By screening the eyes, doctors may one day be able to predict a person’s risk of early death. By examining tiny vessels inside a person’s eyes, doctors might one day be able to predict that person’s risk of early death, according to a new study. Though the risk of illnessContinue Reading
Were these “jerks of the sea” acting kindly? In a strange encounter off the coast of western Australia, a pod of orcas seems to free a humpback whale from a rope entangling its tail. But were they really trying to rescue it? It isn’t clear whether the orcas (Orcinus orca)Continue Reading
But shortages mean that new antivirals and other drugs may be hard to come by Two years into the COVID pandemic, as the highly contagious Omicron variant pushes infections to record highs, U.S. physicians have a growing arsenal of therapies to keep mild disease from worsening. At the same time,Continue Reading
Experts predict that such nonhuman-to-human “xenotransplants” may become a viable option within the next decade It’s an exciting time to be an organ transplant physician. Just two weeks ago, doctors in Baltimore reported completing the first successful transfer of a pig heart into a living human patient. Now pig kidneysContinue Reading
The viruses were bacteriophages, meaning viruses that infect bacteria. A woman’s oozing wound failed to heal after nearly two years of antibiotic treatments intended to vanquish the bacterial infection. So her doctors unleashed viruses to slay the superbug. The experimental therapy specifically involved viruses that infect bacteria, known as bacteriophages,Continue Reading
Thousands of pendant-shaped tombs discovered along the pathways. Archaeologists in northwest Saudi Arabia have discovered 4,500-year-old “funerary avenues” — the longest running for 105 miles (170 km) — alongside thousands of pendant-shaped stone tombs. They are called funerary avenues because tombs are located beside them. While funeral processions couldContinue Reading
Which animals have the longest arms? Based on size alone, humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) would easily crush all other competition with their massive flippers, which evolved from the arms of their terrestrial mammalian ancestors and can measure up to 16 feet (4.9 meters) long. But when it comes to relativeContinue Reading
Skeletons of “kungas” discovered in a princely burial. Mesopotamians were using hybrids of domesticated donkeys and wild asses to pull their war wagons 4,500 years ago — at least 500 years before horses were bred for the purpose, a new study reveals. The analysis of ancient DNA from animal bonesContinue Reading
This goes against one of the key assumptions of the theory of evolution. Genetic changes that crop up in an organism’s DNA may not be completely random, new research suggests. That would upend one of the key assumptions of the theory of evolution. Researchers studying the genetic mutations in aContinue Reading
Scientists spotted the first early warning sign of a standard type of supernova A star’s death usually comes without warning. But an early sign of one star’s imminent demise hints at what happens before some stellar explosions. In a last hurrah before exploding, a star brightened, suggesting that it blastedContinue Reading