|  Brazil scientists find Zika traces in Culex mosquitoes in wild  | Brazilian researchers on Thursday said they found signs of the Zika virus in a common mosquito that is a separate species from the insect known to be the primary means of transmission. The scientists, from a leading Brazilian research institute known as the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, discovered the Zika traces in Culex mosquitoes captured in and around the northeastern Brazilian city of Recife, capital of the state that was hit hardest by the Zika outbreak since last year. In March, the same researchers said they had successfully transmitted the Zika virus to Culex mosquitoes in the lab, but were not yet sure at the time whether the species could carry the virus naturally.
| Read More » Scientists hunt 'anti-evolution' drugs in new cancer fight By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists are opening a new front in the war on cancer with plans to develop "anti-evolution" drugs to stop tumour cells from developing resistance to treatment. Britain's Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), one of the world's top cancer centres, said on Friday its initiative was the first to have at its heart the target of overcoming cancer evolution and drug resistance. In the same way that bacteria evolve resistance to antibiotics, cancer cells also change to evade the medicines used to fight them, leading to "survival of the nastiest". Read More » Parasite Evolution: Here's How Some Animals Became Moochers  | Nobody likes a mooch, but new research finds that grifting off others is a sound evolutionary strategy. Parasitism — a survival strategy that involves hijacking a host's nutrients for one's own benefit — has emerged in the animal kingdom at least 223 times, according to a study published July 19 in the journal Biology Letters. The estimate of 223 independent origins of parasitism is nearly four times higher than the previous estimate of around 60.
| Read More » 'Earthquake' in Florida Was Actually a Naval Explosion  | A tremor reported on July 16 off the coast of Florida was not an earthquake, but a Naval test explosion. The U.S. Geological Survey now lists the event on its earthquake hazards page as an "experimental explosion by the U.S. Navy." According to DefenseNews.com, the 10,000-pound explosion was set off to test the resilience of a combat ship, the USS Jackson. USGS instruments measured the blast as a magnitude-3.7 earthquake, which would have been a rare seismic event in the tectonically quiet region.
| Read More » Children's Doodles Found in Margins of Medieval Manuscript  | The margins of a medieval manuscript from a convent in Naples, Italy, are decorated with doodles of what are apparently devils, a farm animal and a person that were likely drawn by children, a new study finds. Children probably scribbled these doodles on the 14th-century manuscript a few hundred years after the book was made, said the study's author, Deborah Thorpe, a research fellow at the Centre for Chronic Diseases and Disorders at the University of York in the United Kingdom. "I was looking through a database of medieval manuscripts online, and I found images of these beautiful doodles in the margins, and to me they looked like they were done by children," Thorpe said in a statement.
| Read More » Why the 'Heat Dome' Will Scorch Nearly the Entire US This Weekend  | A blast of sweltering heat will sweep across the United States over the next four days, and some places will see temperatures as much as 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit (5.6 to 8.3 degrees Celsius) above average for this time of year, according to the National Weather Service. Hot weather in July is to be expected, of course — after all, it's the middle of summer — but a so-called heat dome is kicking these hot and humid temperatures up a notch. A heat dome happens when a "dome" of high pressure traps hot air underneath it, said Mike Musher, a meteorologist at the NWS' Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
| Read More » Mighty Viking Ax Discovered in Tomb of Medieval 'Power Couple'  | Archaeologists have discovered one of the largest Viking axes ever found, in the tomb of a 10th-century "power couple" in Denmark. Kirsten Nellemann Nielsen, an archaeologist at the Silkeborg Museum who is leading excavations at the site near the town of Haarup, said Danish axes like the one found in the tomb were the most feared weapons of the Viking Age. It would have had a very long handle, and it took both hands to use it," Nielsen told Live Science.
| Read More » Why Did NASA Send a DNA Sequencer to Space?  | A DNA sequencer that was just delivered to the International Space Station can test not just known Earthly organisms. Turns out, the little device may also be able to analyze samples taken from alien life, NASA said. Among the goods delivered was the MinION — a palm-sized sequencer with a lot of promise that weighs just 120 grams (0.27 pounds).
| Read More » Alcohol Can Cause Certain Cancers, Study Says Drinking alcohol may cause seven different types of cancer, a new meta-analysis finds. Previous studies have found an association between drinking alcohol and a higher risk of developing certain cancers, according to the study. In the new meta-analysis, published today (July 21) in the journal Addiction, researchers looked at the major review studies done over the last decade on alcohol and cancer, including reviews from the American Institute for Cancer Research and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Read More » Human Gut Microbes Took Root Before We Were Human  | The relationship between humans and the bacteria in our guts extends far back into the past — to the time before modern humans even existed, a new study finds. Microbes in two bacterial families — Bacteroidaceae and Bifidobacteriaceae, which are present in humans and African apes — likely colonized the guts of a shared ancestor of both groups around 15 million years ago, the researchers discovered. The researchers' genetic data also tell a story of parallel evolution — in the microbes, and in the primate hosts they inhabited.
| Read More » Food for Thought: Americans Just Can't Stop Throwing Out Food Food waste is piling up in America, and although the vast majority of Americans feel bad about throwing out food, most of us also think it would be hard to reduce the amount of food we throw away, a new survey finds. The survey of 500 people in the U.S. found that 77 percent of respondents said they felt guilty about throwing away food. In addition to being a waste of resources, throwing away food has a negative impact on the environment, according to the study, published today (July 21) in the journal PLOS ONE. Read More » | |
