Given its rampant crime, corruption and money issues, a lot of residents of Illinois publicly wish they could give Chicago away. They almost never had it at all. The original proposed northern boundary of Illinois was a straight line from the southernmost tip of Lake Michigan to just south of the Rock and Mississippi River confluence - had it been approved, the northern 51 miles of the Illinois...
Rheumatoid arthritis causes chronic pain and inflammation in joints, such as those in the hands and feet, as well as knees and hips. Over time, rheumatoid arthritis can destroy the cartilage that lubricates and cushions the joints. In essence, it 'remodels' bones, leading to disfigurement, pain and reduced mobility. Cartilage was previously thought to be a victim of an overzealous immune system but...
Around 3,000 farmers work 6,000 hectares in Veracruz, the west coast of Mexico, to grow potatoes ( Solanum tuberosum ). In recent decades, the fields of the Cofre de Perote area were affected by the presence of the golden nematode of potatoes ( Globodera rostochiensis ), also known as the yellow potato cyst nematode, a devastating plant pathogen, which reduced crop yields by more than 40 percent, leading...
A decade ago there was mass hysteria among the fringes of science academia because American President George W. Bush limited federal funding for human embryonic stem cells to existing lines. Accompanying claims were that Alzheimer's Disease wouldn't be cured and Republicans hated science. In 2014, it is difficult to remember what all the fuss was about. California wants its $3 billion in hESC...
When you read something in a book, do you believe it? You might say, “Of course not if it’s fiction,” but well-researched historical or science fiction can offer plenty of accurate information, entertainingly packaged. Nonfiction, on the other hand, might seem true by definition — but what about memoirs? Polemics? Even textbooks tend to be outdated at best, if not outright biased. read more ...
Recently a study was published in the Milbank Quarterly analyzing the voting patterns of FDA Advisory Committee members with apparent conflicts of interest. read more ...
Artificial hearts were invented at a time when progress in science couldn't come fast enough. In 1969, when they first went into human use, DDT hadn't been banned, vaccines were considered the medical highlight of the century, and the Green Revolution promoted genetic modification as the way to feed the world's poor in the future. read more ...
Sure, he looks good. But how about his sperm? That might not be such a ridiculous-sounding question, now that a new study has identified a link between men's facial attractiveness and the quality of their semen --with handsome, masculine-looking guys having slightly lower-quality semen than other men. "To [the] best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of the phenomenon," study co-author...
GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (AP) — With climate change still a political minefield across the nation despite the strong scientific consensus that it's happening, some community leaders have hit upon a way of preparing for the potentially severe local consequences without triggering explosions of partisan warfare: Just change the subject. Big cities and small towns are shoring up dams and dikes, using roof...
It may be time to rewrite geology textbooks. Geologists say they've found evidence that oxygen-producing life existed on Earth some 3.02 billion years ago--60 million years earlier than previously thought. "This is a very exciting finding, which helps to fill a gap in our knowledge about the evolution of the early Earth ," Dr. Quentin Crowley, an assistant professor in the School of Natural Sciences...
Skywatchers, you're in for a treat. Tonight's "supermoon" is a pretty special one. When the moon turns full on Monday, Sept. 8 at 9:38 p.m. EDT , it not only will become the last supermoon of the summer, but also this year's Harvest Moon -- which is a full moon that occurs closest to the autumnal equinox. (Story continues below.) Supermoons are full moons that coincide with "lunar perigee," when the...
Could the Higgs boson destroy the universe? Stephen Hawking says it's possible, the U.K. newspaper Daily Express reported. As the celebrated physicist writes in the preface to a new book, “ Starmus, 50 Years of Man in Space : The Higgs potential has the worrisome feature that it might become megastable at energies above 100bn giga-electron-volts (GeV). This could mean that the universe could undergo...
Once a virus makes it onto an office doorknob, it only takes a few hours before it can be found on 40 to 60 percent of the people inside a workplace -- as well as 40 to 60 percent of other commonly-touched objects, like an elevator button or printer -- according to famed germ scientist Charles Gerba, Ph.D., of the University of Arizona, Tucson. Luckily, it’s just as easy to halt the spread of a virus,...
This is your brain: This is your brain on social media: Generally speaking, humans are social creatures, but according to AsapSCIENCE, in-person communication doesn't quite scratch the same itch as online interactions via social media. For its latest video, the popular YouTube channel broke down five ways social media affects the human brain. The clip touches on social media's addictive properties,...
SEATTLE (AP) — Whale researchers are celebrating the newest member of a population of endangered killer whales that frequent Puget Sound in Washington state. The baby orca spotted over the weekend in waters off San Juan is the population's first calf born since 2012. A researcher saw it swimming between two adult females, most likely the orca's mom and aunt, said Ken Balcomb with the Center for Whale...
More than 130 years after he terrorized London in the late 1880s, one of the most notorious serial killers of all time has finally been “unmasked,” thanks to DNA evidence. At least, that’s according to a new book entitled Naming Jack the Ripper , which claims to have definitive evidence that a Polish émigré named Aaron Kosminski was the infamous murderer who in 1888 brutally killed and mutilated at...
It's clear after one look at those big, adorable eyes: Pudding the fox is utterly in love with her human caretakers. The red fox was born in the wild, but she's since found a new home . Abandoned by her mother in Yorkshire, England, she was taken in three years ago by the National Fox Welfare Society, a volunteer organization dedicated to rescuing injured foxes . (Story continues below.) According...
This story originally appeared on Mother Nature Network. Like with craft breweries, beard trim joints, and bike-friendly apartment developments , ask a Portlander what their favorite bridge is in town and you’re sure to get a variety of very opinionated answers. Some might say the Hawthorne Bridge, an old-school truss (built in 1910, it’s the oldest vertical-lift bridge still in operation in the United...
A patient at a Miami-area hospital is being retested for Ebola after showing symptoms of the virus last week, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday. The unnamed patient, who was admitted to Jackson Health System, is considered to be “at low risk for Ebola" after testing negative for the virus last week, CDC spokesman Tom Skinner told local reporters per the Miami...
You're going to die. Sorry to break it to you, but it's going to happen. The question is, "How?" This morbid, Edward Gorey-esque College Humor video posted Sept. 6 gives us a nursery rhyme list of everything that can kill us, from A to Z . Whether it be alcohol, fried food, pollution or zealotry, we are pretty much all doomed. "So if you are wondering what makes you ill," says the friendly skeleton...