Environmental exposure to SARS-CoV-2 was responsible for the majority of infections detected in newborn infants in an analysis of 176 reported cases. However, the findings, published in Nature Communications, suggest that 30% of the reported cases may have been acquired from the mother. Daniele De Luca and colleagues performed a meta-analysis of published cases of […]
A concept bandied about early in the coronavirus pandemic, something called "herd immunity," has surfaced again. President Trump referenced the idea during an ABC News town hall last month, insisting the virus would eventually go away as people develop "a herd mentality." (Okay, he misspoke, but we think we know what he meant.) Then, during […]
Rapper Cardi B turned 28 over the weekend, and she celebrated with a lavish Las Vegas party held on Saturday night—but the event (and the photos from it) has drawn some major criticism from fans and other people online for the lack of social distancing and mask-wearing. Cardi shared a photo from the event on […]
Stress, dehydration, and excess alcohol are all well-known causes of a headache. But there are other, less obvious reasons for pounding head pain—as one Australian woman discovered. After she experienced a headache for more than a week, doctors found tapeworm larvae in her brain. The unidentified woman is the subject of a new case study, […]
What is contact tracing, and how does it work with COVID-19? The goal of contact tracing is to alert people who may have been exposed to someone with the coronavirus, and prevent them from spreading it to others. Health experts say contact tracing is key to containing the virus and allowing places to reopen more […]
In a study published in Autophagy, researchers at the University of Maryland (UMD) shed new light on how Zika virus hijacks our own cellular machinery to break down a protein that is essential for neurological development and cellular communication, getting it to “eat itself”. By triggering this process known as autophagy, Zika virus is able […]
When Lauren Langbein became a doctoral student in cell biology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia in 2014, she was used to being a stellar student—she had always excelled in classrooms and labs. But by the end of 2016, her research project was falling apart, and Langbein, a native of Monmouth County, N.J., and a […]
People are better at learning and decision-making when trying to avoid harm to others, according to new research published in JNeurosci. Humans are often motivated by self-interest. Participants in one study, for example, learned a game faster when they earned money for themselves as opposed to another person. However, this pattern changes when physical harm […]
News broke today that the NHS will begin offering a prescribed diet of shakes and soups to those with type 2 diabetes. NHS England announced the plan today, saying that 5,000 diabetic people would be offered the diet in order to help them ‘to help people stay well, maintain a healthy weight and avoid major […]
Next time you order a Big Mac, Whopper or Sweetgreen salad, consider this: The wrappers and containers your food comes in have been found to contain toxic chemicals that can contaminate your drinking water, harm wildlife and make you sick. PFAS are chemicals used in apparel, carpeting, furniture and food packaging designed to keep materials […]
