Sunspots 409

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Health: An article on healthy snacking, and which says that snacking helps you lose weight, in AZSCentral.

Science: Fire ants can sting. I knew that, from experience. But NPR reports that there are people who are allergic to the bites, which can be life-threatening. There's also a link to a news report that a South Carolina high school football game was postponed because there were too many fire ant nests on the field. (See here for my own photo of a fire ant nest.)

NPR also reports on a very scary "superbug," a bacterial type that is resistant to almost everything, and can pass that resistance on to other types of bacteria.

Scientists have been able to get human glial cells (see Wikipedia article on those) to grow in mouse brains, according to a report by NPR. These mice acted normally, as far as could be determined, but were able to learn much more quickly.

NPR also reports that bees like caffeine, and that it helps their memory.

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 350

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Science: Perhaps more than you want to know about dodder, a parasitic plant that wraps (usually yellow) stems around other plants, from the Botany Photo of the Day. 

Wired reports on tuberculosis germs that are resistant to all antibiotics currently in use.

Politics: (Sort of) National Public Radio discusses the health benefits of adding a 1 cent tax to soft drinks/sodas/pop/whatever you call them sale prices. There are some such benefits.

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 305

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Science: There have been claims that a petroglyph (prehistoric painting) is of a dinosaur, thus indicating that dinosaurs and humans lived on earth at the same time. A scientific analysis shows that the petroglyph is not a picture of a dinosaur.

Wired reports that someone has made a study of why our fingers wrinkle when immersed in water for a long time.

Another report from Wired is on evidence that using antibiotics on domestic animals selects for antibiotic-resistant microorganisms, and that these resistant bacteria then turn up in humans. 

Computing: Windows Secrets has published an article on Windows 7's libraries, which make it possible to control, from one place, files from more than one folder, or drive, or even more than one computer.

 

Image source (public domain)