Scientists and special effects artists in the UK and in New Zealand have used the same digital techniques used in criminal investigations to reconstruct what the young pharaoh known as King Tut looked like. A fiberglass bust of King Tut is now on display in London’s Science Museum.
read more
High levels of mercury in the blood, caused by eating lots of seafood, can cause male infertility. Researchers gave blood tests to 150 infertile couples who were having in-vitro fertilization and 26 fertile couples to find out how much mercury they had in their systems. They were also asked how much seafood they ate, as well as about other sources of mercury, such as fish oil supplements. They found that the infertile group had much higher blood mercury concentrations.
read more
A two-week-old baby in Los Angeles has already been exposed to more toxic air pollution than the U.S. government says is an acceptable cancer risk over a lifetime. A study of California air pollution by the National Environmental Trust says that even if a child moves away from California, or if the air has been cleaned up by the time he or she reaches adulthood, “the potential (cancer) risk that a child rapidly accumulates in California from simply breathing will not go away.”
read more
Scientists have found West Nile virus in the breast milk of a new mother who has the infection, although her baby shows no symptoms of the disease. Researchers don’t know if the mother can pass the virus to her baby through her breast milk. The Michigan mother got a blood transfusion after giving birth, and may have caught West Nile that way. She and another patient, a liver transplant recipient, received blood from a common donor, and remaining blood samples from that donor show signs of West Nile.
read more