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Two additional food companies said they would eliminate artificial colors from their products. “Glad to see more companies like @Nestle and @ConagraBrands taking action to remove artificial dyes from their foods. I urge other companies to step up and help us Make America Healthy Again,” Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said. CBS News reports: It’s the latest big food company making that pledge. Last week, Kraft Heinz and General Mills said they would remove artificial dyes from their U.S. products by 2027. General Mills also said it plans to remove artificial dyes from its U.S....

Ahh, summertime: A season for kicking back, relaxing, grilling and barbecuing. And also a time for these horrific monsters: Credit: Joe Boggs via WCMH But what ARE these horrific lumps?! From one local report in Ohio: Caterpillars that are camouflage experts and known to cause damage to a variety of plants are now hatching in Ohio. Joe Boggs, an assistant professor with Ohio State University Extension, is warning residents to be on the lookout for bagworms, which are the caterpillars of bagworm moths. The insects create a bag around themselves using silk and pieces of their host plant, which camouflages...

Travel back 20,000 years into the last Ice Age, to a time when the upper reaches of the Blue Mountains were treeless and the ridgelines and mountain peaks laden in snow and ice. At an elevation of 1,073 meters, you will find Dargan Shelter, an ancient rock shelter resembling a large amphitheater. Looking around, you could easily assume this cold and barren high country was too difficult for people to spend time in. But our new research, published in Nature Human Behaviour, indicates Dargan Shelter was occupied as early as the last Ice Age and repeatedly visited during this cold...

Maitake mushrooms like these have a unique internal structure that helps them resist pressure in specific directions. (puttography/Shutterstock) In a nutshell Researchers discovered that the internal thread orientation of mushrooms, specifically hyphal filaments, can alter material strength without changing the material itself. Dimictic mushrooms like maitake showed up to 30 times more stiffness in certain directions compared to randomly structured monomitic mushrooms like white buttons. Computer models confirmed that adjusting thread alignment in bio-inspired materials could nearly double stiffness, offering a new way to design strong, lightweight, and sustainable engineering materials. BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Engineers spend billions trying to create...

A new study reveals that eating one avocado per day may enhance sleep, highlighting an unexpected connection between nutrition and sleep quality. The findings build on growing evidence linking avocados to heart health and suggest intriguing potential for dietary choices to influence sleep-related health factors. Credit: Shutterstock Daily avocado intake was linked to better sleep and heart health, likely due to key nutrients, according to a new analysis of a major dietary study. A new study suggests that eating one avocado per day may help improve sleep. Research now confirms that sleep is just as important for overall health as...

A new genome mapping model uncovered 62 key trait loci in bananas, overcoming chromosomal barriers and aiding future crop improvement across complex plant genomes. Bananas are a dietary staple for millions of people, but their cultivation faces serious threats due to limited genetic diversity and significant breeding challenges. In a major scientific breakthrough, researchers examined more than 2,700 triploid banana hybrids to uncover the genetic basis of 24 important traits related to yield, plant structure, and fruit quality. By using a high-resolution SNP dataset along with an adapted genome-wide association study (GWAS) model, the team identified 62 genomic regions associated...

In a nutshell * Gluten transfer through kissing is rare and generally minimal, with only 2 out of 20 kisses in the study resulting in gluten levels above the 20 ppm safety threshold for celiac patients. * Drinking a small glass of water before kissing significantly reduces gluten transfer, often bringing it down to levels considered safe for people with celiac disease. * This is the first scientific study to measure gluten exposure through kissing, offering much-needed reassurance to celiac patients and reducing unnecessary precautions in romantic settings. ====================================================================== NEW YORK — A simple kiss can be a source of...

A new study by Harvard and Ben Gurion University researchers found that nearly one-third of individuals who followed a healthy diet did not lose weight, but still saw meaningful improvements in cardiometabolic health. Credit: Stock Healthy eating can significantly improve metabolic health even without weight loss. ======================================================================== New research from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Ben Gurion University in Israel reveals that nearly one-third of people who stuck to a healthy diet didn’t lose any weight, but still saw impressive health improvements. Even without shedding pounds, participants experienced key benefits to their cardiometabolic health. These included higher...

Israeli compound in Kirya, housing the IDF's secure command centre. Paper Dome did not prevent it from being nearly completely destroyed.

WASHINGTON (AP) - As the nation’s capital cleans up from the culmination of World Pride this past weekend, focus now shifts to a very different massive event — Saturday’s military parade to honor the 250th birthday of the Army and the 79th birthday of President Donald Trump. “We’re preparing for an enormous turnout,” said Matt McCool of the Secret Service’s Washington Field office, who said more than 18 miles of “anti-scale fencing” would be erected and “multiple drones” would be in the air. The entire District of Columbia is normally a no-fly zone for drones. Army officials have estimated around...

Two Chinese scientists accused of smuggling or shipping biological material into the United States for use at the University of Michigan will remain in custody after waiving their right to a hearing Friday in federal court. Yunqing Jian and Chengxuan Han said in separate court appearances in Detroit that they would not challenge the government’s request to keep them locked up while their cases move forward. “This is a constantly evolving situation involving a large number of factors,” Han’s attorney, Sara Garber, told a judge. She didn’t elaborate and later declined to comment. Han was arrested Sunday at Detroit Metropolitan...

Scientists studying the cooperative behavior of Longhorn Crazy Ants (Paratrechina longicornis) witnessed individual colony members performing several seemingly impossible feats of swarm intelligence, such as anticipating and clearing potential obstructions for other members transporting food back to the nest. The team that witnessed the unexpected behavior initially assumed individual Longhorn Crazy Ants were somehow anticipating others’ needs and acting accordingly. However, laboratory experiments confirmed the ants were instead working collectively like neurons in the human brain to perform advanced planning tasks with a level of forethought well beyond any individual ant’s limited brain capacity. Witnessing Longhorn Crazy Ants Using Swarm...

Fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and legumes are not only rich in vitamins and minerals but also contain a range of plant compounds that benefit your health. Anthocyanin is one such example. This antioxidant of the flavonoid family is purported to reduce inflammation and protect you from conditions like cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. You may want to know how to get this compound in your diet. This article explains what anthocyanin is, plus its health benefits and the foods and drinks that contain it. What is anthocyanin? Anthocyanins are a group of antioxidants found in red,...

It’s never too late to start eating better to prevent dementia, according a new analysis of research involving 90,000 adults. People over the age of 45 who followed a dietary pattern known as the MIND diet were “significantly” less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease or related forms of dementia, said the University of Hawaii scientists. The MIND diet stands for Mediterranean Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay, and was developed by the late Martha Clare Morris, ScD, a Rush University nutritional epidemiologist. It combines the traditional Mediterranean diet with the blood pressure-lowering DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension). It includes proven...

A piece of bread baked millennia ago was recently unearthed in Turkey — and now a local bakery is recreating it. Scientists recently uncovered an ancient bread recipe in Turkey, and a local bakery has successfully brought it back to life. The bread, dating back roughly 5,000 years, was discovered as a piece of charred loaf buried beneath the threshold of a house in Eskisehir, a city in central Turkey. Archaeologists found this remarkable artifact in September 2024 during an excavation at Kulluoba Hoyuk, a Bronze Age settlement that has been studied for decades. An Ancient Discovery Preserved Through Millennia...

In politics, they say you want your people all peeing out of the tent rather than into it. In this context, there is a case to be made for assigning Elon Musk a new task to keep his mind off the budget and keep him focused and on point. Here is the assignment. Give him a contract to develop the desalination technology that will increase the habitable size of the USA by one-third and double the habitable size of the Earth. This can be achieved by collapsing the cost of desalinating seawater to roughly $ 200 per acre-foot. (That would...

An elusive fungus capable of generating quantities of a compound used to synthesize the hallucinogen LSD has finally been discovered on the morning glory vine after decades of searching. Almost a century ago, the Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman hypothesized the whimsical plant might harbor a species that belongs to a family of ergot-generating fungi. As the man who discovered and was first to synthesize LSD ( lysergic acid diethylamide) from the ergot alkaloid, Hoffman had been keen to expand our understanding of the biology and chemistry of organisms that produced it. While biochemical data hinted that a commonly cultivated morning...

NATIONAL MOONSHINE DAY On June 5 we toast National Moonshine Day to recognize a beverage with a notorious record of blurring the lines of history and the law, turning ordinary men (and women) into criminals, and common criminals into legends. Follow along as we discuss how the history is just as strong as the drink. #NationalMoonshineDay Traditionally, moonshine is an illegally distilled whiskey spirit mostly made from a corn mash and typically produced by an individual illegally without a permit. Also known as white lightning, mountain dew, homebrew, hillbilly pop, and rotgut, moonshine has served as a means for people...

Image of the ground beef product detected to have been infected with E. Coli. Courtesy of June 3/FSIS public safety alert ====================================================================== Certain ground beef products distributed to Whole Foods Market locations nationwide have been pulled from shelves due to potential E. coli contamination, according to a June 3 U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) notice. The alert applies to 1-pound vacuum-packed packages of “ORGANIC RANCHER ORGANIC GROUND BEEF 85% LEAN 15% FAT,” marked with “Use or Freeze By 06-19-25” and “Use or Freeze By 06-20-25.”

Strawberry tree extracts helped treat ulcerative colitis in rats. (HJBC/Shutterstock) In a nutshell A traditional Mediterranean plant, the strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo), showed strong protective effects against ulcerative colitis in rats, performing nearly as well as a common prescription drug. The extract worked by reducing inflammation, preventing tissue damage, and restoring antioxidant enzyme levels, suggesting multiple mechanisms of action. While promising, these findings are from animal studies, and more research is needed before the extract can be considered a safe or effective treatment for humans. ======================================================================== JENDOUBA, Tunisia — A humble fruit from the Mediterranean region might hold the key...