What Is (or Was) the G8?
Posted on October 14, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 737 words
| Fernande Dalal
Russia has been indefinitely suspended from the group of countries known as the G8, a consortium of eight of the world's largest national economies.
The move to expel Russia, announced yesterday (March 24), resulted from Russia's annexation of Crimea, formerly a part of Ukraine. The act of military aggression was widely condemned in international diplomatic circles.
The G8 — which for the time being might be referred to as the G7 — came about in the 1970s, as the world was reeling from the impact of the OPEC oil embargo and other economic issues.
[Read More]Why Belief in Witchcraft Can Do Harm
Posted on October 14, 2022
| 5 minutes
| 931 words
| Patria Henriques
Belief in witchcraft is linked to a lack of trust for people in sub-Saharan Africa, new research finds. And that lack of social trust may be a barrier to economic development in struggling nations.
In regions where witchcraft belief is high, people are less likely to trust others, including their family, neighbors and local institutions, American University economist Boris Gershman reports in the May issue of the Journal of Development Economics.
[Read More]'Raw' Diet for Pets Not As Healthy As You Might Think
Posted on October 13, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 556 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Wild relatives of domestic dogs and cats thrive on raw flesh, but a so-called "raw" diet for pets carries risks of their exposure to parasites and bacteria, a new study finds.
What's more, a pet's raw diet may put humans at risk for these infections, too.
Pet foods and treats that include raw meat, organs or meaty bones have been found to include parasites such as Toxoplasma and tapeworms, as well as the bacteria Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Brucella suis and Salmonella, according to a study recently conducted in the Netherlands.
[Read More]5 Reasons Radiation Treatment has Never Been Safer (Op-Ed)
Posted on October 13, 2022
| 6 minutes
| 1149 words
| Trudie Dory
Dr. Edward Soffen is a board-certified radiation oncologist and medical director of the Radiation Oncology Department at CentraState Medical Center's Statesir Cancer Center in Freehold, New Jersey. He contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
As a radiation oncologist, my goal is to use radiation as an extremely powerful and potent tool to eradicate cancer tumors in the body: These techniques save and extend patients' lives every day.
[Read More]Alien-Like Worm Invades US
Posted on October 13, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 494 words
| Patria Henriques
A bizarre invasive worm with its mouth in the middle of its belly has been found in the United States for the first time, according to new research.
The New Guinea flatworm (Platydemus manokwari) is only a couple of millimeters thick but grows to be up to 2.5 inches (65 millimeters) long. As its name suggests, the worm is a New Guinea native, but it has been spreading across the globe, hitching rides on exotic plants and in soil.
[Read More]Ancient saber-toothed 'gorgons' bit each other in ritualized combat
Posted on October 13, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 674 words
| Patria Henriques
Long before dinosaurs walked the Earth, saber-toothed "gorgons" savagely bit each other on the face, a new study finds.
Fights between these animals — known as gorgonopsians, the dominant carnivores of the late Permian period (299 million to 251 million years ago) — were likely the result of competition between individuals vying for benefits, such as social dominance, desirable mates or territory. And they were probably not meant to be fatal, the study finds.
[Read More]Can a Pill Increase a Woman's Libido? 5 Things That Affect Female Sex Drive
Posted on October 13, 2022
| 6 minutes
| 1255 words
| Arica Deslauriers
Women with low libido could soon get a "little pill" of their own that aims to improve their sex life. Last week, an expert panel voted to recommend that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approve a drug called flibanserin, which is touted as boosting women's desire for sex. If the FDA decides the drug is safe and effective, it could soon find its way into bedrooms across the United States.
[Read More]Images of the Eyeborg, the Man with the Camera Eye
Posted on October 13, 2022
| 2 minutes
| 317 words
| Trudie Dory
Meet the 'Eyeborg'Rob Spence, a documentary filmmaker in Canada, has a radical prosthesis: a prosthetic eye fitted with a video camera.
Spence shot himself in the eye as a child, and after the cornea was irreparably damaged in 2007, he decided to get a prosthetic with more capabilities than the typical glass eye.
3D ViewSo he reached out to independent radio-frequency engineer and designer Kosta Grammatis, who helped him design a camera eye.
[Read More]Indian rocket suffers catastrophic failure during launch, Earth-watching satellite lost
Posted on October 13, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 463 words
| Trudie Dory
India's first launch of 2021 has ended in failure.
An Indian rocket carrying a new Earth-observation satellite for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) suffered a catastrophic failure shortly after launching early Thursday (Aug. 12) from the country's Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota Island in eastern India. The liftoff occurred at 5:43 a.m. local time in India (8:13 p.m. EDT Aug 11/0013 GMT).
The launch failure, the first for India since 2017, occurred sometime past the six-minute mark after the mission's rocket, the 12-story-tall Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, had ignited its cryogenic third stage.
[Read More]Lesbians' Brains React Differently
Posted on October 13, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 668 words
| Patria Henriques
UPDATED MAY 12, 2006 AT 5:20 P.M. ET
Clarification: WASHINGTON (AP) _ In a story below, The Associated Press reported on the perceptions of lesbian women and heterosexual men and women when sniffing chemicals derived from human hormones. The report was based on a chart in a research study which indicated different perceptions of the chemicals, such as pleasantness, familiarity and irritability. While there were differences in how the brains of homosexual and heterosexual participants reacted to the chemicals, the story should also have included the conclusion that indicated differences in individual perceptions were not statistically significant.
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