(Credit: Studiostoks/Shutterstock)
It’s no secret that stress is bad for your health.
Everybody knows that “life stress events” — things like loss of a job, death of a loved one and getting divorced (or married) raise the risk of getting sick.
All sorts of other life events also generate stress, with possible negative health effects ranging from catching a cold to major depression to a fatal heart attack.
Of course, knowing about the link between stress and sickness ju ...read more
An artist’s illustration shows the Epsilon Indi system, with two brown dwarfs at the forefront and a main sequence star off in the distance. (Credit: Roberto Molar Candanosa and Sergio Dieterich, courtesy of the Carnegie Institution for Science)
The universe is filled with billions of massive celestials objects, from stars to planets to comets to asteroids. But what happens when lines start to blur between these classifications, and we just can’t place an object in any major catego ...read more
Irritable bowel Disease is a painful syndrome that affects the intestines. Scientists say they’ve discovered a major driver of the disease. (Credit: RomarioIen/shutterstock)
Researchers have identified a prime culprit behind inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD, an incurable disorder that causes abdominal pain, diarrhea and weight loss from malnutrition. The discovery also reveals a pathway to treatment, scientists report today in the journal Cell Reports.
“We were able to block ...read more
The Kilopower small nuclear reactor could be tested on the moon in the coming years. (Credit: NASA)
The future of space exploration may rest in the hands of a group of Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers. They’ve built the first of a new generation of small nuclear reactors intended to power missions to deep space and even future astronaut bases on the moon and Mars.
Called Kilopower, their project aims to achieve a longstanding dream of the space community: a safe, effective, and ...read more
On Twitter, I was pointed to the strange story of Brain Armor®, a nutritional supplement which is supposed to promote brain health.
While there are many supplements that are sold for the same purpose, Brain Armor has a unique claim to fame: it is the official brain health supplement of Pro Football Legends (PFL), the “commercial marketing arm of the NFL Alumni.”
Brain Armor’s links to the NFL Alumni raised eyebrows on Twitter because the NFL has famously been the target o ...read more
Scientists gave mice brain injuries (this particular mouse was not involved) and then watched how fast they recovered. They found that active mice recovered faster than ones given rest. (Credit: Kirill Kurashov/shutterstock)
Conventional wisdom advocates for rest after suffering an injury. Now researchers have discovered that activity — not rest — helps the brain recover from trauma in mice. The finding suggests that challenging the brain early after damage can speed up healing.
&l ...read more
The Milky Way Galaxy. (Credit: Serge Brunier)
Mapping our galaxy’s formation and evolution would be pretty easy if stars just stayed in their birthplaces, but unfortunately that’s not the case. The Milky Way’s vast pool of stars is constantly expanding outward, getting knocked out of their orbits, and generally evolving alongside our galaxy. Sure, this makes for an exciting stellar journey, but these gradual movements make it difficult to pinpoint a star’s origins ...read more
CBD oil. (Credit: ELRoi/Shutterstock)
One of the most controversial drugs in America can’t even get you high. Derived from marijuana, CBD, or cannabidiol, could help treat a range of medical conditions, early research suggests — but its Schedule I status has made it hard to study, leaving researchers and patients in the dark.
Although it’s usually found as an oil, CBD can be infused into snacks and drinks, or come in transdermal patches, vaporizers, suppositories, and concent ...read more
A dog buried at the site of Pad’ Kalasnikova in Siberia. This dog was buried in a crouched or sitting position. (Credit: Losey RJ, Garvie-Lok S, Leonard JA, Katzenberg MA, Germonpre´ M, et al. (2013) Burying Dogs in Ancient Cis-Baikal, Siberia: Temporal Trends and Relationships with Human Diet and Subsistence Practices. PLoS ONE 8(5): e63740. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0063740)
As a kid, when my pet turtle died we had a funeral — of course — and buried him in the backyard ...read more
