As amphibians, toads prefer a wet environment. Those that live in arid regions hide during dry spells underground, where the soil is moist, and they emerge from their shelter when the rain returns. But given that the subterranean soil they inhabit is already damp, how do the toads know when it's raining?
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On the 12th Day of Christmas ACSH gave to me 12 swimmers cupping....
If you have high cholesterol, you may be taking some medications called statins, which are the most effective medicines for lowering "bad" cholesterol. But some people are turning to over-the-counter alternatives like red yeast rice, a nutritional supplement with cholesterol-lowering action. However, they come with safety concerns.
Scientific research is not cheap. But what is the process that academic scientists go through in order to receive funding for their work? This article – the first of a two-part series – describes this stressful and highly competitive procedure.
There are many good reasons to avoid illegal drugs, like addiction and overdosing. The next best is that local street chemists aren't terribly trustworthy. It's common for drugs to be mixed with other chemicals, some of which are far more dangerous than the drug itself. Case in point: Fentanyl, which is often mixed into heroin.
Ask yourself this: How often do you think about your ability to hear? Or this: How much would you, or your loved ones, be affected if your hearing was diminished, or lost completely? Not a pretty picture, so learn here how to best protect this incredible gift.
Three separate bills have been introduced in the U.S. Congress that are designed to drive a stake into the vampire-like Independent Payment Advisory Board. It has no members, little funding and bipartisan support for its demise.
Even birds know when they're paired up with a mate that's "out of their league." New research from the journal Biology Letters demonstrates that unattractive, male, red-backed fairy-wrens spend more time guarding their female mates – while their sexy competitors spend more time seeking "extramarital" affairs.
Guys, you know the rules: Always pick the urinal the furthest from the other guy. Little did we know that this issue was of such import, that a couple of lunatics with expertise in math and computer science would quantify urinal selection behavior. Sorry, you'll have to read it. It's not live streaming.
Food Safety News has reported that Whole Foods has shut down all three of its regional kitchens because the FDA "discovered a long list of 'serious violations,'" some of which resulted in surfaces being contaminated with Listeria.
Of the many lies spread about Monsanto, perhaps none is so malevolent as the claim that the seed giant is to blame for farmer suicides in India. This falsehood, spread by anti-biotechnology activists like Vandana Shiva but debunked years ago, is still parroted by credulous left-wing outlets.
Rational Vaccines claims the next set of clinical trials for its Theravax vaccine candidate might be held in Mexico.
The Pew Research Center asked scientists and non-scientists their opinions on various scientific topics: GMOs, global warming, pesticide usage, etc. The results are not surprising - there is a big gap between what those two groups think. The question is - why and what can be done to shrink the gap?
Anyone who searches long enough can find that pretty much everything has been linked to cancer. Bacon. Cell phones. Wi-Fi. Even looking at our video correspondent, Ana Dolaskie. At some point the insanity has to stop. Unfortunately, we have yet to reach that point.
Ellie is the "first ever digital UV sterilizing pod." Do you still need to wash and sterilize baby bottles? Yes, of course – drinking milk from unwashed containers would make anyone sick. But does everything that newborns place in their mouths need to undergo UV irradiation? Absolutely not.
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton collapsed Monday night in front of legislators while giving the State of the State address. Though he rebounded well, he just disclosed a recent prostate cancer diagnosis. Learn about the proper medical care that's needed when someone faints, and why it happens in the first place.
Tattoo artists must lean over their customers and maintain steady positions, sometimes for hours at a time – and the physical strains they endure can be significant. That's the key finding of the first-ever study of its kind, researchers say, measuring neck- and back-muscle stress at work.
Besides deceiving readers about science policy, there are plenty of other reasons to avoid Slate. Perhaps best is that the online site loves posting contrarian articles using a time-tested formula to attract readers: Take an obviously-stupid statement and add a headline vigorously defending it. Whether the article is accurate, compelling or well-conceived is an afterthought.
The World Health Organization released its first-ever report on the antibiotic resistant bacteria that are of the greatest concern: the global priority pathogens. With roughly two million cases of antibiotic resistant infections each year in the United States – and 23,000 deaths – we need to pay attention to this.
Are bees facing extinction as many environmental advocacy groups and some scientists claim. And are neonicotinoid pesticides the key reason behind their health problems, as many activists, and some news reports suggest?
The former administration's policies sent smoking cessation back to the 1990s, telling smokers to quit or die. We can do a whole lot better than that. Let's start by having the new administration wipe out a lot of suspect decisions made by the last one.
Researchers at the University of Toronto published a ranking of businesses they believe could move the needle to reduce deaths from sudden cardiac arrest.
This egg update isn't about the usual "there's too much cholesterol" or "only eat the white parts" topics (neither of which have any basis in science, by the way). It's about a terrifically lame website lacking factual fitness that ranks ways to prepare an egg from most healthy to most dangerous. Not only is this silly – it's dead wrong.
Dr. Norm Borlaug, a member of our Founder's Circle, was a big believer in advancing an evidence-based, pro-science approach to food production. The Nobel Laureate also saw the need for debunking the fear-inducing myths that a generation of environmental groups began creating in the 1960s.
The key to preventing Alzheimer's Disease may lie in the North Atlantic island of Iceland. Its relatively homogeneous population has been a treasure trove for genetic researchers looking for mutated genes that either increase or decrease the disease's risk.
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