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It may be the largest organized crime network that you have never heard of, and it deals in counterfeit drugs. So says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which seized and shut down 1,677 illegal pharmacy Web sites last month as part of the largest Internet-based counterfeit drug sting yet. The shuttered Web sites all claimed to be “Canadian pharmacies” but the FDA says that not a single drug shipment actually came from the U....

There’s a scene in Pixar’s Finding Nemo when Dory, a yellow-finned regal tang, injures herself in a tug-of-war over a snorkel mask. A tiny plume of blood curls away from Dory’s face into the water around her, where it is sucked into the nostrils of Bruce, a “vegetarian” shark who immediately recants his no-sushi policy. (Fortunately, Dory escapes.) Scientists have known for some time that many ocean predators relish the scent of an injured fish, whereas fish that are more likely to end up as a meal flee from the same scent....

View Gallery The Pleistocene was the heyday of megafauna, a span of geologic time when big mammals like mammoths, saber-toothed cats, woolly rhinos and giant ground sloths roamed the continents. The epoch lasted over one million years during which glaciers plowed the planet’s surface, stretching and retracting across vast expanses. Near the beginning of the end of the Pleistocene some 50,000 years ago, much of the megafauna disappeared in synchrony with the spread of modern humans....

From Nature magazine Virologists know its name: H7N9. What they don’t yet know is whether this novel avian influenza virus — first reported in humans in China less than two weeks ago — will rapidly fizzle out, become established in animal hosts to fuel future human outbreaks, or morph into a virus that can spread easily between people and spark a deadly pandemic. In a frantic effort to find answers, scientists are bearing down on H7N9 on multiple fronts....

In the last five years or so, weather changes have taken a toll on Michigan’s roads. Heavy rains have overpowered drains, causing water to spill onto the road and wash whole sections away. The post-winter thaw starts earlier than it used to. That causes more cracks in the pavement than usual, shortening a road’s life. These weather changes can’t be directly linked to climate change. Nevertheless, the bulk of climate science suggests that similar events will become more frequent and severe in the future....

Let me set the stage: it’s a sunny Summer day and you decide to go for an early morning jog. You down your coffee, slip on your running shoes, and head out the door. A few minutes later you are cruising along the trail, lost in your thoughts when an enthusiastic dog darts out toward you. You suddenly snap out of your daydream and dodge the happily bounding dog, but while doing so, you plant your foot in a less than optimum way and feel a pain that reminds you of that time you sprained (or strained?...

A patient who damaged his left insula, a region of the brain located deep within the cortex on either lateral side, may have opened the door to kick the habit without even trying. The day after suffering a stroke the 38-year-old man, who had a 40-cigarette-a-day addiction, reported to doctors that his “body forgot the urge to smoke.” This revelation prompted a study that found the insula is intimately linked to smoking addiction....

Research report title: “A Stratigraphic Analysis of Desk Detritus.” Abstract: A multilayer investigation of various objects recovered from an archaeological dig site used for interpretation and dissemination of scientific information. Discussion: On October 6, 2008, with a column overdue and a desk so messy the pile was starting to block the bottom of the computer screen, the author endeavored to kill two burdens with one stonewall, by removing and cataloguing multiple artifacts long stored on my desk....

Elected officials who campaigned against critical race theory (CRT), the study of how social structures perpetuate racial inequality and injustice, are being sworn into office all over the U.S. These candidates captured voters’ attention by vilifying CRT, which has become a catch-all to describe any teaching about racial injustice. Lessons about the genocide of Native Americans, slavery, segregation and systemic racism would harm children, these candidates argued. Calling its inclusion divisive, some states have enacted legislation banning CRT from school curricula altogether....

A series of one-centimeter-long, 110-million-year-old footprints found in South Korea were left by what may be the tiniest nonbird dinosaur ever discovered. “These were made by several incredibly small raptor dinosaurs,” says Anthony Romilio, a co-author of a study detailing the discovery and a postdoctoral researcher in paleontology at the University of Queensland in Australia. “Prior to our find, there would have been few who would have imagined that some raptors were so small that two or three could have easily fitted in your cupped hand....

Nearly 200 Kemp’s ridley (Lepidochelys kempii), green (Chelonia mydas) and loggerhead (Caretta caretta) sea turtles washed up along the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coasts in April, the most deaths in one month since record keeping began in 1986. And 100 green sea turtles were found dead on the coast of Uruguay in the first three months of this year. The latter group died from ingestion of trash, primarily plastic. Most of the former showed signs of drowning in trawl nets....

To a cognitive neuroscientist, success in life depends largely on how well your brain shapes actions to fit both your goals and the context in which you act. If you need to cross the street, first check the traffic. If you’re feeding your new in-laws, serve better wine–and different jokes –than you do for your poker buddies. Such context-driven “cognitive control,” thought to reside in the brain’s prefrontal cortex, has lately become one of neuroscience’s hottest topics, inspiring hundreds of papers regarding its role in everything from academic and sports performance to depression and gambling....

By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged Americans on Thursday to get vaccinated for measles amid an outbreak that began at Disneyland in December, saying that 2014 saw the highest number of cases in two decades. So far more than 90 people have been diagnosed with measles in California and elsewhere, most of them linked to an outbreak that public health officials suspect began when an infected person from outside the United States visited Disneyland in Anaheim between Dec....

Climate change will alter the mix of vegetation on 49 percent of Earth’s land surface by the end of this century, scrambling and shifting existing ecosystems, according to a new study. Researchers at NASA and the California Institute of Technology say the changing climate will also convert 37 percent of the world’s land ecosystems from one type – such as tundra, forest or grassland – into another by 2100. Those vegetation shifts are likely to affect animals and insects that have evolved to live among particular plant species and within certain temperature and precipitation ranges, said the study’s lead author, independent scientist Jon Bergengren....

Editor’s Note (6/23/22): The Supreme Court has ruled that a New York State law that restricted individuals from carrying concealed guns in public without “proper cause” is unconstitutional on the grounds of the Second Amendment. The decision comes amid a debate over gun control on the heels of multiple mass shootings in the country. The rate of gun violence continues to rise across America. There was nearly a 30 percent increase in homicides between 2019 and 2020, making it the largest one-year increase in six decades....

A helmet made of Kevlar saved the life of an Orlando, Florida, police officer on Sunday (June 12) after police engaged in a gun battle with a man who killed 49 people and injured 53 others at a gay nightclub, according to news sources. Thanks to its unique chemistry, Kevlar body armor has saved the lives of countless people who were wearing it. In a tweet Sunday morning, the Orlando Police Department applauded the tough fiber: “Pulse shooting: In hail of gunfire in which suspect was killed, OPD officer was hit....

Finding evidence for life on Mars has been a decades-long ambition for NASA, which has spent billions of dollars to send machines wheeling over, poking and probing the Red Planet. But once the signs of life are found, how are those findings verified? In early January, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover came across what some researchers thought might be trace fossils on Mars. Researchers first spotted the eye-catching, tiny, stick-like features in black-and white imagery, but they were compelling and unusual enough for the rover science team to roll the robot back to further interrogate them....

The lethal fault cuts through the middle of a Tennessee bean field and then ducks beneath the Mississippi River, making a beeline for New Madrid, Missouri. Named the Reelfoot fault, this geological crack combined with neighbouring faults two centuries ago to unleash a series of devastating earthquakes that have been called the biggest to strike the contiguous United States in recorded history. On government hazard maps, the New Madrid region stands out as a red bull’s eye....

By Valerie Volcovici(Reuters) - New York City’s greenhouse gas emissions have dropped by 19 percent since 2005, outgoing Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Monday, putting the city nearly two-thirds of the way to meeting the goal that Bloomberg set five years ago.Bloomberg announced the progress report as he prepares to leave the mayor’s office on Wednesday after 12 years in office.In the comprehensive climate change blueprint he launched in 2007, called PlaNYC 2030, Bloomberg set a goal to slash citywide emissions 30 percent by 2030 through a number of initiatives, such as requiring hybrid taxi cabs and retrofitting municipal buildings to make them more energy efficient....

Some good news from the front lines of the heroin crisis: Half as many people tried heroin for the first time in 2017 as in 2016. That’s according to data released Friday from the government’s annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health. “This is what we were hoping for,” said Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, who directs the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. “It tells us that we are getting the word out to the American people of the risks of heroin,” especially when the drug is tainted with additional powerful opioids, fentanyl or carfentanil....