A feral kitten in Omaha, Nebraska, tested positive for rabies in November 2023. It died of the raccoon variant of the virus, which is typically found only in the Appalachian Mountains. Detecting this variant hundreds of miles away in the Midwest raised concerns about a potential outbreak and launched a public health task force to vaccinate all raccoons in the area.While the case was likely contained, a better understanding of how rabies is transmitted can help prevent future outbreaks. Researc ...read more
Jet black, hair-like feathers. Vivid blue heads adorned with a spongy crest. Most strikingly, a pair of leathery looking feet, armed with a 12 centimeter talon.This is the cassowary, one of the largest and also most dangerous birds in the world. Though it looks like it walked right out of prehistory, it roams the land Down Under. It’s got a killer reputation – quite literally, as cassowaries are among the few bird species that boasts human fatalities on their rosters.But how dangerous is the ...read more
Schizophrenia can produce persistent delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized thinking. The precise cause is unknown but seems to involve a combination of genetics and environmental risk factors. One environmental factor may be an infectious agent, such as the common parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which causes toxoplasmosis. Since cats can transmit Toxoplasma to humans, scientists have been investigating whether there is a link between cat ownership and schizophrenia. Many studies have tried to ...read more
About 225 million years ago, at the very dawn of mammalian existence, the creatures that humans and all other extant mammals would descend from were diminutive creatures about the size of a shrew.This handicap on size placed them squarely on the dinner plate of dinosaurs, and many other larger creatures that lived on our planet at the time. It may also be the reason that their ancestors, including humans, don’t live longer than we do.“The hypothesis is that mammals spent 100 million years du ...read more
At one time, traveling to space seemed impossible. But now, hundreds of people have left Earth’s atmosphere and drifted in outer space. While there is still much to explore, thanks to researchers and astronauts, some cosmic mysteries have been uncovered. For example, we know that one of the many differences between Earth and outer space is the amount of gravity. According to NASA, there is only a small amount of gravity in space, unlike Earth, where the force consistently pulls us downward an ...read more