Worms wriggling around in your brain — it’s a particularly gruesome image that sounds like it came straight from a B horror movie. But several parasites can and do infect the central nervous system. The most common of these is Taenia solium, aka the pork tapeworm. Gross as it sounds, infection with a pork tapeworm usually doesn’t cause much harm. Tapeworms get into the intestines when people eat undercooked pork that is contaminated with the larvae of the tapeworm. While in the intestinal ...read more
Magnesium is an important element for the body’s basic functioning. Its effects are broad and numerous, including helping with blood pressure control, bone growth, and heart rhythm regulation. The element is also key to blood sugar control and to the production of DNA and protein. It’s particularly important for those who struggle with poor sleep and mental health disorders like anxiety and depression because magnesium plays an important role in brain health. Here’s a closer look at why m ...read more
An ancient Peruvian temple discovered under a sand dune is rewriting what we know about civilizations that lived up to 3,500 years before the Inca.The temple reveals the early emergence of institutional religion — and possibly human sacrifice — in the Initial Period of Andean Civilization. This period goes from roughly 2000 B.C. to the rise of ChavÃn de Huántar and the Early Horizon period in roughly 900 B.C. Ceramic pottery and the spread of a number of temples characterized this period.â ...read more
There are more than 500 species of sharks in the world’s oceans, from the 7-inch dwarf lantern shark to whale sharks that can grow to over 35 feet long. They’re found from polar waters to the equator, at the water’s surface and miles deep, in the open ocean, along coasts, and even in some coastal rivers.With such diversity, it’s no surprise that sharks serve many ecological functions. For example, the largest individuals of some big predatory species, such as tiger and white sharks, can ...read more
In recent years, younger people have shared photos online of their older relatives from back in the day and questioned, did past generations age faster?Why did 19-year-olds at Woodstock in 1969, for example, look a decade older than most 19-year-olds today? Or why did couples heading to their senior prom in 1988 look old enough for their 10-year reunion?Plenty of answers have surfaced — people smoked more in the past, didn’t use sunblock, and sometimes chose hairstyles or clothing that seeme ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine