Health, features and articles | Educational Science

Apr 30, 2019

Mongolian Couple Died of Plague After Eating Raw Marmot

A couple in Mongolia who consumed raw marmot meat as a folk remedy ended up contracting the plague, according to news reports. The husband and wife ate raw marmot meat and organs, which they believed to be good for health, according to The Washington Post. But they soon developed serious...

Apr 30, 2019

How Much Do Babies’ Skulls Get Squished During Birth? A Whole Lot, 3D Images Reveal

When babies pass through the mother's birth canal, the tight fit temporarily squashes their wee heads, elongating their flexible skulls and changing the shape of their brains. Now, scientists have created 3D images that demonstrate the extent of that amazing conehead-like distortion. Babies' heads can change shape under pressure because...

Apr 30, 2019

Can Touching Fentanyl Really Kill You?

In April, the TV news program 60 Minutes aired a report about fentanyl, a synthetic opioid much more potent than heroin that's been implicated in thousands of overdose deaths in the United States. During one segment, Justin Herdman, a U.S. Attorney in Cleveland, wore gloves as he showed journalist Scott...

Apr 30, 2019

Here's How Many US Cancer Cases Are Tied to Unhealthy Diets

More than 80,000 cancer cases diagnosed each year in the U.S. may be tied to an unhealthy diet, according to a new study. The study researchers used a mathematical model to estimate the number of U.S. cancer cases tied to suboptimal intake of seven dietary components known to be related...

Apr 30, 2019

Three Cases of Brain-Infecting Parasite Recently Confirmed in Hawaii

Last December, a tourist in Hawaii ate a slug on a dare — not realizing, of course, a wiggly brain-loving parasite was along for the ride. After accidentally ingesting the larvae of the parasitic rat lungworm (Angiostrongylus cantonensis) that was hiding inside the slug, the person contracted angiostrongyliasis, or rat...

Mar 31, 2019

How an Injection of Tiny Beads into Stomach Arteries Might Help with Weight Loss

An experimental obesity treatment that involves injecting tiny beads into the arteries of the stomach may help some people lose weight and keep it off for at least a year, according to a new study. In the study, people who received the treatment, called bariatric embolization, lost about 11 percent...

Mar 31, 2019

How Doctors Treated the Thai Boys in the Harrowing Minutes After They Were Freed from Cave

The harrowing rescue of 12 boys and their coach from a cave in Thailand captured the world's attention last summer. But after the extraordinary feat to get them out of the cave, the work was far from over: The boys and their coach needed urgent medical care to prevent the...

Mar 31, 2019

Here's Why This Man Had a Giant White Mass on His Eyeball

It looks like a Hollywood special effect: An eye with a bulging white mass where the pupil and iris should be. But this odd eye problem is the result of a rare lesion on a man's eyeball, according to a new report of the case. The 74-year-old man arrived at...

Mar 31, 2019

Deadly Fungal 'Superbug' Spreads Worldwide, Alarming Scientists

A deadly fungal infection that is resistant to major antimicrobial medications is spreading globally, and scientists aren't sure where it came from. The fungus, called Candida auris, is a yeast that normally lives harmlessly on the skin and mucous membranes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)....

Mar 31, 2019

An Odd Eye Injury Caused a Man's Iris to 'Collapse'

The man's eye looks like a cloudy fishbowl, or perhaps a terrarium: A dark orb with a layer of a brown, sandy-looking substance at the bottom. But this isn't some kind of special contact lens. It's the result of a painful eye injury that caused the man's iris to tear...

Mar 31, 2019

The Source of That Mysterious E. Coli Outbreak Has Likely Been Found

The mystery behind what's causing the Escherichia coli outbreak that's sickened more than 100 Americans in the past month may finally be solved: Officials have linked the outbreak to ground beef. In a statement released today (April 12), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that, based on...

Mar 31, 2019

How Did Nearsighted People Manage Before Glasses Were Invented?

In 2017, the super-rich shared with The New Yorker their secrets for doomsday prep. Some were building luxury bunkers and stockpiling weapons. Others were buying property in New Zealand. Still others revealed that, in thinking about the possibility of civilization's collapse, they had been especially concerned with a problem right...

Mar 31, 2019

What Are Stem Cells?

The term stem cells has become part of the mainstream lexicon, likely to be overheard in conversations anywhere from a baseball game to cocktail get-togethers. But what exactly are these cells? Along with phrases such as that's just immoral or stem cells could be the end-all cure, one could easily...

Mar 31, 2019

Why Do Our Fingernails Keep Growing Until the Day We Die?

At 20 weeks in the womb, humans suddenly sprout tough little casings from the tips of our tiny digits. By the time we're born, our fingers and toes are crowned by fully-formed nails that will be with us for the rest of our lives. Over the ensuing decades, the average...

Mar 31, 2019

Smallpox: The World's First Eradicated Disease

Smallpox is a debilitating and occasionally fatal disease that's highly contagious. Prior to 1980, the disease killed 3 out of every 10 people who became infected, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Overall, smallpox caused the deaths of hundreds of millions of people before it was...