authors

North America Could Expect Over 1 Million More Opioid Deaths by 2029

by

A new analysis from researchers at Stanford University and the scientific journal, The Lancet, has revealed a large number of Americans and Canadians are still becoming addicted to prescription opioids each year.   Without “urgent interventions“, the members of the Stanford-Lancet Commission estimate this deepening disaster could claim the lives of up to 1.2 million people … Read more

Flowers in The UK Are Blooming a Whole Month Earlier Than They Did in The 1980s

by

For centuries, British flowers have been blooming like clockwork. A few months into spring, sometime around May or June, the nation bursts into color. Since the early 1980s, however, hundreds of plants have grown out of sync with the seasons, which means they’re also unraveling from the complicated tapestry of interactions that keep ecosystems sustainably … Read more

Birds Use Earth’s Magnetic Field For ‘Stop Signs’ When They Migrate

by

Thanks to a combination of sensing the Earth’s magnetic field through vision and an in-built compass that allows them to orient themselves according to magnetic intensity, migratory birds don’t have much trouble finding their way.   Those biological gadgets, known as magnetoreception, allow birds to not only know which direction to head in on their first outbound migration but … Read more

Special Phage Therapy Clears a Patient’s Resistant Infection After 798 Days

by

After 700 days of antibiotic treatment, the infection of a 30-year-old bombing attack victim still raged. Tragically, the patient had suffered life-threatening injuries during the attacks at Brussels airport on 22 March 2016. Over the next three years, she faced numerous medical complications, as her fracture-related wound became infected with pan-drug-resistant bacteria, or what we … Read more

Something in Your Eyes May Reveal if You’re at Risk of Early Death, Study Shows

by

A quick and pain-free scan of the human eyeball could one day help doctors identify ‘fast agers’, who are at greater risk of early mortality. Getting older obviously has an impact on everybody’s body, but just because two people have the same number of years under their belt doesn’t mean they are physically declining at … Read more

A Weird Paper Tests The Limits of Science by Claiming Octopuses Came From Space

by

A summary of decades of research on a rather ‘out-there’ idea involving viruses from space raises questions on just how scientific we can be when it comes to speculating on the history of life on Earth.   It’s easy to throw around words like crackpot, rogue, and maverick in describing the scientific fringe, but then … Read more

We May Be Prescribing Antidepressants Wrong, Claims Concerning New Review

by

Millions of people take antidepressants each day, but a major new review of the data brings up some concerns with how the drugs are currently prescribed.  In fact, when taken over long periods for mild and moderate depression, antidepressants may be doing patients more harm than good, the review explains.   That’s not to say … Read more

Deep Conversations With Strangers Can Have Surprising Results, Study Shows

by

When we want to really connect with others, we usually limit ourselves to family and close friends. Opening up to a stranger would likely seem a daunting prospect to most of us – but it looks like our expectations may not always match reality.   New research suggests that people’s expectations about their interactions with strangers … Read more

Dogs Understand an Average of 89 Unique Words And Phrases, New Research Shows

by

The way dogs have come to understand the nuances of human language is incredibly impressive for an animal that doesn’t speak words itself. Just a fraction of a second after we start saying a word – like ‘walk’ or ‘treat’ – dogs can predict and respond to what we are trying to say. To some … Read more