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The innocent-sounding children’s song "Ring Around the Rosy," is actually a description of the symptoms of the plague, also known as the "Black Death," which peaked in Europe between 1348 and 1350, still exists in animal populations around the world, and has resurfaced in humans in Africa and Madagascar. It’s been wiped out in the West, since the rats that carried it have all been eaten by the newly arrived, bigger, Norwegian rats. But a team of scientists thinks it’s a good idea to trace this pandemic anyway, so globalization doesn’t cause something similar to happen again.
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Long-duration spaceflight may have a long-term negative impact on bone health. Exposure to weightlessness during spaceflight results in rapid bone loss. Researchers recently set out to determine the impact of long-duration space missions on long-term bone health by assessing the bone mineral density of astronauts. The researchers studied 28 US crew members (24 men and four women with a pre-flight age range of 36 to 53 years) whose missions in space ranged from 95 to 215 days. All 28 crew members had their bone density measured both before and soon after their spaceflight, while 24 had this measured again between six and 18 months following their return from space.read more

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Bad news for 35 million allergy sufferers: ragweed, fungal spores and poison ivy are thriving due to rising carbon dioxide levels. Additionally, leaves fed by heightened levels of carbon dioxide enable fungi to reproduce more rapidly and spread more allergenic spores, leading to higher rates of allergies and asthma. Plant physiologist Lewis Ziska says, "Plant-based respiratory allergies are on the rise and increased levels of ragweed pollen are in the air. Climate change is affecting plants and human health, especially allergy sufferers." Climate change also affects allergen levels in homes, schools and offices. Not only are people allergic to outdoor allergies going to experience more symptoms, so are people with indoor allergies.read more