Category: Science

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Experts Claim That 98.6 Is No Longer Reliably the Average Body Temperature

This is bad news for all of those kids headed to the nurse’s office, praying their thermometer spits out a temperature of 100 degrees or higher – you’re most likely starting from a point lower than 98.6.

The world’s “normal” body temperature was established back in the 19th century, and though most accept it as a reasonable average, doctors and scientists have always known that variables like gender, size, age, time of day, and other factors can play into the thermometer’s readout.

 

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Recent research, though, shows that not only has the average body temperature dropped since it was established by Carl Reinhold in 1851, it’s dropped significantly just since the 1970s – about 0.05 degrees Fahrenheit per decade, based on your birth year, explains Dr. Julie Parsonnet.

“People are stuck on the 98.6 number, but that number has always been wrong. There’s never been a real number because people vary.”

Also, Parsonnet and others involved in the study aren’t afraid to admit that there are still variables that remain unknown, as well. They looked at the temperatures of three groups of data – one from a study of Civil War veterans’ as they returned from war, another from a CDC record from the 1970s, and a third of Stanford health clinic patients from 2007 to 2017.

 

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Men born in the 2000s typically run about 1.06 degrees Fahrenheit lower than men born in the early 1800s. For women, they’re running around 0.58 degrees Fahrenheit lower than women born in the 1890s.

The researchers say it’s unclear what’s causing the continued decline, or what it could mean for our health moving forward. That people have grown both taller and heavier, and that metabolic rates have slowed, likely all factor in.

The fact that a good portion of the population in the mid-19th century could have been fighting diseases like syphilis, tuberculosis, and periodontal disease also means infections (and fevers) may have been raising the average.

 

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Doctors like Dr. Edward Ward, an emergency medicine physician at Rush University Medical Center, say that for now, the information won’t change they way they assess and treat patients.

“It’s not surprising that there will be changes (in normal body temperature) since the Industrial Revolution. As an ER doctor, I’m looking for abnormalities. …there’s a difference between having what is medically considered having a fever and feeling feverish. If someone is normal 96 and then suddenly they’re 99, they probably feel uncomfortable.”

Parsonnet and her team echoed the sentiment, stating that how you feel is more important than the numbers on your thermometer.

That said, they are excited to follow the research further.

“We are having human cooling, and we don’t know what that means, but its’ good to know that it’s happening.”

Until we know more, trust your instincts out there. You know your body better than anyone else, and if you feel like you’re ill or feverish, stay home until you feel better.

If you’re a kid, you could try printing off this research for your school’s nurse, but no promises.

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A Rescued Sea Turtle’s Digestive System Was Jammed Full of Plastic Trash

You probably know that trash dumped into waterways around the world makes its way to the ocean, where it’s endangering the lives of all manner of marine life.

It can be a difficult problem to look directly at because no one wants to see animals hurting because of human behavior, but until we recognize the power we have to fix the problem (i.e. reduce, reuse, recycle), nothing is going to change.

So we have to look.

Scientists rescued a green sea turtle from a fisherman’s net off the coast of Buenos Aires, in Argentina, and passed it to a conservation group called the Mundo Marino Foundation.

Workers there quickly figured out that the animal’s health was endangered by the amount of plastic trash clogging its gut.

“Through radiographic images, we could see foreign bodies inside. Therefore, we started a treatment with a medication that increases peristaltic movements (movements of the digestive tract) and allows it to excrete what we saw in images,” explained Ignacio Pena, a veterinarian at the Foundation.

The turtle – a member of an endangered species that faces grave threat due to the degradation of their habitat – spent a full month excreting over 13 grams (half an ounce) of nylon bags, netting, and other plastic trash.

Green turtles typically keep a herbivorous diet, but juveniles will branch out, and a young and inexperienced hunter like this one was can easily mistake trash for food, scientists say – particularly because many sea turtles will eat jellyfish, which look alarmingly like plastic bags floating along. The mistake is often deadly according to one 2018 study that found that a turtle who eats just one piece of plastic has a 22% chance of dying.

Pena says that this particular turtle, though, is doing well.

“Today the turtle is eating green leaves, mainly lettuce and seaweed. We’re viewing this with an optimistic attitude, the progress is favorable.”

Sadly, the same can’t be said for other turtles who have been found in a similar state – even at Mundo Marino, they’ve been unable to save many that came into their care.

Plastics are insidious for animals like turtles, says biologist and conservation manager Karina Alvarez, for a couple of big reasons.

“There is not only a risk of a mechanical obstruction due to plastic intake. The accumulation of non-nutritive elements in the digestive systems of these marine reptiles can cause them a false sense of being full, which gradually weakens them. …In addition, a large amount of gas could be generated in their organisms, product of the accumulated plastic. Which would affect their ability to dive, both to feed and to find more suitable temperatures.”

Please do your part to keep turtles like this one from accidentally ingesting your trash; put your garbage where it belongs, and try to find alternatives to single-use plastics wherever you can.

Think of the turtles (and the fish and the dolphins and whales and sea lions)!

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According to Science, Your Second Child Was Born to Be Wild

There have been several studies (and also people claiming to know stuff who basically make it up based on personal experience) about the role that birth order plays in our personalities and development.

It seems first-borns are leaders, and also more prone to anxiety. Youngest kids are spoiled, middle kids are good at fending for themselves, and on and on.

What (real) science has strong evidence for, though, is that your second-born child is more likely to behave badly – even once they’re an adult.

Image Credit: Pixabay

A 2017 study from MIT, The University of Florida, and Northwestern University found that there’s a good chance your second child – especially if he’s a boy – will have more behavioral issues than his (or her) older sibling.

Lead author Joseph Doyle and his team studied thousands of family in Denmark and in Florida, and found that those second-born kiddos are not only more likely to challenge their parents more in early childhood, but also are more likely to have problems at school…or even with the law.

“Second-born boys are on the order of 20 to 40 percent more likely to be disciplined in school and enter the criminal justice system compared to first-born boys even when we compare siblings.”

Image Credit: Pixabay

The researchers believe the reason for this is mostly “differences in parental attention,” which they consider “a potential contributing factor to the gaps in delinquency across the birth order.”

“Second-born children tend to have less maternal attention than do their older siblings because first-born children experience their mother’s maternity leaves and temporarily reduced labor market participation both following their own births as well as following the birth of the second-born.”

They also believe that who the child looks up to for guidance on how to act could play a part.

“The firstborn has role models who are adults. And the second, later-born children have role models who are slightly irrational 2-year-olds, you know, their older siblings,” Doyle told NPR.

I take issue with the “slightly” modifier on “irrational,” but the rest makes sense.

image Credit: Pixabay

In the end, we know there’s not a whole lot we can do with the information; younger kids will always idolize the older ones, and there’s only so much time, so many hands, and so much attention to go around.

It’s worth keeping in mind, though. Maybe try to tip the scales by scheduling 1-on-1 time between a parent and each child separately, letting the younger child be the star of the day on occasion, or just being more aware of who is getting the bulk of your time.

Easier said than done, for sure, but you don’t want to spend all of your hard-earned college savings on bail money and legal fees, do you?

Just something to think about…

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A Melting Glacier Revealed 28 New Virus Groups and Scientists are Worried

There are a whole lot of reasons to lament the demise of glaciers around the world – for one, they are the visual proof that the earth is warming, no matter what the weather outside your window or the politicians in their offices want to claim.

For another, many of them have been around for millennia, and as they melt, things are thawing out of them that modern human beings have never encountered.

In 2015, researchers from China and the United States drilled a 164-foot hole into a Tibetan glacier, gathering 2 ice core samples to study in a lab. The 15,000-year-old glacier is melting, and the scientists have so far found 33 virus groups in their core sample.

28 of them are completely new to science.

These scientists and researchers are not alone; their peers around the world are desperately trying to identify potential microbial threats in the melting ice before they escape and put us on the spot.

Image Credit: Pixabay

The meltwater from glaciers and ice caps could release these potentially harmful pathogens into streams, rivers, and pretty much any other type of waterway…and once a previously unknown microbe finds its way into human beings, there’s no telling what might happen.

The permafrost around the world is melting, too, and presents similar microbial challenges. It’s also releasing an alarming amount of methane gas and carbon dioxide – it is estimated to hold twice as much carbon as currently resides in our atmosphere.

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For 141 years since its first ascent, mountaineers from around the world traveled to climb la Meije in the Massif des Ecrins of France. Meanwhile, the permafrost that held its stones together was melting. On August 7, 2018, rockfall destroyed much of the normal route. In this On Belay story from Alpinist 68—which is now available on newsstands and in our online store—two locally based guides—Benjamin Ribeyre and Erin Smart—recount a search for a new way up the peak amid the uncertainties of the planet’s future. . You can now read the story at Alpinist.com. . Did you know—only a small fraction of our many long-form stories from the print edition are ever uploaded to Alpinist.com. Be sure to pick up Alpinist 68 for all the goodness: https://shop.holpublications.com/products/alpinist-magazine-issue-68 . The south face of la Meije (3983m) and the upper Etancons Valley is pictured here with the Glacier Carre covered in snow during spring, Massif des Ecrins, France. [Photo] Manu Rivaud . @benjaminribeyre @erinsmart_mountainguide #lameije #glaciercarré #frenchalps #snowmelt #rockfall #climatechange #meltingpermafrost #alpinistfeature #theclimbinglife #alpineclimbing #mountaineering

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Researchers have pulled samples of smallpox, Spanish flu, bubonic plague, and even anthrax from thawing permafrost, along with pollutants like mercury, all previously trapped inside permanently frozen ground.

There are important buildings in jeopardy, too, as thawing ground begins to result in more slumping or sagging of previously hardened earth. In Sweden, for example, there is a nuclear waste containment facility that could be in danger, and in Norway, the world’s global seed vault, built to safeguard seeds against exactly this kind of environmental impact, could itself be threatened.

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Humans are very good at self sabotaging ourselves, controlling and manipulating others, colonizing and dominating over other live and sentient beings. All these behaviours are driven by fear, anger, greed, hunger for power, status and control. ?? Would we still buy into all this nonsense if we fully realized that we are destroying ourselves, all living beings and our planet? What if we only have few years to live? Would we contemplate life and death? Seek reconciliations between peoples with different religions, nations, genders, classes, generations? ❤ Let's make universal love our compass. ❤ Let's live in present. ❤ Let's seek and adapt inner peace and love. ❤ Let's be human again. ❤ Let's share love and show compassion. ❤ Love, enjoy, live. Now. #love #behuman #awakeninghumanity #humanrights #climatecrisis #sixthmassextinction #climaterefugees #consumerismkills #foodshortages #heatwave #flooding #reducereuserecycle #circulareconomy #govegan #carbondrawdown #risingsealevel #meltingpermafrost #plasticfreelife #socialcollaps #noplanetb? #universalconsciousness

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Basically, we’ve only encountered the tip of the iceberg (pun intended) when it comes to the potential disastrous effects of global warming – not only on the planet, but on humanity, too.

I don’t know about you, but the idea that I could get smallpox is one more reason I want to do my part.

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Parsley Joins the List of Herbs You Should Not Stick in Your Vagina

You might think it would be common sense that food items don’t belong anyplace inside you other than your stomach. You’d think that, but you would sadly be wrong.

Last year, doctors had to put out a warning that cucumbers shouldn’t go inside your vagina, and this year, they’re having to do the same with parsley – all thanks to Marie Claire (an actual real media publication), which published an article about the herb being useful to bring on your period.

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This may look like a parsnip but it’s not a parsnip. It’s an old fashioned allotment veg known as parsley. It’s a great winter option as it’s completely hardly. The roots can be roasted or thrown in a casserole and the tops give you parsley (as in the herb) all year round ??? Harvested today, this one’s on the small side but if left they can get huge xx . . #parsley #winterveg #winterveggies #rootvegetables #vegetarian #pescatarian #vegan #plantbased #allotment #allotmentlove #allotmentlife #allotmentgarden #countryliving #growyourownfood #eatwhatyougrow #mykitchengarden #myediblegarden #organic #urbanorganicgardener #kelloggarden #urbangarden #urbangardener #raisedbedgarden #growninsussex #growveggies #growyourownveggies #lovegardening #gardenlove #outdoorliving

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According to the article:

“Parsley can help to soften the cervix and level out hormonal imbalances that could be delaying your cycle, helping your period come faster. …If you’re struggling to find a dish based on parsley, don’t panic – the most effective forms are said to be parsley tea and parsley vaginal inserts.”

Yes, you read that right.

The internet has many suggestions on using parsley to induce a miscarriage herbally, including this horrifying tidbit:

“Fresh parsley (preferably organic…I don’t want pesticides in my vagina, so I go organic). Insert a fresh sprig of parsley as far as possible into the vagina (parsley induces contractions, yum). Change every 12 hours. When soft, it may be difficult to remove, but this is not dangerous.”

In fact, that is so dangerous.

Putting anything that gathers bacteria into your nethers presents a risk of infection, which can have life-threatening consequences.

“There is no evidence of any benefit to a woman of doing this, and clear risk of significant harm as deaths have been reported. I would urge women not to insert anything unless they have taken proper medical advice,” Dr. Shazia Malk told The Independent.

One woman who died after trying to induce a miscarriage with parsley lived in Argentina, where abortion is illegal. She was 34, and even though surgeons removed her uterus in an attempt to stop the spreading infection, she still passed.

Also? Dr. Jennifer Gunter told IFLScience that using parsley to bring on a miscarriage “can’t work. To think it could work would reflect a belief in magic.”

As abortion clinics close all over the country, I imagine that we’re only going to see more people looking for ways to take matters into their own hands.

And I don’t see how that’s going to be good for anyone.

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A Biology Professor Explained Why Defining Sex and Gender Is Actually Not Simple At All

Sex and gender are much more complicated than most people want to believe. And in a world where many, many brave folks are coming forward to say that they don’t want to be categorized with the sex they were born with, or that they don’t identify with a particular gender at all, or a hundred other combinations of some or all of these things, others (who have never questioned what’s on their birth certificate) are confused.

How can this be true, they ask? Gender is the same as sex, isn’t it? And we just are what we are?

Well, here’s the thing – it turns out that chromosomally, cellularly, and biologically, sex and gender are not black and white, not easily defined, and are often fluid. And that’s not even layering a social or psychological aspect on top of it all.

Don’t believe me? Good, you shouldn’t – I’m a writer, not a biologist!

But Rebecca R. Helm is a biologist, and she recently tweeted an insanely insightful thread about how complicated it can be to classifying biological gender.

The best way to combat confusion is with knowledge, so buckle up and let’s go for a little learning ride, shall we?

First, she acknowledges that, on the outside, determining one’s biological sex might seem simple.

But right away, when you learn just a tiny bit more about those X and Y chromosomes, things begin to get more complicated.

And she keeps going, giving us a rundown of things possible and known, and everything out there that’s still a mystery, until – even though I’m educated and consider myself fairly quick on the uptake – I had to admit I was out of my depth.

And what should we do when we’re out of our depth? Defer to the experts, of course, who are comfortable in the deeper water and willing to hold your head above water, too.

So, let’s all take Rebecca R. Helm’s advice and just try to be kind to people.

Biological sex might not be simple to parse or grasp, but you know what is? Listening to what another human being is telling you about the body they inhabit and referring to them how they ask you to.

That’s something we can all start doing right now.

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The sun looks like caramel corn

A new telescope built to study the Sun has released its first images. They show the surface of the Sun in the most exquisite detail we’ve ever seen – revealing convection granules the size of Texas, and tiny magnetic features – the roots of fields that extend far into space. via sciencealert.com

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Toxic Chemicals Have Been Found in the Tap Water of Dozens of U.S. Cities

Miami is a top destination for tourists, but consuming their tap water could leave you with long-lasting effects well after your vacation is over.

The home of the Heat is just one of 43 U.S. cities—including Philadelphia and New Orleans—that has toxic “forever chemicals” in their drinking water, according to a new report.

Products such as firefighting foam and Teflon contain the PFOAs and PFOS chemicals that are contaminating water across the country. Polluted water has been linked in some cases to cancer and lower fertility and even served as inspiration for the 2019 movie Dark Waters, although much more research needs to be done into long-term harms.

Sydney Evans, Environmental Working Group study co-author, told BuzzFeed News that the research group was surprised to see chemical contamination in such a variety of cities. Out of the 44 cities tested for contaminants, only Meridian, Mississippi, passed. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the citizens of Meridian get their water from the deep depths of a 600-foot well.

While earlier studies conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency and the EWG had not shown a serious water contamination issue, Evans and her team tested for 30 different PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) chemicals in order to discover more information about the breadth of the contamination.

The EPA sets a safety limit of 70 parts-per-trillion limit on the two main chemicals, though some individual states have implemented stricter standards. Unfortunately, many states were found to have water with high concentrations of chemicals, including North Carolina and Iowa.

“To date, EPA has developed methods to reliably detect 29 PFAS chemicals in drinking water,” an agency spokesperson stated in an e-mail to Buzzfeed News. “Aggressively addressing PFAS will continue to be an EPA priority in 2020 and we will provide additional information on our upcoming actions as it becomes available.”

So while staying hydrated is critical, filtered water may be a better bet depending on where you live.

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Dogs Like to Poop in Alignment with Earth’s Magnetic Field

You know the drill if you have a dog – even if it’s so hot you’re dripping sweat and can literally feel your skin burning, and even if it’s so cold you can barely hold a leash with your frozen fingers, they’re absolutely not going to do their business until they find the perfect spot.

Then, they’re going to turn around several times, squat, perhaps adjust, and finally take that long-awaited dump.

Hallelujah!

What I have to tell you today isn’t going to make your dog-walking experience any more pleasant, but hey, it is going to teach you something about your best friend. Sometimes, that’s the best you can hope for when the situation contains poo, right?

It turns out your dog isn’t searching for an arbitrary “best” spot go do their business – they’re actually doing their best to line their behind up with Earth’s magnetic field.

Not only that, but a study, published in Frontiers in Zoology, also found that they prefer a north-south axis for their dumping grounds.

The researchers found that dogs are sensitive to small variations in the Earth’s magnetic field, and after studying 70 dogs (37 different breeds) over the course of 2 years, they learned that under “calm magnetic field conditions,” dogs preferred to “excrete with the body being aligned along the north-south axis.”

They avoided east-west altogether, actually. Also, the dogs in the study were entirely unconfined and unleashed, leaving them free to do their business exactly where they pleased.

What the study did not learn was why canines prefer to poop in a certain direction.

“It is still enigmatic why the dogs do align at all, whether they do it “consciously” (i.e., whether the magnetic field is sensorial perceived (the dogs “see”, “hear” or “smell” the compass direction or perceive it as a haptic stimulus)) or whether its reception is controlled on the vegetative level (they “feel better/more comfortable or worse/less comfortable” in a certain direction).”

Either way, it’s certainly interesting and the scientists involved hope their findings will open “new horizons” for further research in organisms’ use of magnetic fields for direction.

So now you have something to share with your friend at the dog park the next time you’re both waiting around, freezing to death waiting for your pups to line up.

You’re welcome.

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Wow! Astronomers Watched a Star Skip the Supernova Stage and Go Straight to Black Hole.

When people say “go out with a bang”, they usually don’t mean literally. But when it comes to dying stars, typically astronomers expect them to go out with enormous bangs: supernovae. However, recently a group of Ohio University scientists observed a star that didn’t have quite the same life path in mind.

Instead of exploding and then collapsing in on itself, the star turned directly into a black hole. That shocked the group of scientists who had been studying the star, named N6946-BH1 to be exact, which was located in the Fireworks Galaxy, 22 million light-years away. At first they didn’t think it was possible, yet in 2015, after six years of watching the star weaken, scientists concluded that the star had bizarrely skipped the supernova stage.

They chalked it up as a “massive fail.” That’s a technical term, referring to the star’s mass.

“The typical view is that a star can form a black hole only after it goes supernova,” said Ohio State astronomy professor and study researcher Christopher Kochanek. “If a star can fall short of a supernova and still make a black hole, that would help explain why we don’t see supernovae from the most massive stars.”

Photo Credit: Pexels

This atypical event still requires more analysis, but scientist Scott Adams estimates that massive fails occur in about 10 to 30 percent of massive stars. Ultimately, this discovery could lead to more answers about how super-massive black holes come to exist, since supernovae tend to blow away a lot of a star’s mass.

Without a supernova, more of a star’s mass would stick around to collapse in on itself and become a vortex that bends time and space and eats light for supper.

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