Life
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Animals
Gorgeous eco-bullies
‘Foreign’ lionfish — aquarium castoffs — have been invading American coastal waters at an alarming rate and gobbling up the natives.
By Janet Raloff -
Brain
Caffeine rewires brains of baby mice
Brain changes and memory problems plagued mouse pups whose moms had consumed caffeine during pregnancy.
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Brain
Sleepyheads prefer junk food
A night without sleep changes the brain and how appetizing people find high-calorie foods.
By Janet Raloff -
Health & Medicine
Camels linked to mystery disease
A mysterious and deadly virus has sickened 94 people — killing 46 — in parts of the Middle East, Europe and northern Africa. A new study finds that camels (the one-humped type) may have introduced the new disease to people. The germ responsible is a virus that lives in people’s lungs, throats and noses. Scientists recently named the disease it causes Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS.
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Animals
Explainer: Animals’ role in human disease
Wildlife, livestock and pets are the source of most germs that can sicken people
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Brain
Teen fighting may harm IQ
Blows to the head may explain these effects on the brain.
By Janet Raloff -
Brain
Nature resets body’s clock
After a week in the wild, people went to bed — and got up — earlier.
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Brain
Full moon shortchanges sleep
Lab experiments show people’s sleep suffers for a day or so every month.
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Fossils
Tar pit bones yield climate clues
During the last ice age, more than 12,000 years ago, many unusual creatures wandered Southern California. Some got trapped in tar pits there. Now, their preserved remains are providing scientists with clues about summer weather during that bygone era.
By Sid Perkins