News: New Map Shows Where Zika Mosquitoes Live in the US
As summer heats up, new maps from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gives us our best guess at where Zika-carrying mosquitoes could be hanging out this year in the US.
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News: New Vaccine Takes Down Toxic Plaques Associated with Alzheimer's
Alzheimer's disease — an irreversible, progressive brain disorder — is the sixth leading cause of death in the US and more than afflicts 5 million Americans. As if those numbers aren't scary enough, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expect that number to nearly triple by 2050.
News: Stop Using Citronella Candles — They Don't Work
Mosquitoes are a big problem, and citronella candles are not the solution. There are a lot of mosquito species. The American Mosquito Control Association reports there are more than 3000 mosquito species in the world, and about 200 of those occur in the US. The most common are the Aedes, Anopheles, and Culex species. These are also the three mosquito species most likely to transmit serious illness, and all of them live in the US.
How To: Use the Emergency SOS Shortcut on Your iPhone in iOS 11
In recent years, Apple has been pushing health and safety as cornerstones of its technology, and iOS 11 is no exception. Apple's latest entry in its mobile operating system brings a new emergency feature called Emergency SOS, which gives you easy access to contact 911 if you press the sleep/wake button five times. It's a useful way to contact emergency services when you might otherwise not be able to.
News: Don't Believe That Whole Wheat Is Healthier — Your Gut Bacteria May Think Differently
Move over whole wheat — white bread may be back in style after a new study shows that it may be your gut microbes that decide what kind of bread is best for you.
News: Mumps Outbreak Leads to Health Alert for Boston
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) issued a health alert for a Boston mumps outbreak, on Monday, June 5th, to healthcare providers and local boards of health. There have been 12 reported cases of mumps during the recent outbreak. The affected residents' symptoms occurred between March 24th and May 31st, and 10 of the 12 had symptoms after May 9th. There have been 35 confirmed cases of mumps in 2017 in Massachusetts, and "nearly 300" suspected cases in the continuing outbreak.
News: A Protein Found in Ticks Can Help Kill MRSA Infections
As researchers from Yale searched our environment for compounds to aid in the battle against drug-resistant bacteria, they got an unlikely assist from ticks.
News: Heart-Damaging 'Kissing Bug' Parasite Infects Thousands a Year in the US — & You May Not Know Until It's Too Late
Take a close look at the image above. These bugs spread a deadly parasite that infects thousands of people each year. They also live in the US, and it's important to know where they are and whether you need to worry that they're carrying a dangerous infection.
News: Rocking 'Radiohead' Ant Farms Fungus for a Living — & It Might Help Fight Superbugs
Long admired for their active and cooperative community behavior, some types of ants also wear a gardening hat. Nurturing underground fungus gardens, these ants have a win-win relationship that provides food for both ants and fungi. If we humans understand it better, it may just help us out, too.
News: Rare Superbug Found in More Than One-Third of Houston Methodist Patients
The bacteria Klebsiella pneumoniae is a bad actor known for being antibiotic-resistant and causing a variety of serious infections in hospitals, including pneumonia, surgical site wounds, and meningitis. K. pneumoniae is something you do not want to encounter if you have a compromised immune system.
News: We've Finally Figured Out Why Some Mushrooms Glow
Bioluminescence — the ability of an organism to produce and emit light — is nature's light show. Plants, insects, fish, and bacteria do it, and scientists understand how. Until now, though, we didn't know how fungi glow.
News: Kids' Snot Provides Unlikely Path for Superbugs to Move from Farm to Community
The noses of kids who live in areas of intense pig farming may harbor antibiotic-resistant bacteria, presumably acquired from the animals, according to a new study by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, and Statens Serum Institut in Denmark, published in Environmental Health Perspectives.
News: New Zika Test Could Speed Results & Boost Prevention at Dramatically Lower Cost
Colorado State University scientists have developed new tech that quickly identifies the presence of Zika virus in mosquito populations — and in human body fluid.
News: Glowing Bacteria Can Help Locate Devastating Hidden Land Mines
Devastating and deadly, land mines are a persistent threat in many areas of the world. Funding to clear regions of land mines has been decreasing, but new research may offer a less dangerous method of locating hidden, underground explosives by using glowing bacteria.
News: This Asymptomatic Virus Can Damage the Immune System & May Trigger Celiac
Viral infections have been the focus of attention in the development of autoimmune diseases—diseases where the body's immune system reacts to the body's own cells—because they trigger the immune system into action.
News: Frustrated by Acne? New Research Shows Skin Microbiome Makes a Difference
The squiggly guys in this article's cover image are Propionibacterium acnes. These bacteria live in low-oxygen conditions at the base of hair follicles all over your body. They mind their own business, eating cellular debris and sebum, the oily stuff secreted by sebaceous glands that help keep things moisturized. Everybody has P. acnes bacteria—which are commonly blamed for causing acne—but researchers took a bigger view and discovered P. acnes may also play a part in keeping your skin clear.
News: This Modified Common Cold Virus Specifically Targets & Kills Cancer (& Leaves Healthy Cells Alone)
The search for a cancer treatment that selectively finds and kills only the cancerous cells has just made a giant leap forward.
News: Better Spatial Maps Will Make Mixed Reality Great
A group of researchers from Stanford University and Princeton University has put together the largest RGB-D video dataset to date with over 1,500 scans of over 700 different locations across the world, for a total of 2.5 million views.
News: Scientists Are Using the Special Physics of Dragonfly Wings to Create Surfaces That Shred Bacteria on Contact
As drug-resistant bacteria become more commonplace, researchers are looking for new antibacterial strategies to disrupt disease-causing microbes. Some scientists are working to create new drugs, while others are trying out drug combinations. Another group, however, are ditching pharmaceuticals altogether and experimenting with non-drug alternatives.
News: Hepatitis C Cases Are Soaring in Iowa
This month, Iowa issued their first hepatitis C virus epidemiological profile and the news was not good. The number of cases of hepatitis C reported in Iowa between 2000 and 2015 rose nearly threefold, from 754 cases in 2000 to 2,235 cases in 2015.
News: Bill Gates Says Bioterrorism Could Kill Millions in a Pandemic—Here's How & What to Do
At a global security conference in Munich, philanthropist and businessman Bill Gates spoke about the next pandemic and a dire lack of global readiness. Here's how his statement could come true—and how to be ready when it does.
Tips for Cold Season: How to Spread Fewer Germs When Sneezing
What's in a sneeze? Quite a lot—dirt, mucus, and infectious germs—it seems. And sneezing the right way can reduce the germs you share with neighbors.
News: Research Published in mBio Shows How Gut Bacteria Can Help Chubby Dogs Live a Better—& Longer—Life
As fun as it is to see Fido's face light up when you feed him table scraps, American dogs are getting fat. The good news is that research is homing in on nutritional strategies to boost canine capabilities to maintain a healthy weight.
News: New Finding Shows How Deadly, Flesh-Eating Strep Toxins Help the Bacteria Burrow Deeper into Tissues
Where in the world did it come from? All of a sudden, one day, someone had an infection with flesh-eating bacteria. It captured headlines and worldwide attention because it was such a severe, strange, uncontrollable, and really disgusting condition.
News: New JAMA Study Shows That Testing Gut Bacteria Can Predict Risk of Heart Attack
It feels like someone reached into your chest and squeezed. Your head throbs in unison with your heartbeat. Clammy dread coats your body in sweat. Whether you call 911 or someone does it for you, the ER is your next stop.
News: Viral Infections Blur the Line Between Bacteria & Complex Life Like Plants & Animals
Using extreme time-lapse microscopy, scientists watched a virus take over a bacteria to create a cell that looked and functioned more like a plant or animal cell. True story.
News: Radical Theory Linking Alzheimer's to Infections Could Revolutionize Treatment
There are all kinds of theories—many supported by science—about what causes Alzheimer's disease. Tangles of protein called ß-amyloid (pronounced beta amyloid) plaques are prominently on the list of possible causes or, at least, contributors. An emerging theory of the disease suggests that those plaques aren't the problem, but are actually our brains' defenders. They show up to help fight an infection, and decades later, they become the problem.
News: Gut May Hold Key to Infectious Brain Diseases
Specialized cells in the lining of the gut may provide a key to preventing an infectious brain disease caused by misfolded proteins.
News: Here's How Bacteria Causes Acne & Pimples
How do I get rid of these zits?! Whether its pimples, blackheads, or whiteheads, the name is the same, and the name is acne.
News: The Unusual Stomach-Survival Mechanisms of Ulcer-Causing Bacteria Could Be Its Achilles Heel
The story of Helicobacter pylori is a real testament to the tenacity of medical researchers to prove their hypothesis. It took decades before the scientific world would accept that the bacteria H. pylori caused ulcers.
News: 'Vampire' Bacteria May Lead Fight Against Antibiotic Resistance
New weapons are needed to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Instead of drugs, scientists have discovered in an animal study that they may be able to harness vampire bacteria to vanquish pneumonia.
News: 3 Reasons to Be Worried About the Coming Flu Season
With the height of the flu season ahead, there are some good reasons to keep a flu vaccination in mind.
How To: Add Full Body Motion Tracking to the HoloLens with a Kinect
Thanks to Project-Infrared, there's now a pretty straightforward way to add motion tracking to the HoloLens: Connect it to a Kinect.
Tested: Baking with Cricket Flour Is Not as Gross as You Think
If you've ever played the game of Would You Rather, you've probably been given the ultimatum between eating insects or doing something else that sounds absurd, like licking a cactus. I'm advising you to always choose the insects, and here's why:
How To: Stop Tossing Food—Expiration Dates Mean Nothing
I'll admit it: I ignore expiration dates. No matter if it's a sell-by date, "best if used before" date, or even a use-by date, I don't care. I just check for signs of food decay and keep on eating.
How To: These Easy Hacks Transform Trader Joe's Frozen Foods into Gourmet Feasts
If you have a local Trader Joe's, you know first-hand how enchanting the frozen aisles are—almost every item offers the promise of a delicious meal or dessert. (We're always tempted to open the package and eat the cookie butter cheesecake, stat.)
How To: Check Your Heart Rate on Any Android Phone
Samsung created quite a buzz when it debuted a built-in heart rate sensor on the Galaxy S5 back in 2014, but amazingly, not many other manufacturers decided to follow suit. It's really a shame, too, since data from a heart rate sensor would go perfectly hand in hand with the increasing fitness- and activity-tracking features that most smartphones sport these days.
How To: Know When Apple Batteries Need to Be Serviced or Replaced
Not all batteries are created equal, but one thing's for sure—they all lose capacity over time. Thankfully, the advanced lithium-ion batteries in your MacBook and iPhone are meant to last for several years before they begin to lose their overall charge capacity.
How To: Top 10 Free First-Person Shooter Games for Your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch
Whether it's terrorism or brain-hungry zombies you're neutralizing, first-person shooters are an awesome way to immerse yourself within a new world and kill some time with your iPad or iPhone. And with so many games available in this genre, we wanted to show off ten of our absolute favorites.
How To: Help Loved Ones with Alzheimer's Preserve Fond Memories Using This Android App
Modern medicine utilizes cutting-edge technology more than ever, so it would only make sense that the powerful handheld computers we all carry around these days could play a big role in wellness.