Summary: A large study analyzing over 1.1 million pregnancies found no strong evidence that maternal health conditions during pregnancy cause autism. Instead, nearly all previously reported associations between maternal diagnoses…
Category: Life
Hotter cities? Here come the rats
If your city is getting rattier, climate change may be partially to blame. In an analysis of 16 cities around the world, those that saw the biggest temperature rises over…
Wild baboons don’t recognize themselves in a mirror
Self-awareness may be beyond primates in the wild. Chimps, organutans and other species faced with a mirror react to a dot on their face in the lab, a widely used…
Blood Test May Predict Postpartum Depression Through Hormone Levels
Summary: Women who develop postpartum depression (PPD) may have distinct neuroactive steroid levels during the third trimester of pregnancy. A study found that those with PPD had lower levels of…
Feeding sharks ‘junk food’ takes a toll on their health
In general, sharks have a reputation as swimming garbage cans that unflinchingly dine on whatever they can fit in their jaws. But in French Polynesia, blacktip reef sharks that frequent…
CIA’s cautious (and dubious) embrace of COVID-19 lab leak theory is likely to spur more controversy, not end it
The calamitous global outbreak of COVID-19 has sparked intense scrutiny of its origins. One school of thought holds that the virus emerged naturally, an example of the risks associated with…
Chatty bats are more likely to take risks
All bats are vocal, but some are more vocal than others. This chattiness reveals their individuality, with more talkative bats acting more boldly, researchers report January 29 in Proceedings of…
This drawing is the oldest known sketch of an insect brain
After nearly 350 years, a depiction of a bee’s brain is getting some buzz. A manuscript created in the mid-1670s contains the oldest known depiction of an insect’s brain, historian…
