Not All GMO Plants Are Created Equal
Many people have strong opinions about genetically modified plants, also known as genetically modified organisms or GMOs. But sometimes there’s confusion around what it means to be a GMO. It also may be much more sensible to judge a plant by its specific traits rather than the way it was produced – GMO or not.…
Skull Embedded In Italian Cave Yields Oldest Neanderthal DNA Sample
The oldest samples of Neanderthal DNA have been extracted from remains embedded in a cave in southern Italy, confirming that the so-called Altamura Man was a Neanderthal who lived around 150,000 years ago. Above: Only the skull and part of a shoulder are visible on Altamura Man. The rest of the body is incorporated into…
Does Dark Matter Cause Chaos on Earth Every 30 Million Years?
In 1980, Walter Alvarez and his group at the University of California, Berkeley, discovered a thin layer of clay in the geologic record, which contained an unexpected amount of the rare element iridium. They proposed that the iridium-rich layer was evidence of a massive comet hitting the Earth 66 million years ago, at the time…
An Apple A Day Keeps The Prescription Meds Away
A new study suggests that people should regularly eat apples not necessarily to keep the doctor away, but as a means to reduce national health care spending. Last week, a research article titled “Association between apple consumption and physician visits: appealing the conventional wisdom than an apple a day keeps the doctor away” was published…
You Need to Spend More Time in the Dark to Sleep Better
Today most people do not get enough sleep. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has called insufficient sleep an epidemic. While we are finally paying attention to the importance of sleep, the need for dark is still mostly ignored. That’s right. Dark. Your body needs it too. Being exposed to regular patterns of…
Why Do We Have Allergies?
Allergies such as peanut allergy and hay fever make millions of us miserable, but scientists aren’t even sure why they exist. Carl Zimmer talks to a master immunologist with a controversial answer. For me, it was hornets. One summer afternoon when I was 12, I ran into an overgrown field near a friend’s house and…