All Stories by Erin Garcia de Jesús
- Health & Medicine
One key change may have helped the coronavirus become a global menace
One key mutation may have helped the virus behind COVID-19 better infect human cells.
- Health & Medicine
Will we all need COVID-19 booster shots?
Experts say not yet, but booster vaccines may be coming as new SARS-CoV-2 virus variants keep emerging.
- Life
These rabbits can’t hop. A gene defect makes them do handstands
Mutations in a gene that helps nerve cells work properly rob rabbits of their ability to hop. Instead, the animals use their front paws to move.
- Plants
Scientists may have finally found how catnip repels insects
The plant deters mosquitoes and fruit flies by triggering a chemical receptor that, in some animals, senses pain and itch.
- Animals
Choked by bacteria, some starfish are turning to goo
For years, researchers thought gooey, dying starfish were infected. Instead, these sea stars are suffocating. And bacteria may be behind it all.
- Health & Medicine
Early details emerge about the new U.K. coronavirus variant
The variant may spread more easily from person to person. That could make continuing to wear masks all the more important, experts say.
- Animals
Utah mink is first known case of the coronavirus in a wild animal
A wild mink appears to have picked up the novel coronavirus from farmed animals. Such spread in the wild does not appear common.
- Health & Medicine
Moderna vaccine for COVID-19 appears nearly 95 percent effective
A second coronavirus vaccine appears super effective in preventing people from being sickened by COVID-19.
- Animals
This snake rips open a living toad to feast on its organs
A particularly gruesome way to kill may help small-banded kukri snakes avoid a deadly poison secreted from the neck and backs of some toads.
- Health & Medicine
New Pfizer vaccine appears 90 percent effective against COVID-19
Preliminary finds show one of the new coronavirus vaccines appears 90 percent effective at reducing symptomatic COVID-19 infections.
- Animals
A whale’s nearly four-hour-long dive sets a new record
Cuvier’s beaked whales may rely on large stores of oxygen, a slow metabolism and the ability to tolerate lactic acid to go for hours without surfacing for air.
- Health & Medicine
Four summer camps show how to limit COVID-19 outbreak
Schools might take a lesson from these overnight facilities in Maine. They kept infection rates low by testing a lot and grouping kids into ‘bubbles.’
