particularly large effects on relationships. "There are a number of chemicals in the brain that play an important role in predisposing us to behave in particular ways," [Read More]

What Is Nipah Virus? Outbreak in India Kills at Least 10

 Posted on June 29, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  323 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

At least 10 people in India have died from a rare virus known as Nipah virus, according to news reports. The deaths occurred in Kerala, a state in southern India, according to the BBC. Two other people have tested positive for the virus and are critically ill, and an additional 40 people have been put into quarantine after having contact with those who died, the BBC reported. Nipah virus infection is an emerging disease that was first identified in 1999 during an outbreak among pig farmers in Malaysia and Singapore, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). [Read More]

Why We Sunburn

 Posted on June 29, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  394 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Sunburns readily advertise that we've had fun in the sun, and perhaps have been a bit careless, but what exactly goes on in our cells to produce the painful, red inflammation has not been clear. Now, researchers have discovered a molecular signal that triggers sunburns. When our skin cells are exposed to ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation , a specific form of RNA, called micro-RNA, is damaged, the study found. (RNA is similar in structure to DNA, which makes up our genes. [Read More]

Wild Tarantula Eats a Foot-Long Snake in a First

 Posted on June 29, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  447 words  |  Patria Henriques

When scientists in southern Brazil turned over a rock while looking for tarantulas, they came across something they never expected: a spider eating a snake. The tarantula, called Grammostola quirogai, was chowing down on the body of an Almaden ground snake (Erythrolamprus almadensis). It's the first time a tarantula has ever been seen preying on a snake in the wild. "Predation of such a large snake in relation to the size of the spider was extremely surprising to us," [Read More]

Artificial Sweeteners Have Little or No Benefit to Health, Researchers Conclude

 Posted on June 28, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  934 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Two-thirds of Americans are overweight, and those who diet sometimes turn to alternative sweeteners — including aspartame, sucralose and stevioside — to cut calories. Now, a new review of many studies suggests that doing so might not be the best idea. The scientists took a comprehensive look at more than 11,000 studies and found that, for overweight individuals or those with high blood pressure (hypertension) or diabetes, the benefits of consuming zero-calorie, " [Read More]

Bitcoin Is Sucking Up So Much Energy, It Could Stop Being Profitable

 Posted on June 28, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  591 words  |  Trudie Dory

The Bitcoin network could use 0.5 percent of the world's energy consumption by the end of this year, and it could soon cost so much to mine the cryptocurrency that it stops being profitable. These figures come from a new commentary published today (May 16) in the journal Joule. In it, Alex de Vries, a financial economist and blockchain specialist, carefully worked through a number of known data points — the number of bitcoin-mining computers made in the past year, the energy consumption of those computers and the minimum energy costs of cooling large facilities of tightly packed computers, among others — to arrive at an absolute lowest bound for the energy consumption of the bitcoin network today: 2. [Read More]

Confused Baby Falcon Rescued from Inside Balloon Telescope

 Posted on June 28, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  651 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

When lofting a huge telescope under a giant balloon, you have to prepare for the unexpected. On Friday (June 9) in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, the unexpected arrived in the form of a very confused and unhappy baby falcon. The falcon entered the hangar where scientists are preparing for the September launch of Fireball-2, a large ultraviolet telescope that hangs from a giant balloon. (Fireball stands for "Faint Intergalactic Redshifted Experiment Balloon," [Read More]

Giant Bird That Killed Its Owner Heads to Auction

 Posted on June 28, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  269 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Florida-resident Marvin Hajos died two weeks ago, after being attacked by one of his cassowaries — a giant, flightless bird with sharp claws native to Australia and Southeast Asia. This Saturday (April 27), as per the owner's wish, the cassowary that killed 75-year-old Hajos will be put up for auction, along with about 100 other exotic animals that Hajos kept on his estate in Florida, according to The New York Times. [Read More]