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Every parent knows that toddlers are strange and inscrutable creatures. They are capricious and contradictory, particularly when trying to interact with other people. My two-year-old daughter is no exception. One moment she is worrying about a crying baby. The next, she is snatching away her friend’s toy and shouting, “Mine!” When I tell her not to do something, it feels like I’m talking to a brick wall. Yet a new study suggests that what I say to her today could shape her ability to reason about other minds for years to come....

In 2007 parasite immunologist P’ng Loke sat down for lunch at a University of California, San Francisco, cafeteria with a patient who wanted help documenting his medical condition. The two shared an unusual interest: gut worms—specifically, tiny wormlike parasitic organisms called helminths. Loke’s 35-year-old guest, who declined to be identified for reasons of patient confidentiality, explained that he suffered from an inflammatory bowel disease known as ulcerative colitis. While researching his condition a few years before, the man had read about helminthic therapy, which has not been approved by the FDA but which is a subject of active research by gastroenterologists and parasitologists....

By Colleen Jenkins (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Arthur was expected to reach hurricane strength by Thursday, dousing some July 4 holiday plans on the U.S. East Coast as officials closed beaches and tourist sites and delayed fireworks shows in anticipation of heavy rain and fierce winds. Hurricane and tropical storm watches were in effect on Wednesday from Florida to North Carolina after the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season strengthened overnight, U....

As Congress works to reform the outdated Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) that governs U.S. chemicals, more than 30 legal experts and public interest lawyers are warning that a Supreme Court decision last year could undermine any new law passed. They argue that a 2015 supreme court ruling, which blocked the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulation of mercury emissions from power plants, could ‘unintentionally reassert’ the agency’s obligation to detail the expenses involved in regulating a chemical....

The puma nearly disappeared from the western parts of the U.S. and Canada. Also known as the cougar or mountain lion, North America’s biggest cat was nearly wiped out by ranchers and hunters in the early part of the 20th century. Since the 1960s, however, cougar populations have rebounded under new protective laws. To figure out where the resurgent cats have come from, scientists have turned to, of all things, a virus....

“I was doing some internet research on foods that promote bone growth and came across a food called natto, which is supposed to be a good source of vitamin K2. My doctor had never heard of natto or vitamin K2. Is natto really a superfood for bone health and, if so, what’s the best way to serve it?” What Is Vitamin K? Although vitamin K was identified in the 1920s, right around the same time as vitamins C and E were discovered, it doesn’t have anywhere near the name recognition as other nutrients....

When people have their feelings hurt, what is actually happening inside the body to cause the physical pain in the chest? —Josh Ceddia, Melbourne, Australia Robert Emery and Jim Coan, professors of psychology at the University of Virginia, reply: terms such as “heartache” and “gut wrenching” are more than mere metaphors: they describe the experience of both physical and emotional pain. When we feel heartache, for example, we are experiencing a blend of emotional stress and the stress-induced sensations in our chest—muscle tightness, increased heart rate, abnormal stomach activity and shortness of breath....

An international group of neuroscientists has sliced, imaged and analyzed the brain of a 65-year-old woman to create the most detailed map yet of a human brain in its entirety (see video at bottom). The atlas, called ‘BigBrain’, shows the organization of neurons with microscopic precision, which could help to clarify or even redefine the structure of brain regions obtained from decades-old anatomical studies. “The quality of those maps is analogous to what cartographers of the Earth offered as their best versions back in the seventeenth century,” says David Van Essen, a neurobiologist at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, who was not involved in the study....

The brain surgeon began as he always does, making an incision in the scalp and gently spreading it apart to expose the skull. He then drilled a 3-inch circular opening through the bone, down to the thick, tough covering called the dura. He sliced through that, and there in the little porthole he’d made was the glistening, blood-flecked, pewter-colored brain, ready for him to approach the way spies do a foreign embassy: He bugged it....

Oliver Sacks has left the world. The British-born neurologist-cum-writer who called New York City his home for the past half century died yesterday at his Greenwich Village apartment at the age of 82. Sacks practiced and revived an almost extinct form of medicine that consisted of literary case studies focusing on the singular neurological patient hidden underneath the dry diagnostic labels of autism, ocular cancer, amnesia, Tourette’s syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, achromatism, blindness and so on....

Little is more enticing than the prospect of seeing alien worlds around other stars—and perhaps one day even closely studying their atmosphere and mapping their surface. Such observations are exceedingly difficult, of course. Although more than 4,000 exoplanets are now known, the vast majority of them are too distant and dim for our best telescopes to discern against the glare of their host star. Exoplanets near our solar system provide easier imaging opportunities, however....

After NASA’s chief Jim Bridenstine’s resigned yesterday (Jan. 20), President Joe Biden’s administration has appointed Steve Jurczyk to serve as acting administrator until the role is permanently filled. Jurczyk has been the agency’s associate administrator since May 2018, according to his NASA biography; all told, he has worked at NASA since 1988. Jurczyk is one of 34 acting leaders announced by Biden and his vice president, Kamala Harris, hours after their inauguration....

By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) - Building exercise into lessons might help kids get better grades, especially when the task at hand requires memorization, a small Dutch study suggests. Researchers worked with 500 children in second and third grade, giving half of them traditional lessons while the rest got instruction supplemented with physical activity designed to reinforce math and language lessons. After two years, children who got the physically active lessons had significantly higher scores in math and spelling than their peers who didn’t exercise during class....

Anyone walking into a smoker’s abode can tell you that the traces of tobacco use don’t vanish when a cigarette is extinguished. Does this so-called thirdhand smoke pose a health hazard? Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that remnants of cigarette smoke don’t just inertly settle onto surfaces. Instead the leftover nicotine can react with nitrous acid vapor, an environmentally common chemical emitted from gas appliances and vehicles, among other sources....

Dear EarthTalk: What is the potential for carbon “nanotubes” in battery technology? I heard them referred to as the biggest battery breakthrough to come along in years. And what else can we expect to see in terms of new battery technology in coming years? —R. M. Koncan, via e-mail The rechargeable lithium-ion batteries now so common in everything from iPods to hybrid cars can store twice the energy of similarly sized nickel-metal hydride batteries and up to six times as much as their lead-acid progenitors....

The typical supermarket tomato: ripe red, firm to the touch, free of blemishes—and of flavor. Since at least the 1970s, U.S. consumers have lamented the beautiful but bland fruits that farmers breed not for taste, but rather for high yield and durability during shipping. Recently, organic farmers and foodies have championed the superior flavors of heirloom tomatoes—older varieties that come in an assortment of shapes, sizes and colors. In a new study, researchers took a close look at the chemical composition of both standard tomatoes and hundreds of different heirloom varieties, which they also fed to 170 volunteers in a taste test....

By Jeff TollefsonWhen the planting season arrives later this year, farmers in the United States will have a new way to safeguard their crops from drought. Last week, DuPont subsidiary Pioneer Hi-Bred International, headquartered in Johnston, Iowa, announced plans to release a series of hybrid maize (corn) strains that can flourish with less water. The seeds will compete with another maize strain unveiled last July by Swiss agribusiness Syngenta. Both companies used conventional breeding rather than genetic engineering to produce their seeds....

Animals that live in complex social groups may employ vocal imitation to strengthen and maintain social bonds. Humans, bats, birds and marine mammals are well known to use this ability to advertise reproductive willingness or acknowledge acquaintances after a long absence, for instance. Now results published today in the journal Nature indicate that elephants are also capable of this vocal feat. Mlaika is a 10-year-old female African elephant living in semicaptivity with other orphaned pachyderms in Tsavo, Kenya....

Through the eyepiece of Michael Backes’s small Celestron telescope, the 18-point letters on the laptop screen at the end of the hall look nearly as clear as if the notebook computer were on my lap. I do a double take. Not only is the laptop 10 meters (33 feet) down the corridor, it faces away from the telescope. The image that seems so legible is a reflection off a glass teapot on a nearby table....

Federal health officials on Thursday issued new food allergy guidelines that could help reduce peanut allergies among children — and that, contrary to past guidance, call for parents to give babies foods containing peanuts as early as 4 to 6 months of age. The new guidelines from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, reflect an improved scientific understanding of the best ways to prevent the development of allergies....