If you don’t live in Australia, you may never have seen a numbat — even if you do, you may still have never seen one. The numbat is small, well-camouflaged, and … there aren’t many to see. That’s because they’re endangered. Though its territory once covered most of the bottom half of Australia, from the west of New South Wales to Western Australia, the numbat is now limited to two indigenous populations in southwest Western Australia (Dryandra National Park and the Upper Warren regi ...read more
If you don’t live in Australia, you may never have seen a numbat — even if you do, you may still have never seen one. The numbat is small, well-camouflaged, and … there aren’t many to see. That’s because they’re endangered. Though its territory once covered most of the bottom half of Australia, from the west of New South Wales to Western Australia, the numbat is now limited to two indigenous populations in southwest Western Australia (Dryandra National Park and the Upper Warren regi ...read more
By harnessing light, my colleagues and I designed a wireless, ultrathin pacemaker that operates like a solar panel. This design not only eliminates the need for batteries but also minimizes disruptions to the heart’s natural function by molding to its contours. Our research, recently published in the journal Nature, offers a new approach to treatments that require electrical stimulation, such as heart pacing.Pacemakers are medical devices implanted in the body to regulate heart rhythms. They ...read more
The largest river dolphin fossil has been found — thousands of miles from its nearest living relative, reports an international group of paleontologists in Science Advances.The team, led by University of Zurich (UZH) paleontologists, located the fossil in the Peruvian Amazon. It measures nearly 12 feet long and dates back about 16 million years. The new freshwater species, named Pebanista yacuruna, is linked to the rare contemporary South Asian river dolphin Platanista and the saltwater relati ...read more
For most animals, sex is an egg-meets-sperm affair that requires both a male and a female. Aptly, this is called sexual reproduction. However, some species have the remarkable ability to reproduce asexually without male fertilization.Swiss naturalist Charles Bonnet discovered this process, known as parthenogenesis (a Greek term that translates to “virgin origin”), was discovered by the Swiss naturalist Charles Bonnet in the mid 1700s. It was long considered peculiar to plants, insects, and o ...read more
Doctors may someday be able to use bodily fluids to noninvasively detect breast cancer in patients earlier than is possible now.Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women in the U.S. and is currently one of the leading causes of cancer deaths. Earlier diagnosis and treatment lead to better prognoses for breast cancer patients. But mammograms have proved to be less effective for those under age 40, as their breast tissue is denser and screening and biopsies can be unpleasant ...read more
COVID-19 taught most people that the line between tolerable and toxic stress – defined as persistent demands that lead to disease – varies widely. But some people will age faster and die younger from toxic stressors than others.So how much stress is too much, and what can you do about it?I’m a psychiatrist specializing in psychosomatic medicine, which is the study and treatment of people who have physical and mental illnesses. My research is focused on people who have psychological conditi ...read more
It's hard to keep up with the latest fads and wellness crazes. But a new online trend —mewing — is sweeping social media and attracting a lot of attention. More than just a new slang term, "mewing" describes a quick-fix method for facial reconstruction, meant to make an individual's jawline look tighter and more sculpted, among other benefits. The phenomenon has surged on social media platforms like TikTok, where influencers post how-to videos that attract hundreds of millions of views. Yet ...read more
Light sensitive pixels and the cameras they make possible have transformed modern life. Cameras are pervasive. Smartphones often have several, streets, shops and businesses — even our homes--bristle with them. Humans have become used to the idea that they are constantly recorded by these devices every time they leave their house and often while they are within it. But the ubiquity of cameras has limits and one of them is eye tracking. The ability to track the position and angle of the eyeball ...read more
On March 10, Godzilla Minus One won an Oscar for visual effects. The titan reptile has demolished Tokyo and other major cities worldwide several times in movies and has inspired generations of filmmakers and paleontologists—so much so that there are fossils named in homage to Godzilla. The fictional radioactive reptile is also the subject of fun discussion among paleontologists on what type of dinosaur it would fall under.Although Godzilla is a product and a metaphor for the atomic bombings of ...read more
