ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 649

How Does Household Mould Affect Your Health?

Health and Medicine





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A considerable proportion of childhood asthma is attributable to exposure to indoor dampness and mould. carlpenergy/Flickr, CC BY

Exposure to harmful agents inside the home can have profound effects on our health. After all, we spend an average of 16 hours a day at home – and even more when aged under seven and over 64.

Mould accumulates in damp and poorly ventilated buildings. Inhaling mould fragments or spores can inflame the airways, causing nasal congestion, wheezing, chest tightness, coughing and throat irritation.

Read My Lips: Truly Empathic Robots Will Be A Long Time Coming

Technology





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Aldebaran’s Pepper robot is designed to respond to human emotion. Aldebaran

The Japanese robot Pepper, made by Aldebaran Robotics, has sparked interest regarding the potential of robots to become companions.

According to its makers, Pepper can recognise emotions from your facial expressions, words and body gestures, and adjust its behaviour in response.

A Quarter of North America’s Birds Haven’t Recovered From West Nile Virus

Plants and Animals





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A spotted towhee, one of 11 species whose survival estimates seem to have rebounded after being affected by West Nile virus. Paul Higgins.

Since its introduction in 1999, West Nile virus has devastated native bird populations in North America. It spread across the continent in just five years, and it’s been linked to the deaths of millions of birds. But what’s happened since?

Watch Polar Bears Live From The Arctic Tundra

Plants and Animals





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Two bears having a bit of a play on the tundra. Jonathan Silvio/Explore.org

The tundra surrounding Churchill, Manitoba, hosts one of the biggest gatherings of the planet's largest land carnivore. Every year, polar bears congregate to wait for the sea ice to start forming. This year, you can watch them on cameras broadcast live from the depths of the Arctic tundra.

 

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Buzz Aldrin: The President That Sends Us To Mars Will Be Remembered For 1,000s Of Years

Space





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MISHELLA / Shutterstock

Buzz Aldrin really, really wants us to go to Mars. Earlier this year, he outlined his proposal to get there by 2039, but not just brief missions like his own Apollo 11 - he wants us to colonize it, and create permanent settlements there, he explained in an exclusive interview with IFLScience.

This Week in Science Oct 26-Nov 1

Why Men Don’t Need To Be Screened For Breast Cancer, But Should Still Do Regular Checks

Health and Medicine





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www.shutterstock.com

Screening aims to detect disease in its early stages while there’s still a chance that treatment will be effective. Programmes are usually targeted at people who are at high risk of developing a particular disease. For example, the NHS invites people over the age of 60 to be screened for bowel cancer because age is a risk factor for the disease - the older you are, the greater the risk.

A History Of Sugar – The Food Nobody Needs, But Everyone Craves

Plants and Animals





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Sweeter Alternative/Flickr, CC BY-NC

It seems as though no other substance occupies so much of the world’s land, for so little benefit to humanity, as sugar. According to the latest data, sugarcane is the world’s third most valuable crop after cereals and rice, and occupies 26,942,686 hectares of land across the globe. Its main output – apart from commercial profits – is a global public health crisis, which has been centuries in the making.

Ice ‘Lightning’ May Have Helped Life Survive Snowball Earth

Environment





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Between a rock and a hard place. Eddy Hill

The ice sheets and glaciers that extend over roughly 11% of the Earth’s land mass are home to a surprisingly abundant source of life. Sections of liquid water beneath and inside the ice provide a habitat for a genetically diverse variety of microbes. And studying these organisms gives us some clue what life may have looked like if there were indeed periods of the planet’s history when the land was entirely covered in ice for millions of years.

Dying Snake-Bitten Scientist Records His Last Day Of Life

Plants and Animals





Photo credit:

SciFri/Youtube

This video tells the incredible story of the last hours of Dr. Karl P. Schmidt, famed snake exper, just after he had been bitten by a boomslang snake (Dispholidus typus). Knowing he was dying, he dedicated his last dying day to create scientific account of his death.