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Fossil Shows a Sharp-Toothed Mammal That Thrived Among Dinosaurs
Around 145 million years ago, the beach in what is today Dorset, England, was covered in a freshwater lagoon. It was teeming with dinosaurs, pterosaurs, crocodiles and turtles. Making its way among all these beasts was a small puff of fur with excruciatingly sharp teeth. Scientists last month described the prehistoric mammal in The Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association. They named it Novaculadon mirabilis, from novacula, the Latin word for razor.
READ MORE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES
Fossils Preserve Both Skin and Scales From an Ancient Sea Monster
With serpentine necks, flippers and a mouth full of needle-sharp teeth, plesiosaurs have captured imaginations since paleontologists uncovered the first specimen more than two centuries ago. Their skeletal anatomy is well documented, but their external appearance has largely remained a mystery. Now researchers have conducted the first detailed analysis of plesiosaur soft tissue, offering a more complete look at what these real-life sea monsters might have looked like when they lived from 215 million to 66 million years ago.
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Why This Tiny Lizard Dives With a Natural Scuba Tank
Water anoles, semiaquatic lizards that are shorter than a pencil, are highly sought-after snacks among predators in Costa Rican and Panamanian rainforests. Preyed upon by snakes, birds, small mammals and larger lizards, the anoles hide in vegetation along the rocky banks of streams. Faced with danger, a lizard dives into the water and produces a bubble behind its nostrils that allows it to remain submerged for up to 20 minutes, and perhaps much longer.
READ MORE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES
Environmental Health
You're not imagining it. Humidity really has gotten worse in the last 40 years.
The first major heat wave of summer has enveloped much of the midwestern and eastern U.S. in a brutal “dome” of record temperatures and high humidity. The dome phenomenon happens when weather conditions cause high pressure to remain stagnant, trapping bands of heat and humidity within a region for long periods of time.
Experts warn that heat-related illness, including heat exhaustion and heat stroke, pose significant risks over the coming days. It’s no surprise that summer’s high temperatures bring with them oppressively high humidity, but what causes these muggy conditions and why do they make us feel so much hotter?
READ MORE IN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
The U.S. announced an asbestos ban. What took so long?
This week the Environmental Protection Agency announced a ban on the use of chrysotile asbestos, the most common form of asbestos still used in the United States.
Such a ban has been a long time coming, according to experts who contend that there are no safe levels of asbestos, a substance that still kills 40,000 people annually in the U.S. In all, over 50 countries have already banned the mineral, known to cause a laundry list of cancers including mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the membranes that line the lungs and abdomen. It’s also been shown to cause lung, larynx, ovarian, stomach, and colon cancer.
READ MORE IN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
The U.S. plans to limit PFAS in drinking water. What does that really mean?
The Environmental Protection Agency announced on April 10 the first-ever limits on per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as forever chemicals, in drinking water. The agency says that the new rule will protect 100 million Americans from six PFAS known to accumulate in the body and cause a host of health problems—including kidney and testicular cancer as well as pregnancy-induced hypertension, preterm birth, and liver and immune system problems.
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Mental Health
Could a Blood Test One Day Predict Postpartum Depression?
Postpartum depression (PPD) affects 10 to 20 percent of birthing parents globally with debilitating effects, including depression, severe mood swings, withdrawal from family and friends, and an inability to bond with their baby. Although a previous major depression diagnosis is a risk factor, many people with PPD have never had any depression symptoms. But new research could help us better understand who is most likely to experience the condition and potentially predict it so that pregnant people can seek treatment before the onset of symptoms.
READ MORE IN SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN
How to Tactfully Ask Your Child’s Friend’s Parents if They Have Guns at Home
It's a conversation that Marian Betz admits can feel awkward at first. Broaching it might even be viewed as questioning the adequacy of someone else’s parenting. But Betz, the mother of two teenage girls in Denver, Colo., says that because of the ubiquitous nature of firearms in American homes, she regularly asks other parents about securing guns. In fact, she has done so since her kids started having playdates and sleepovers a decade ago.
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How GPS Tracking of Teens 24/7 Impacts Parent-Child Relationships
Megan Rumney, an executive with a financial-services firm in Severna Park, Md., an affluent Baltimore suburb, decided to buy her older son a smartphone. She made the purchase with the understanding that she would use it to track his location and social media use. Rumney was hesitant to do so for the fifth grader but admits she felt a lot of social pressure and eventually gave in. All of her friends were getting their children a smartphone, and Rumney didn’t want her son to feel left out; his friends almost exclusively communicate using their devices. Still, she was concerned about the risks of social media and cyberbullying.
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Long Covid
4 Years In, a Sobering Look at Long COVID Progress
Four years ago in the spring of 2020, physicians and patients coined the term "long COVID" to describe a form of the viral infection from which recovery seemed impossible. (And the old nickname "long-haulers" seems so quaint now.) What started as a pandemic that killed nearly 3 million people globally in 2020 alone would turn into a chronic disease causing a long list of symptoms — from extreme fatigue, to brain fog, tremors, nausea, headaches, rapid heartbeat, and more.
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New Evidence Suggests Long COVID Could Be a Brain Injury
Brain fog is one of the most common, persistent complaints in patients with long COVID. It affects as many as 46% of patients who also deal with other cognitive concerns like memory loss and difficulty concentrating. Now, researchers believe they know why. A new study has found that these symptoms may be the result of a viral-borne brain injury that may cause cognitive and mental health issues that persist for years.
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How to Fix $1.6 Billion Long COVID Program: Experts Weigh In
When the National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched a $1 billion dollar research effort in 2021 focused on long COVID, hopes were high that it would lead to some answers for the mysterious riddle of the complex condition. Now, more than 3 years later and with total funding of about $1.6 billion, critics contend the federal government has little to show for its efforts.
READ MORE IN MEDSCAPE