Two years ago, 5 days before Mother’s Day, Sarah Thistlewaite gave birth to twin girls named Jenna and Jillian. Her pregnancy, which was deemed high risk, meant that she had spent 57 days on bed rest prior to giving birth. But when she did give birth to the girls, who turned out to be healthy despite the risky pregnancy, the entire delivery room gasped. The girls were born holding hands with one another.
Scientists studying the Zika virus have been aware that an infected man can spread the Zika virus to a female through unprotected sex. But what we didn’t know for sure, until now, is that a female can actually spread the virus to male partners. This is what happened recent when a female in her 20s spread the Zika virus to her male partner through a sexual encounter.
By the time Owen Suskind was 3 years old, his parents knew their lives would be anything but typical.
Owen had seemed “normal” up until that point, when his motor skills suddenly deteriorated, and he lost the language he had attained. He was diagnosed with autism, and Owen’s father, Ron Suskind, said it was like “Someone kidnapped our son.” [1]
Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created a robot named DURUS that can walk a lot like a human, and with the swagger of one with a lot of confidence.
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have recreated Van Gogh’s iconic Starry Night painting in order to test methods of folding DNA and attaching fluorescent molecules. This is a practice that is often done on small computer chips. The monochromatic painting is about the width of a dime.
Google DeepMind Health has recently announced a partnership with Moorfields Eye Hospital in London to utilize its technology to treat preventable eye diseases and help doctors spot disorders at an early stage when intervention is still possible. Google DeepMind has chosen Moorfields as it is the largest specialist eye hospital in the world, treating over 600,000 patients per year. This is more than any other specialist eye hospital in either the United States or Europe.
If you want to eat local, in season, often-organic food at a local café in Colorado, you can. And guess what? It doesn’t matter if you can’t pay. Seeds Community Café has a pay-as-you-can, pay-it-forward model that helps people with what they call a ‘hand-up,’ not a hand-out.
The café brings all walks of life together in a way that supports the environment, and sustainable agriculture, too.
The cafe never turns away a hungry person.
Until a couple of days ago, I’d never heard of Pokemon Go. Now I can’t get away from the smartphone game, released July 6, but I haven’t played it, and I’m still trying to figure out exactly what it is. I feel old admitting it, but I had to look it up online for an explanation. Though if you have kids, you probably know more than I do.
(sigh)
Many people remember their parents pulling their thumbs out of their mouths when they were children for fear they’d be made fun of, have a speech impediment, or wind up with buck teeth. There’s even stuff you can buy to put on kids’ fingers to make them taste bitter.
Now, maybe your aversion to thumb-sucking and nail-biting stems from a fear of germs. I get it; I’m a germaphobe, too.
Amy Palmer of York, Pennsylvania, recently posted a picture that went viral of her husband sleeping under their 20-month-old son’s crib in the York Hospital Pediatrics unit after the son had suffered a severe asthma attack. Andre Palmer crawled underneath his son’s cot after working a full night’s shift, not missing a beat to be with his son.
