Three scientists won the 2020 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their discovery of hepatitis C, a blood-borne virus that can cause chronic inflammation of the liver, leading to severe scarring and cancer. The researchers Harvey Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles Rice “made seminal discoveries that led to theContinue Reading
The CDC has updated its COVID-19 guidance to acknowledge that the virus can sometimes spread via small droplet particles that linger in the air. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated its COVID-19 guidance to acknowledge that the virus can sometimes spread via “airborne transmission,” or smallContinue Reading
It might be time to ditch your old Teflon cookware. Spending each morning at the kitchen sink scraping at the charred remains of breakfast gets tedious after a while. Non-stick cookware may seem like an appealing alternative — but is it safe? Usually when people inquire about the safety ofContinue Reading
The woman had no risk factors for the disease and exactly how she caught it is a mystery. A young woman in Australia was found to have tapeworm larvae lurking in her brain — a very unusual diagnosis considering she had no risk factors for the condition, according to aContinue Reading
With several coronavirus vaccines barreling through late-stage trials, adults could receive an approved vaccine in months. But even then, we likely won’t know whether any of these vaccines work in children. Only a handful of coronavirus vaccine trials currently include children as participants — an Oxford-AstraZeneca trial being one ofContinue Reading
Since first appearing in late 2019, the novel virus, SARS-CoV-2, has had a range of impacts on those it infects. Some people become severely ill with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, and require hospitalization, whereas others have mild symptoms or are even asymptomatic. There are several factors thatContinue Reading
The true toll is likely much higher. At least 1 million people have now died from COVID-19. This grim milestone comes over eight months after the public first learned that a mysterious respiratory virus was infecting people in China. The novel coronavirus swept quickly across the globe and overwhelmed hospitalsContinue Reading
Black licorice contains a compound known to be toxic in large doses. A man in Massachusetts died after eating too much black licorice, which contains a compound known to be toxic in large doses, according to a new report. The 54-year-old man was in a fast food restaurant when heContinue Reading
People infected by the novel coronavirus can have symptoms that range from mild to deadly. Now, two new analyses suggest that some life-threatening cases can be traced to weak spots in patients’ immune systems. At least 3.5 percent of study patients with severe COVID-19, the disease caused by the novelContinue Reading
Some mutations have no effect, while others could impact transmissibility. In early January, the first genome sequence of Sars-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — was released under the moniker “Wuhan-1”. This string of 30,000 letters (the A, T, C and Gs of the genetic code) marked day oneContinue Reading