Cranberries are a staple in U.S. households at Thanksgiving – but how did this bog dweller end up on holiday tables?Compared to many valuable plant species that were domesticated over thousands of years, cultivated cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) is a young agricultural crop, just as the U.S. is a young country and Thanksgiving is a relatively new holiday. But as a plant scientist, I’ve learned much about cranberries’ ancestry from their botany and genomics.New on the plant breeding sc ...read more

For years, Melanie Musson’s friends have marveled at her superpower: staying healthy no matter what germs are making the rounds. Colds and flu felled plenty of Musson’s dormmates in college, but the viruses always seemed to pass her by. “I never got sick once,” she says. “I got about five hours of sleep a night, I finished school in three years, and I worked 30 hours a week throughout. My best friends labeled me ‘the machine.’ ”Musson’s ironclad immune system also set her apa ...read more

Have you ever dreamed of traveling through time, like characters do in science fiction movies? For centuries, the concept of time travel has captivated people’s imaginations. Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time, just like you move between different places. In movies, you might have seen characters using special machines, magical devices or even hopping into a futuristic car to travel backward or forward in time.But is this just a fun idea for movies, or could ...read more

Man has been domesticating animals for more than 15,000 years. Dogs are likely the first, followed by sheep, pigs, goats, and horses. The widely accepted criteria of “domesticated” include genetic differences from their ancestors, dependence on humans for food, and being unlikely or unable to breed with their wild counterparts. Although some people keep wild and exotic animals as pets, it’s not recommended. Here are six animals that people shouldn’t domesticate.1. Can Raccoons Be Domest ...read more

When the satellite communications failed on NASA’s Super Pressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope, SuperBIT, the team knew they were in danger of losing their astronomical imaging data, which the telescope had painstakingly gathered from above 99.5 per cent of the atmosphere. But the mission planners had a backup plan. Their idea was to drop the entire telescope, with all its data, to the ground by parachute so it could be used again. Having circumnavigated the southern hemisphere five times, ...read more

Animals and humans have coexisted since our early ancestors first emerged nearly 2 million years ago. Researchers have found artifacts from this time period, such as stone tools in the archaeological site Kanjera South in Kenya, showing the first tangible proof of ancient humans interacting with and hunting animals.This symbiotic relationship between humans and animals hardly comes as a surprise when domesticated pets like dogs and cats are commonplace in the modern world. However, the animals ...read more

For some seniors, enjoying good health during their golden years could be as simple as staying hydrated. In a January 2023 article in The Lancet, researchers followed more than 11,000 participants for 25 years and found the most hydrated were less at risk for chronic diseases and premature death.People become less hydrated as they age, and the authors concluded that having a hydration routine could help a person slow the aging process.Dementia patients, however, aren’t always able to commu ...read more

The discovery of a new dinosaur found within 10 feet of its fossilized eggs is shedding light on how early reptiles reproduced and the evolution of the egg.Qianlong shouhu, which means “Guizhou dragon guarding,” lived during the early Jurassic Period some 190 million years ago, when it was an early precursor to immense sauropod dinosaurs such as the brontosaurus. Q. shouhu, however, was not so large and weighed a mere ton and measured about 20 feet long. Also unlike brontosaurus, it walked o ...read more

The spinal cord is like a superhighway for the body’s nervous system. Partial injuries, like lane closures, let fewer brain signals through, but complete spinal cord injuries are akin to highway closures. No signals cross the injury site to the other side, paralyzing the body below the site of the injury.Today, there’s no way to restore motor function – such as the ability to walk – below the injury site. A recent study published in Science, however, shows that walking can be restored ev ...read more

You wake up one day, and your nose feels a little stuffy. You find yourself reaching for that box of Kleenex more and more, and to your dismay, the crumpled tissues are starting to pile up. Maybe there’s an ominous tickle in your throat that just won’t go away, no matter how much water you chug.It’s upsetting but not surprising: ‘Tis the season of respiratory viruses. As we anticipate the yearly uptick of flu and common cold cases, how can we distinguish those sicknesses from the still-p ...read more