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“Wakefulness” Part of the Brain Attacked First in Alzheimer’s, Study Says
People who donate their bodies to science might never have dreamed what information lies deep within their brains. Even when that information has to do with sleep. Scientists used to believe that...
View ArticleUCSF Gets New Money to Study the ‘Galaxies’ Within You (Your Microbes)
Trillions of tiny organisms live in and on the human body. In our guts, on our skin, and in our noses. Scientists are finding that bacteria and other microbes that colonize us don’t just make us sick,...
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Hey Siri,”How Do I Foster a Science-Minded Household?”
An unusual glow lights Charlize and Dayleen Sánchez’s faces. They brighten from cyan blue to red to green, and back again. Big sister Charlize, 12, and Dayleen, 9, are turning knobs to brighten or...
View ArticleThis Saturday Is Free Fishing Day Throughout California
Slather on the sunscreen, line up some some bait, and bring your tackle box – Saturday, August 31st is Free Fishing Day across California. You won’t need a sport-fishing license to cast a line that day...
View ArticleYou’re Cooler Than You Think: 98.6 Temperature No Longer the Norm
A new study published in the journal eLife reports the average body temperature of Americans has declined by 1.1 degree Fahrenheit since the Civil War. The authors say the 98.6 degrees standard set in...
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Crickets Chirp to Flirt
Ask most people about crickets and you’ll probably hear that they’re all pretty much the same: just little insects that jump and chirp. But there are actually dozens of different species of field...
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Just 29,000 Western Monarch Butterflies Are Left in California. That’s Down...
Each fall, monarch butterflies from across the western United States flutter their way to the California coast to hole up for the winter. Mild temperatures, abundant nectar and protection offered by...
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A Tsetse Fly Births One Enormous Milk-Fed Baby
Mammalian moms aren’t the only ones to deliver babies and feed them milk. Tsetse flies, the insects best known for transmitting sleeping sickness, do it too. A researcher at the University of...
View ArticleThe Flu is a Bigger Health Threat in the U.S. than Novel Coronavirus
I’m worried that coronavirus caused the tickle in my throat. I’ve wondered whether I have reason to be. Last week I talked with more than a dozen people who had just left the epicenter of the Chinese...
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You Wish You Had Mites Like This Hissing Cockroach
As the weather starts to warm and cold days give way to balmier, sunny days, one rite of spring returns every year, just like spring flowers: cockroaches. A Madagascar hissing cockroach (Gromphadorhina...
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‘An Outbreak, Not an Epidemic’: Bay Area Doctors Talk Coronavirus Risks and...
Dr. Melanie Ott, senior investigator with the Gladstone Institutes, speaks at a panel on the 2019 novel coronavirus on Feb. 6, 2020. (Peter Arcuni/KQED Science) Virus experts from the University of...
View ArticleOh, Snap! Hear the Big Noise Tiny Shrimp Make in the Ocean
You may think it’s quiet in the ocean, but a tiny creature is raising quite a ruckus as ocean temperatures rise. New research presented at this year’s Ocean Sciences Meeting in San Diego says the...
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Kangaroo Rats Are Furry, Spring-Loaded Ninjas
Rulon Clark had a problem. He had studied rattlesnakes for years, but he wanted to learn more about the kangaroo rat, a diminutive animal that venomous snakes try to eat in deserts of the American...
View ArticleCoronavirus: If You’re Infected, All Your Close Contacts Have to Be Tracked...
As outbreaks of the new coronavirus dominate the headlines, an army of disease researchers and public health officials have mobilized to track down infections and limit the extent of the spread. To...
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A Flea’s Fantastic Jump Takes More Than Muscle
[dl_subscribe}Spring is here, and with it, the start of flea season. With the warming weather, people and their pets are spending more time outside — which increases the chances of bringing home a...
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New Test Strips Detect Harmful Toxin in Some Common California Mushrooms
In a parking lot near some woods about an hour east of San Francisco, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) research microbiologist Candace Bever rummages around in a box containing plastic...
View ArticleA Virus’ One Purpose, and How Vaccines Thwart It
As the COVID-19 virus continues to spread around the Bay Area and the world, the National Institutes of Health says a vaccine for the public is at least a year away. Still, researchers around the world...
View ArticleDurable Coronavirus Survives for Days on Some Surfaces. Here’s How to Protect...
Viruses didn’t become ubiquitous by being wimps: From the rhinoviruses that cause the common cold to the new coronavirus that has spread across the world, they are able to survive on surfaces far away...
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Walking Sticks Stop, Drop and Clone to Survive
There’s that old cheesy joke: What’s brown and sticky? A stick. But sometimes it’s not just a stick — but a walking stick. This non-native insect, originally from India, relies on clever camouflage to...
View ArticleAt Kaiser, Trump’s Pharmaceutical Advice Creates Chaos For Lupus Patients
The COVID-19 pandemic threatens access to drug treatment for lupus patients, in part because the prevailing drug of choice for lupus was touted by the president as a “game changer” in the fight against...
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