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

If you suffer from chronic sinusitis — a condition that affects more than 10 percent of the U.S. population — a stuffy nose and postnasal drip may be the least of your worries. Research has uncovered a link between chronic sinusitis and cognitive deficits — or, as most people who have this problem call it, “brain fog.”What Is Brain Fog? Brain fog is not a clinical term but a colloquial one, explains Aria Jafari, a surgeon and an assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology� ...read more

Do you actually know which ingredients are in dietary supplements? Studies show that everything from bacteria and drugs, both prescription and unapproved, to heavy metals like lead can be found in supplements. Some products, like CBD, suffer from “underdosing,” in which the active ingredient measured in the supplement is less than what the label claims.Makers of supplements do not have to submit their product for approval or for quality control, and regulators that hamstring the Federal Drug ...read more

A group of little-studied deep-sea-dwelling orcas sometimes rams prey and catapults sea lions, according to a report in PLOS ONE.Those observations by scientists from the University of British Columbia Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries (IOF) are notable because deep-water-grazing orcas may represent a new subcategory of killer whales, according to another study in Aquatic Mammals. Orca categories — called ecotypes — include residents, transients, and offshores. The “deep-water-transie ...read more