Ed Cara

Eat your heart out, A24: Some real-life bacterial germs are literally hungry for our blood, new research suggests. Scientists have found evidence that certain disease-causing bacteria, including strains of Escherichia coli, are chemically attracted to the serum in our blood as a source of food. The horrifying findings seem to explain why these bacteria tend to cause life-threatening sepsis. The research was led by scientists from Washington State University. They were hoping to learn more about…

Scientists in California want to know if you would ever feed your cat a bowl of bug chow. They’re looking to survey cat owners about their attitudes on the emerging trend of insect-based cat diets, which some researchers and advocates say could be more sustainable and possibly even healthier than traditional pet food. The research is being conducted by scientists with the Animal Welfare Epidemiology Lab at the University of California, Davis. In the past, they’ve asked pet owners about the heal…

If you’ve been feeling the weight of insomnia lately, you’re far from alone. A new Gallup poll out Monday shows that a majority of American adults report not getting enough sleep—a first in the survey’s history. Though there are likely several reasons for this, many struggling with sleep also report feeling frequently stressed. Gallup has been asking Americans about their quality of sleep since 2001. Back then, about 54% of Americans said that they got as much sleep as they needed regularly,…

In 1995, Nintendo released the Virtual Boy, a video game console billed as providing gamers a unique and immersive playing experience via its stereoscopic red-and-black 3D graphic display. Within a year, following a quickly soured public reception and meager sales, the company would unceremoniously discontinue it. In Japan, Nintendo’s home country, the Virtual Boy lasted just five months. To this day, the Virtual Boy is remembered as one of the most infamous failures of the video game industry—…

Measles has made an unwelcome return to the U.S., with dozens of children across multiple states having caught the highly contagious viral disease so far this year. There are several reasons why measles has become a larger problem both here and worldwide as of late, but there’s one commonly speculated suspect for its resurgence that simply isn’t to blame: covid-19. As of early April, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been 113 measles cases detected in 18 st…

A Canadian man found a rat in his toilet, and his month only got worse from there. In a recent case report, the man’s doctors described how he contracted an unusual and severe infection from being bitten by the rodent—one that ultimately sent him to the intensive care unit. Thankfully, he was successfully treated. The case was detailed this January in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. According to the report, the 76-year-old Montreal resident went to a local emergency department with fe…

A Chinese scientist once jailed for helping to create the world’s first genome-edited babies seems to have not missed a beat. In a recent interview, He Jiankui revealed that he is once again working in the field of human genetic engineering. These newest experiments are reportedly in compliance with ethical standards and He Jiankui has pledged that he will not work to produce any further modified humans. In November 2018, at an international scientific conference, He shocked the world when he a…

CBD for your chronic pain may turn out to be a dangerous dud, the authors of a large review say. They found little evidence from clinical trials that CBD can be an effective pain reliever. These products also tend to have inaccurate labeling information about the amount of CBD they contain or even other undisclosed ingredients that could be hazardous to users, they add. CBD is short for cannabidiol, one of the two primary ingredients in cannabis (the other being delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or…

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health examined dozens of government employees and their families who experienced “Havana Syndrome” and found no evidence of significant brain injury or other biomarkers that would explain their ailments. Despite the findings, the report authors say that the symptoms felt by these sufferers are real and often debilitating. In most cases, the patients describe an array of mysterious symptoms that began while they were stationed overseas. In late 2016,…

Our brains are in rougher shape than we might think. New research from the World Health Organization and others estimates that nearly half of people globally are living with neurological conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, or epilepsy, just to name a few. Collectively, these neurological problems are now thought to be the single largest leading cause of disability and illness worldwide. The findings are the latest to emerge from the Global Burden of Diseases study, a long-running r…