What is….the human microbiome?
by Abby Knecht Continue reading What is….the human microbiome?
by Abby Knecht Continue reading What is….the human microbiome?
Lightning is less common over the ocean than land, new research
suggests that aerosols such as salt from sea spray may be the reason. Continue reading Seaspray, lightning away: Salt may explain why lightning strikes less over the ocean
No one can escape aging. But scientists have found that turtles and tortoises live much longer and barely age compared to humans and other animals. Continue reading Turtles barely age compared to humans and other animals
Researchers show that symbiotic bacteria can evolve in the gut to become harmful, providing clues to how autoimmune diseases develop. Continue reading Gut Microbiome Bacteria Can Evolve to Cause Autoimmune Diseases
A new look at the louse family tree has revealed that many lice hosted by mammals, including the human head louse, have coevolved with mammals over tens of millions of years. Continue reading Itching for a change? Some lice have evolved alongside their hosts for millions of years.
by Misha Guptafigures by Xiaomeng Han For close to two centuries, humans have been studying the biological past using fossil records. In recent history, we have added the ability to reconstruct the sequence of our DNA to our arsenal. Furthermore, phylogenetic trees (structures that define the evolutionary relationships in the line of descent from a common ancestor) have been created for all manners of organisms, … Continue reading Viral Fossil Records: A Look into the Past! (and the Future?)
by Ariel Hairstonfigures by MacKenzie Mauger Our lives are stuffed with opportunities for excitement and stimulation. You might wake up in the morning and find yourself staring at your modest collection of succulents, or that small oil painting you bought at a flea market. The first moments of your day might be spent taking a walk around the block, the smell of tree bark hanging … Continue reading Home Decor and the Hippocampus: How environmental enrichment can enhance brain function
Scientists have characterized a component of bull ant venom that causes hypersensitivity to touch and heat in mammals Continue reading Ant Venom Holds Clues for Pain Pathways in Mammals
by Jessica Schifffigures by Sarah Dendy Climate change is impacting every region in the United States, fueling more intense natural disasters. It is hard to ignore the number of people leaving their homes due to either sudden events, like wildfires, or gradual climate-related changes, like sea level rise. In 2020, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (iDMC) reported 1,719,000 new displacements and registered 126,000 internally displaced … Continue reading Climate Change is Happening in Our Own Backyards
by Sanjana Kulkarnifigures by Corena Loeb The bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) has been infecting humans for thousands of years. Today, TB, which is thought to have originated in Africa and evolved alongside human hosts, is found across the globe and causes 1-2 million deaths annually, making it the second leading infectious disease killer after COVID-19. As new COVID-19 variants keep emerging, we can observe the … Continue reading The Human-Tuberculosis Arms Race