WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Bottlenose dolphins with missing teeth, lung disease and abnormal hormone levels were found swimming in the Gulf of Mexico a year after the BP oil spill, U.S. researchers say.Pneumonia, liver disease and a pregnant female carrying a dead fetus were also reported in the first major study of dolphin health after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion that spilled 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.Half of the 32 dolphins studied off the coast of Louisiana i

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Next time you call someone a Neanderthal, better look in a mirror. Many of the genes that help determine most people’s skin and hair are more Neanderthal than not, according to two new studies that look at the DNA fossils hidden in the modern human genome.About 50,000 years ago, modern day humans migrated out of Africa north to Europe and East Asia and met up with furrow-browed Neanderthals that had been in the colder climates for more than 100,000 years. Some of the two specie

WASHINGTON (AP) ― It happens to nearly everyone: A song ― let’s say Abba’s “Waterloo” ― is stuck in your head and just won’t go away.Now science has not one but three ways to dig that dreaded earworm out. And none of them are too surprising, as researchers surveyed 18,000 residents of Finland and England and reported their findings in the journal PLOS One.Researchers at the University of London found that earworm victims say you can listen to the complete song or sing it; you can just not let it

PARIS (AFP) ― “In some cases death came immediately; in others, after many days,” the historian Procopius wrote as a terrifying disease scythed through Constantinople in 542.“With some, the body broke out with black pustules about as large as a lentil and these did not survive even one day, but all succumbed immediately. Vomiting of blood ensued in many, without visible cause, and immediately brought death.”What Procopius observed first hand was the Plague of Justinian, named after the Eastern R

BETHESDA, Maryland (AP) ―Forget being sneezed on: Government scientists are deliberately giving dozens of volunteers the flu by squirting the live virus straight up their noses.It may sound bizarre, but the rare type of research is a step in the quest for better flu vaccines. It turns out that how the body fends off influenza remains something of a mystery.“Vaccines are working, but we could do better,” said Dr. Matthew Memoli of the National Institutes of Health, who is leading the study that a

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― The New Madrid fault zone in the nation’s midsection is active and could spawn future large earthquakes, scientists reported.It’s “not dead yet,” said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Susan Hough, who was part of the study published online by the journal Science.Researchers have long debated just how much of a hazard New Madrid poses. The zone stretches 300 km, crossing parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee.In 1811 and 1812, it

PARIS (AFP) ― Scientists said they had unraveled the genome of the hookworm, paving the way for better remedies against the disease-causing parasite that infects about 700 million people.An international team of researchers identified genes that help the hookworm invade its host, evade the body’s immune defences, and feed undisturbed on human blood for up to a decade.“Our findings provide information on molecules that are essential for the worm’s survival, therefore making them potential candida

PARIS (AFP) ― Astronomers said they had for the first time seen the gas strands theorized to hold the universe together in a “cosmic web.”They had used the intense radiation generated by a quasar ― a byproduct of a supermassive black hole ― acting as a type of cosmic flashlight to illuminate part of the vast filament network.Cosmologists believe that matter between galaxies is distributed in a network of strands known as the cosmic web. The vast majority of atoms in the universe are thought to r

TOKYO (AFP) ― Japanese space scientists are set to trial a tether they hope will help pull junk out of orbit around Earth, clearing up tons of planetary clutter, they said.Researchers at The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency have developed what they called an electrodynamic tether made from thin wires of stainless steel and aluminium.The idea is that one end of the strip will be attached to one of the thousands of dead satellites or bits of rocket that are jamming up space and endangering worki

HOUSTON (AP) ― Researchers believe they have found an unlikely way to decrease the radioactivity of some hydraulic fracturing wastewater: Mix it with the hazardous drainage from mining operations.The wastewater is created when some of the chemical-laced water used to fracture thick underground rocks flows back out of the wellbore. The water is tainted with chemicals, toxins and in some parts of the country ― such as Pennsylvania ― naturally occurring radioactive materials, such as radium. Resear

LONDON (AP) ― A small, preliminary study using gene therapy to treat a rare form of blindness is promising and could trigger similar efforts for other causes of vision loss, British doctors say.They studied just six patients. Of those, two have had dramatic improvements in their vision and none has reported any serious side effects. The study was only designed to test the treatment’s safety, not its effectiveness.Gene therapy ― inserting copies of a normal gene into a patient who has a faulty or