Recent Episodes
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The Dire Wolf is Back...Maybe
Three new babies have gotten a lot of attention – which happens when you attempt to bring back the dead! Colossal Biosciences is a biotech company that has recreated the extinct dire wolf and cloned three puppies.
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Measles - It Should Not Be Back
The US set a milestone in the year 2000: It had eliminated measles through the measles vaccine. Now, a quarter century later, measles is making a comeback because fewer people are choosing to get vaccinated. Anti-vaccine groups, as well as Robert F Kennedy, the head of American's top health agency, are falsely claiming the vaccine is unsafe.
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Don't Mess With COVID
Even as we try to push past the COVID pandemic, the virus is here to stay, not only as a current infection threat but as a chronic disease in the form of long COVID. Global estimates are that some 400 million people have experienced long COVID - when an infected person's symptoms persist past three months. Some can no longer work or return to their lives due to fatigue and brain fog. Five years after the pandemic, we have a clearer picture of the challenges. Lingering inflammation across the body is a major cause of “long COVID” symptoms.
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There's a Fungus Among Us
A relatively new fungus is spreading in the US, but it's resistant to nearly all anti-fungal drugs. So, anyone infected may be on their own. Candida auris or C. auris was first reported in the US in 2016. It can cause mild skin problems to severe blood stream infections. Symptoms depend on the location of the infection. People can be colonized by C auris without any symptoms, which means they're carrying the fungus and spreading it to other people and objects.
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How Primate Brains Differ From Humans
Even though humans and chimpanzees share 99 percent of their DNA, it's in the brain that they differ. Our brains are three times larger at 1,400 cubic centimeters. Our neocortex is larger; that's the brain's outer layer where high-order functions like reasoning, abstract thought, and language happen.
