Our dogs love the outdoors, but the outdoors don’t love our dogs. A review of previously published studies, released in Pacific Conservation Biology, has found that pet dogs have a number of negative effects on the environment, from their disruption of wildlife to their contribution to the problems of pollution and climate change. “Many owners simply don’t [realize] the environmental damage dogs can cause, from disturbing wildlife to polluting ecosystems,” said Bill Bateman, a review aut ...read more
Sea lions are typically not aggressive toward humans. However, these usually curious and playful marine animals have been making headlines recently for multiple attacks on people off the coast of California. The aggression is linked to a toxic algae bloom impacting nearly 400 miles of the Southern California coast, mostly in L.A. and Santa Barbara Counties. Aggressive and erratic behavior isn’t the only way this toxic bloom can affect these animals, and sea lions aren’t the only infected an ...read more
Experts have added another skillset to at least one group of hunter-gatherers: paddling. Research now shows that some stalwart seafarers stroked their way from mainland Europe to the island of Malta, about 60 miles away, about 8,500 years ago, according to an article in the journal Nature. The finding represents the longest known watery crossing of its time — all the more remarkable because it predates the invention of boats with sails.The researchers hypothesize that the canoeists tapped into ...read more
Beyond the heavy hitters like COVID-19, bird flu, and Ebola, more common viral infections — such as the annual flu — cost the U.S. an estimated $11.2 billion each year in lost productivity alone, leaving a huge burden on our health system and the economy.Another widespread virus that transmits through oral contact is herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1), which infects over two-thirds of the global population and can, in rare cases, lead to encephalitis or infectious blindness.Vaccines remain a cor ...read more
The Earth beneath our feet teems with life invisible to the naked eye, and the discovery of an unfamiliar type of soil-dwelling microbe adds to the complexity of this hidden world. A recent study has dug up evidence of a new phylum of microbes — called CSP1-3 — in a part of Earth referred to as the critical zone. This layer of the planet is where air, water, soil, rocks, and plants interact to create the living skin of Earth. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy o ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine