Researchers who swabbed and tested DNA from surfaces in New York City’s subway system identified 562 species of bacteria, including microbes from mozzarella, sausage, hummus, kimchi, sauerkraut, rats, mice, and lice. Geneticist Christopher E. Mason said the bacteria found were not sufficient to cause disease, but that his work revealed the subways to be “teeming with life,” like “a rain […]
Read more
In 2011, the poorest 20 percent of Americans gave 3.2 percent of their income to charity. The wealthiest 20 percent were far stingier, donating just 1.3 percent. Researchers say those with less to share may have “higher empathy” because they’re more exposed to need.
Read more
To delay aging, spend more time standing up. That’s the surprising conclusion of a new study by Swedish scientists, reports The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). Researchers at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm took blood samples from a group of sedentary, overweight men and women, all 68 years old, and measured the length of their telomeres—caps on the ends of DNA that […]
Read more
On the 35th anniversary of its launch, the Voyager 1 spacecraft is close to becoming the first man-made object to escape our solar system. The spacecraft—run by a 1977 computer 100,000 times less powerful than an iPod Nano—is currently 11.3 billion miles away. In 2004, Voyager 1 entered the turbulent boundary zone beyond Pluto, where solar winds encounter plasma pushing […]
Read more
The FBI has files on roughly 77.7 million people in the U.S.—the equivalent of one in three American adults. As many as 12,000 new names are added to its master criminal database every day, largely as the result of minor arrests connected to “zero-tolerance” policies at schools.
Read more
Percentage of countries worldwide in which girls outperform boys in academic achievement: 70
Read more
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched India’s first air-quality index in April, but pollution will keep growing unless India stems coal production, which Modi has pledged to double by 2020.
Read more
75% – Percentage of workers worldwide who do not have a permanent job, according to the International Labor Organization. Global unemployment reached an estimated 201 million in 2014; most people work without a contract or are self-employed.
Read more
The average American woman now weighs 166.2 pounds, about the same as the average American man weighed in the early 1960’s. Over the same time period, U.S. men have gained nearly 30 pounds, from 166.3 in the ’60’s to 195.5 today.
Read more
2,500 – Number of U.S. military dogs on duty worldwide $2,000,000 – Amount the U.S. spent on developing a robotic mule
Read more