Understanding the science of daily stress
In this excerpt from KCUR's podcast "Seeking A Scientist," host Kate the Chemist set out to understand the science behind everyday stress and some helpful ways to cope.
Health & Safety
Not too hard, not too soft, rotting fruit is just right - for fruit fly maggots
It turns out, a maggot's preference for rotting fruit has as much to do with texture as taste. Researchers are looking into figuring out why and what neurons are responsible.
This new pain drug is being touted as a non-addictive alternative to opioids
This new nonaddictive alternative is the first of its kind that interrupts the pain signal before it reaches the brain.
Trump administration purges websites across federal health agencies
Research and basic information on subjects ranging from tuberculosis surveillance to adolescent health disappeared from federal health agency websites.
A muscle that 'perks' the ear could hold clues to make better hearing aids
Vestigial human ear muscles react to sounds even if the external ear does not move. This could be used to build better earing aids.
3 undergraduate students have taken the first photograph of the Mount Lyell shrew
For more than 100 years, scientists have known about a shrew living in the mountains around Yosemite National Park. California designated it a "species of special concern," but nobody had seen it.
Conflicting signals from Trump could disrupt HIV meds. What's the impact?
A series of orders from the Trump administration have the potential to disrupt the delivery of life-saving medications to HIV positive people. Here's what a disruption of this drug regimen would mean.
National Science Foundation freezes payments in response to Trump's executive actions
The National Science Foundation's funding freeze, and wider confusion about the status and future of science funding, is already hampering research.
Advertising to kids, not adults, drives sugary cereal sales
High sugar cereal brands target TV ads directly to kids under age 12. And this targeted advertising leads to greater household purchases of unhealthy kid cereals, a new study finds.
Maggots associate the texture of a food with how tasty it is, research shows
Some creatures — like maggots — love to feed on decaying fruit. New research shows that they associate the texture of food with how tasty it is, too. So how did researchers figure that out?