How To Not Get A Horrible Brain Parasite On Your Trip To Hawaii

You may have read a thing or two lately about the oh-so-grossly-named rat lungworm. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently confirmed three new cases in Hawaii since December 2018. The brain parasite isn’t new, but only became routine in the United States in recent years. Angiostrongylus cantonensis favors tropical climes, and used to crop up only in Asia and some parts of the Caribbean. But after seeing just a pair of cases in the preceding decade, Hawaii reported nine cases in just three months back in spring of 2017—six on Maui and three on the Big Island....

January 12, 2023 · 5 min · 1051 words · Lois Brown

How To Prevent Eye Strain When You Stare At Screens All Day

This may sound like an exaggeration, but you probably spend more time on your computer or phone than you think: Two 2016 surveys found that adults look at screens for around nine hours per day. That’s at least half of your waking hours. All that staring can really give your eyes a workout—and as a result, you might experience headaches, dry eyes, or blurred vision. So how can you prevent that when more and more of your work and personal life is happening on screens?...

January 12, 2023 · 4 min · 689 words · Steve Ramirez

How To Repair Window Screens

Repairing a screen is one of the simpler DIY home repair projects and usually takes less than 10 minutes, even if you don’t know a spline roller from a screwdriver. Most screens use fiberglass or aluminum screening held in place by something called spline: a rubber cord or piece of metal. When you attempt the fix, I recommend purchasing fiberglass screening because it’s easier to work with, but this guide will cover it all....

January 12, 2023 · 8 min · 1592 words · Margaret Dominguez

How To Sell Your Unwanted Gadgets For Cash

Whatever the reason, you can turn your unwanted tech into cold, hard cash (or electronic transfers) in several ways. You’ll get some extra money, and buyers will get themselves gadgets at less-than-retail price. If you don’t want anything in return for your old or unwanted gadgets, don’t just throw them away—pass them on to a friend or relative, or recycle them. You might also be able to get money off a new toy via a trade-in....

January 12, 2023 · 6 min · 1225 words · Kathleen Smith

How To Stream Your Video Collection To Any Device

In proper technical parlance, you’re actually turning your computer into a server, something that “serves up” content for other devices, or “clients.” A client might be anything from your phone to the PlayStation 4 connected to your living room TV. For a more reliable option, you could buy your favorite digital content from portals like Apple TV and Google Play. But there is another solution: Set up your own streaming service....

January 12, 2023 · 6 min · 1268 words · Charles Marsh

How Will Nasa Keep Up With Space Tourism

Notably, the agency could require a former NASA astronaut to act as mission commander for private spaceflights, a move that would essentially make the agency a permanent liaison between public and US-based private space commerce. (The Axiom flight did already have a former NASA astronaut on board, Michael Lopez-Alegría, along with three first-time passengers—a businessman, an investor, and a real-estate magnate). “We got up there and, boy, we were overwhelmed,” López-Alegría said during a post-mission press conference....

January 12, 2023 · 4 min · 852 words · Shawn Johnson

How Your Tongue Tells Your Brain What You Re Tasting

The tongue, which anchors the body’s system of taste, is a piece of muscular flesh covered in a mucous membrane. To the human eye, our tongues appear dotted with tiny bumps called papillae. Often mistaken for taste buds themselves, these bulb-like dots actually contain groups of taste buds. Three types of taste-sensing papillae dot the tongue. Fungiform papillae, concentrated mostly at the tip and sides of the muscle, usually contain one taste bud on their mushroom-shaped tips....

January 12, 2023 · 2 min · 345 words · Heather Figueroa

Human Eggs Use A Standby Battery To Last Decades

A study published on July 20 in the journal Nature reveals that the mitochondria in oocytes tap into a different energy pathway that sidesteps the production of free radicals—chemical molecules that can wreak havoc on DNA, proteins, and cell walls. The findings bring new light to the longevity of these cells and could potentially help advance fertility strategies. “Female fertility decreases by age, and if you look at demographic studies, more and more women choose to give birth in their mid-30s,” says Elvan Böke, senior author of the study and group leader in the Cell and Developmental Biology Program at the Center for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona....

January 12, 2023 · 5 min · 895 words · Jean Mohler

Is Climate Change Self Correcting Australia S Heatwave Stops Gasoline Sales

On Monday, temperatures in the town reached 48.2 degrees Celsius (118.76 degrees Fahrenheit), and drivers who stopped for gas were stymied when unleaded fuel became unavailable because it was vaporizing in the heat. Oodnadatta already has a claim on hot weather in Australia. It holds the country’s all-time heat record from from January 1960, of 50.7 degrees Celsius. This week broke Oodnadatta’s record for most consecutive days with temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius, with seven days of intense heat, and today temperatures are set to climb to 47 degrees Celsius....

January 12, 2023 · 1 min · 178 words · Derek Gessel

Is Organic Food Bad For The Environment

When it comes to environmental costs, comparing organic and conventional is complicated. Studies have found mixed results, depending on the variables they include and what they consider an impact (kilograms of carbon dioxide? Nutrient runoff?). While organic crops tend to emit fewer pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions, that’s sometimes offset by lower yields. Location matters as well. All in all, it’s a complex task to assess exactly how much pollution you can trace to a particular type of crop....

January 12, 2023 · 6 min · 1159 words · Betty Wolfe

Is The Polio Vaccine Safe Who Needs A Polio Booster

The past few years have been nothing short of public health emergencies, but given the new threat of a virus thought to be under control, you might be asking: Will the US see a new polio outbreak? According to medical experts, people should be vigilant enough to follow the news, but not concerned enough about it becoming another pandemic. “It’s a disease that’s been considered eradicated for the most part,” says Zachary Hoy, a doctor at Pediatrix Nashville Pediatric Infectious Disease....

January 12, 2023 · 6 min · 1173 words · Claire Perez

Iss Reports New Cracks As It Closes In On Retirement

Vladimir Solovyov, chief engineer of rocket and space corporation Energia, told RIA news agency that the “superficial fissures” were spotted on the Zarya module, but did not elaborate on whether the cracks could lead to any air leaks. This incident is only the latest minor mishap to befall the ISS. In March, Space.com reported that Russian cosmonauts had sealed cracks in the Zveda module that had caused tiny air leaks, following an investigation by Russian space agency Roscosmos and NASA....

January 12, 2023 · 3 min · 473 words · Nathan Rushing

Junk Food Ads Disproportionally Target Black And Hispanic Kids Over White Kids

However, these food giants haven’t changed their advertising practices to match with those causes, according to a new report from the University of Connecticut Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity. In addition, their product promotion continues to disproportionately affect black and Hispanic children and teenagers, whom the companies target specifically with junk food ads. These groups are more likely to see more of these ads than their white counterparts....

January 12, 2023 · 4 min · 817 words · Milford James

Just Relax For A Minute And Watch This Incredible Moonrise Video

Moonrises happen about every 25 hours–the moon’s orbit around the Earth delays its rise by about 50 minutes each day–which means that it comes up after sunset about half the time. All you need is a horizon to watch it on. [via APOD]

January 12, 2023 · 1 min · 43 words · Samuel Lewis

Last Week In Tech New Apple Services A Super Strong Robotic Ostrich And More

Apple wants your subscription money Tim Cook and company recently announced some new hardware without much fanfare, but the company threw a big party this week to announce its new service offerings it hopes you’ll pay for until you slide comfortably into your grave. The new offerings include Apple News+, Apple Arcade, Apple TV+, and a credit card called the Apple Card. You can get a full-rundown of the announcements here....

January 12, 2023 · 3 min · 482 words · Nathaniel Ruocco

Laugh Tracks Trick Our Brains Into Thinking Dad Jokes Are Funny

“It’s like a hall of mirrors, how people use laughter,” says Sophie Scott, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University College London. “We think laughs are about jokes and comedy, but most of your laughter is being used in a complex, nuanced way.” As quintessential as laughter is to human interaction, we don’t all react to those nuances in the same way. A 2002 study based on parental reports found that among participants, children with autism rarely responded to others’ laughter with their own smiling, giggling, or clowning around....

January 12, 2023 · 3 min · 612 words · Dorothy Hyatt

Learn How To Automate Tedious Tasks With This Training Bundle

Programming gives you the power to automate scut work, aka things that you don’t really want to do but need to. Think gathering and formatting data, Excel reporting, data visualization, and web scraping. These are typically time and labor-intensive tasks, but the good news is you can automate them with a bit of coding magic. The 2022 Complete Learn Coding and Automation Bundle can show you the ropes, and for a limited time, you can get it on sale for 97 percent off....

January 12, 2023 · 2 min · 255 words · Vincent Doughty

Logitech S G Cloud Handheld Gaming Device Is 50 Off For Cyber Monday

Logitech G Cloud, $299 (Was $349) The G Cloud runs Android, and as its name suggests, its primary purpose is playing games from streaming services like NVIDIA’s GeForce Now, Xbox Remote Play, and PlayStation Remote Play. This works very well in our tests but requires a fast, constant connection to the internet to work. You can play Android games offline, but the G Cloud is meant to be an internet-connected device....

January 12, 2023 · 2 min · 276 words · Patricia Horton

Magic Mushrooms May Help Patients With Depression

Researchers in the United Kingdom told patients with major depressive disorder that they would receive some dosage of psilocybin. Those 43 patients were randomly assigned to receive two doses of either 25 mg or 1 mg—an amount that is considered negligible—of psilocybin. The doses were spaced three weeks apart, and patients did not know which dosage they received. After the first dose, each patient was told to take daily capsules for six weeks....

January 12, 2023 · 3 min · 496 words · George Merkerson

Man Regains Partial Sight With New Algae Gene Therapy

To achieve this first-ever feat, scientists injected a benign viral vector into one of the man’s eyes. It contained genes from green algae that produce a light-sensing protein, called ChrimsonR. That vector targeted ganglion cells in the retina, causing the man’s eye to produce its own ChrimsonR, which responded to light and told those retinal cells that they were seeing something. But the man in the study did not regain full vision, and couldn’t see anything with the gene therapy alone....

January 12, 2023 · 3 min · 488 words · Karine Combee