Scientists provide more than 50K camera trap images for massive study on Amazon wildlife
WCS scientists working in the vast Amazon Basin have contributed more than 57,000 camera trap images for a new study published in the journal Ecology by an international team of 120 research institutions. The study consists of 120,000-plus images taken in eight countries, representing the largest photo database to date of the Amazon’s staggering array […]
Experts Predict If And When COVID Will Become A Seasonal Illness
The vast majority of respiratory viruses that spread within our population ebb and flow with the seasons. Influenza spikes in the winter months, as do infections caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), adenoviruses and other coronaviruses. Earlier this year, Rochelle Walensky, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, said she expects COVID to also […]
Nearly All Transgender Kids Stick With New Identity 5 Years Later
In the years following their social transition, the vast majority of young transgender children continued to identify as such, a longitudinal study found. Among 317 transgender children, only 7.3% altered their gender identification — or retransitioned — during a 5-year period, according to researchers led by Kristina Olson, PhD, of Princeton University in New Jersey. […]
Gut microbiome may alter response to cancer therapy
Since ancient times, our gut microbiome, home to a vast number of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microorganisms, has been thought to influence many aspects of human health. Most recently, sequencing technology has shown that it may also play a role in the treatment of cancer. A review paper published in JAMA Oncology by investigators […]
Most older adults want to ‘age in place’ but many haven’t taken steps to help them do so: From home safety and accessibility, to social support, community services and paid in-home help, National Poll on Healthy Aging shows varied preparation
The vast majority of people over 50 say it’s important that they keep living in their current homes for as long as possible. But a new poll shows many of them haven’t planned or prepared for “aging in place,” and a sizable percentage might have a hard time paying for in-home help. The pandemic’s toll […]
New method for probing the bewildering diversity of the microbiome
In recent years, researchers have begun to explore the vast assemblage of microbes on and within the human body. These include protists, archaea, fungi, viruses and vast numbers of bacteria living in symbiotic ecosystems. Known collectively as the human microbiome, these tiny entities influence an astonishing range of activities, from metabolism to behavior and play […]
Why are people with allergic asthma less susceptible to severe COVID?
The vast majority of people infected with the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 experience mild cold-like symptoms, moderate flu-like symptoms, or no symptoms at all, but the virus is so transmissible that it still spread deep into lung tissue to cause severe disease and death in thousands of people in the United States in 2022 alone. […]
Vast patches of glassy rock in Chilean desert likely created by ancient exploding comet
Around 12,000 years ago, something scorched a vast swath of the Atacama Desert in Chile with heat so intense that it turned the sandy soil into widespread slabs of silicate glass. Now, a research team studying the distribution and composition of those glasses has come to a conclusion about what caused the inferno. In a […]
Urine Tests Before Surgery Blasted as Mostly Unnecessary
“The vast majority” of urine tests conducted prior to scheduled surgeries to check for infections “were not plausibly indicated,” said researchers who examined claims data from private insurers and Medicare. And while the individual tests didn’t cost much — about $17 — they added up to almost $50 million over the study’s 11-year duration, plus […]