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MAJOR PAUL “Goose” Gosden, U.S. Marine Corps, piloted his UH-1 Huey close air support helicopter across the Kuwait-Iraq border through the night’s oily blackness. His aircraft was first to cross into Iraqi airspace in the second Gulf War, in support of Cobra attack helicopters tasked to destroy observation posts on Safwan Hill, near the infamous Highway of Death. Their mission was the opening salvo of Operation Iraqi Freedom, designed to kick in the door for the U....

The act of reprogramming cells to make them as capable as ones from embryos apparently can result in aberrant cells that age and die abnormally, suggesting there is a long way to go to prove such cells are really like embryonic stem cells and can find use in therapies. Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, able to create all cell types, save more embryonic tissue. To avoid the controversy surrounding these cells, scientists around the world have explored reprogramming mature cells to make them just as potent, with the hope being that such induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells might one day help replace diseased or damaged tissue....

Editor’s note: The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. In the future it will be possible to donate our personal data to charitable causes. All sorts of data is recorded about us as we go about our daily lives—what we buy, where we go, who we call on the phone and our use of the internet. The time is approaching when we could liberate that data in support of good causes....

The deadly outbreak of an illness that used to infect only animals but now jeopardizes the survival of all humanity has long been a standard thriller movie plot (think Contagion or the 1995 classic Outbreak). Whereas reality usually unfolds at a slightly less frenetic pace, the growing threat from emerging diseases is nonetheless very real. Over the past three decades we have witnessed the appearance of HIV/AIDS, mad cow disease, H5N1 (avian flu) and the brain-damaging Nipah virus—just to name a few....

New Orleans still bears the scars of Hurricane Katrina, ten years later. More than 500,000 people fled when the storm hit, and many never returned. Large swathes of the city are sparsely populated, particularly in the poor neighbourhoods that suffered the most severe flood damage. Psychological scars linger, too. Many hurricane survivors continue to experience mental-health problems related to the storm, whether or not they returned to New Orleans, say researchers tracking Katrina’s psychological aftermath....

By Virginia HughesFor some girls, stressful experiences in the first year of life seem to drive hormonal changes later in childhood. And these chemical changes, in turn, lead to abnormal brain connectivity and signs of anxiety and depression at age 18, suggests a study published today in Nature Neuroscience.Researchers have long known that stress early in life is a risk factor for a host of psychological and physical problems, from mood disorders and substance abuse to obesity and cardiovascular disease....

For the first time, scientists have captured images of a live giant squid–the largest invertebrate in the world–in its natural, deep-sea environment. The digital pictures not only show how Architeuthis attacks its prey, but suggest that the animal is more aggressive than previously thought. For years, scientists have tried to spy on the colossal squid using different techniques, including observing from remote controlled submarines and strapping cameras to sperm whales, which are known to feed on the giant invertebrates....

Common life events occasionally lead to mental distress. If you think any of these scenarios might describe you or a loved one, tell a doctor: treatments today are more effective than ever. Reading or hearing about a traumatic event may lead to a specific phobia, the persistent fear of a certain situation or object. Targeted exposure therapy has been shown to diminish, and perhaps erase, such phobias in a few sessions....

The percentage of U.S. women overdosing on prescription painkillers has increased sharply in recent years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between 1999 and 2010, the proportion of deaths from painkiller overdose increased 400 percent among women, while rising 265 percent among men. “Prescription painkiller deaths have skyrocketed in women," Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, said at a news conference today (July 2). “Mothers, wives, sisters and daughters are dying of overdoses at rates we have never seen before,” Frieden said....

Immediately after Hurricane Katrina pummeled New Orleans last August, President George W. Bush and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security declared that no one could have predicted such devastation. Yet scientists, engineers and Louisiana state politicians had warned for years that a Category 4 or 5 storm crossing the Gulf of Mexico from a certain direction would drown the region. In 1998 computer models at Louisiana State University simulated such a terrible inundation....

On May 8, 2021, at the crack of dawn, shreds of mist crept from the chilly fields onto Ziendeweg, a country road south of Amsterdam. The rush hour traffic caused by commuters using the road to bypass jams on the highway had not yet picked up. But another activity was taking place. All along the four-kilometer-long road, small groups of people were carrying bundles of white crosses and quietly beginning to erect them on the roadside....

Experts at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission are taking a cautious look at 123 applicants who want to generate renewable energy underwater, using a relatively untested technology. The technology in question is called hydrokinetic. Like the turbines in dams, hydrokinetic turbines generate power from the movement of water. But these turbines don’t need dams and don’t present some of the challenges and expenses that come with them, explained Ed Lovelace, executive vice president of engineering at Free Flow Power, based in Gloucester, Mass....

Is there anything more everyday and familiar (given that we all possess one) and yet still so mysterious and puzzling as our own human brain? In about three pounds of tissue with the consistency of Jell-O, it packs 100 billion neurons, tens of trillions of neural connections and the low-watt processing power that has enabled our species to dominate this planet. Yet even the often enigmatic workings of our mind are not immune to the probing of modern science....

Catastrophic flooding in Michigan yesterday was a harbinger of climate change as Rust Belt cities are thrust into the crosshairs of intensifying disasters, experts say. The dangers of extreme weather, like the deluge in Midland, are rising in frequency and intensity across the Midwest. It speaks to underlying climate conditions such as heavier downpours that drive up the risk of flooding, experts say. “This is a tragic event for Midland, and I don’t want to belittle it,” said Drew Gronewold, a hydrologist and associate professor of environment and sustainability at the University of Michigan....

In an armchair experiment where humans are thought of as no wiser than animals, scientists have found that climate change could empty some nations by 2100. A warming of 2 degrees Celsius would cause 34 percent of the world’s population to migrate more than 300 miles, to places on the fringes of the tropics where the temperatures are milder. Dramatic population declines might occur in Mexico, Central America, Africa and India....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. A diaspora is a large group of people with a similar heritage or homeland who have since moved from their original homelands to another country. In terms of ethnicity, they share a common language, worldviews, myths, religious concepts and rituals, social customs, and food. The Greek term dia speiro (“to sow over” or “to scatter about”) indicates a transplanting of a culture from one area to another....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Besides the traditional option of private tuition, Elizabethan England (1558-1603 CE) offered formal education to those able to pay the necessary fees at preparatory schools, grammar schools, and universities. There was, however, no compulsory national system of education, no fixed curriculum, and still only a small number of children were sent to schools, but it was a progression from the situation in the Middle Ages....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Balthasar Hubmaier (l. 1480-1528) was a Catholic theologian who converted to the Protestant Anabaptist sect in 1525. His Concerning Heretics and Those Who Burn Them (1524) was a plea for religious tolerance written prior to his conversion to a sect persecuted by both Catholics and Protestants who dismissed the piece as heretical....

Did you like this interview? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Award-winning writer Madeline Miller’s newest novel, Circe, tells the story of a sorceress who was once the onetime lover of the wily Odysseus. The heart of the novel is, nonetheless, that of a woman’s yearning for self-discovery, purpose, and ultimately, empowerment. In this exclusive interview, Madeline Miller once again speaks to James Blake Wiener of Ancient History Encyclopedia (AHE)....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Jamestown brides (also known as tobacco brides) were young, single women transported from England to the Jamestown Colony of Virginia between 1620-1624 to be married to male colonists already established there. The women themselves had their own reasons for making the transatlantic crossing but were encouraged to do so by the Virginia Company of London....