Free Republic

A pair of Schistosoma mansoni seen in SEM imaging (Credit: USUHS/Public Domain) ================================================================================== Usually, when parasitic worms attempt to invade the human body, the skin serves as the first line of defense. Pain receptors sound the alarm, prompting immune cells to swarm and stop the would-be invader in its tracks. However, new research has discovered that one of the world’s most pervasive parasitic worms, Schistosoma mansoni, sidesteps this natural alarm system by manipulating pain-sensing neurons to infiltrate a host’s body. A study published in The Journal of Immunology reveals how this blood fluke exploits a specialized class of neurons marked...

In the 1950s, a dam was proposed to control the flooding and provide hydroelectric power to Egypt, with construction beginning in 1960. The plan was to form a lake behind the dam that would enable farmers to construct a series of channels for irrigation, prevent cliff erosion and provide a reliable source of drinking water.Prior to the dam’s construction, UNESCO enacted a plan to move historic monuments and structures above the flood waters, including the famous Abu Simbel complex, the temples of Philae island, the temples of Beit el Wali and Kalabsha and the Kiosk of Qertassi near the High...

CASES WITHOUT BORDERS KWA'AL, Nigeria - The pond was about the size of a school swimming pool, except it was surrounded by dry mud pocked with hundreds of hoofprints. A herd of goats was at one edge, drinking and defecating in the same spot. The sun was going down behind a thorn tree, backlighting 50 naked boys splashing one another in the warm dusk. Where a colonialist romantic would have seen a landscape of native innocence, I saw a horror movie: there were worms in the brown water invisibly digging right through the boys' skin. Kwa'al is a market village...