Search the term “preventing dementia” online, and a list of possible precautions pop up. One story describes a new study that finds older Americans who used the Internet — but not too much — have a lower risk of dementia. Other stories suggest that taking vitamin D, getting a good night’s sleep or learning a second language are key to combating dementia.Scientists don’t fully understand what causes dementia, a degenerative neurological condition that impacts memory, speech and basi ...read more
A new breakthrough in egg cell creation has enabled a female mouse to give birth to babies carrying only the genes of two fathers.Scientists genetically engineered this by turning male XY chromosomes into female XX chromosomes and creating eggs from strictly male skin cells.“The mice look fine — they grew up to be adults, and the adult mice are also fertile,” says Katsuhiko Hayashi, a genome biologist at Osaka University in Japan.The achievement has huge implications for same-sex parenting ...read more
According to the United States Parachuting Association (USPA), around half a million people jump from airplanes for the first time each year. The average skydiver jumps from 13,000 feet, free falling for around a minute at 110 mph. Once the parachute opens, there’s typically around five minutes to take in the views as you descend towards Earth.It’s a wild ride — one of the biggest adrenaline rushes that you can legally find. But your body wasn’t designed to barrel out of airplanes; so it ...read more
If you’ve ever woken up the day after having had too much to drink, you may be familiar with the feeling. And no, we don’t mean a hangover; we mean a hangover laced with anxiety. One that causes you to ruminate over everything you said and did the night before. You relive conversations and chew the cud of every interaction that might have gone south. HangxietyYou might get anxious or feel guilty about other things, like the fact that you drank too much and the next day feels wasted. It’s ...read more
Would you like to live a very long life? Probably only if you can stay mentally sharp the whole way. And that might be possible. Scientists are studying people known as super agers to try to unlock the secrets to a younger brain.Super AgersThough the term ‘super agers’ sounds like a marketing gimmick (sometimes it’s even styled as SuperAgers), it’s simply how researchers refer to people in their 80s or older who have cognitive health similar to that of people 20 to 30 years younger. The ...read more