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Trees and wildflowers blossom during all four seasons in Kunming, which is known as The City of Eternal Spring because of its year-round mild temperatures. However, it is also home to something much less natural: a laboratory where scientists have been creating monkey embryos with a mutated gene so that, when born, they will age unusually fast. Such experiments are done to study human diseases such as autism, cancer, Alzheimer's and muscular dystrophy.

The outbreak was caused by a 2019 leak of contaminated waste gas at a pharmaceutical plant that manufactures animal vaccines. The firm was found to be using expired disinfectants, allowing residual bacteria to be released through exhaust gasses. It is thought the leak began in late July and continued until late August last year. In December, it was reported that 181 people at a nearby veterinary research facility had been infected, and in January, authorities revoked the plant’s vaccine production licence. The full scale of the outbreak has not been widely reported until now. In addition to the confirmed 3,245...

he Iowa State Veterinarian confirmed "multiple" cases of canine brucellosis, a disease that can be transmitted from infected dogs to humans and other animals. The disease originated at a small dog commercial breeding facility in Marion County, the Iowa Department of Agriculture & Land Stewardship said in a statement. The animals and the facility are quarantined as dogs undergo testing, the department said. While the threat to pet owners is low, "dog breeders, veterinary staff and anyone who comes in contact with blood, tissues and fluids during the birthing process may be at higher risk and should consult their primary...

Ptahmes was Mayor of Memphis and high-ranking official under the Pharaohs Sethi I and Ramses II (1290-1213 BC) of the XIX dynasty. His tomb is located in the south of the Causeway of the Pharaoh Unas which yields a number of tombs dated to the New Kingdom. It was rediscovered in 2010 after a part of it was revealed in 1885 and lost under the sands at the end of the 19th century. During the 2013/2014 excavation season, Cairo University archeologists found broken jars at the site. One jar contained a solidified whitish mass, as well as canvas fabric that...

Last month, archaeologists cracked open a tomb excavated in Alexandria, Egypt, revealing three skeletons bathing in an crimson pool of sludgy sewage. In response, tens of thousands around the world immediately petitioned for the right to sip from the freshly uncorked casket of amontillado. (Spoiler: It hasn't worked out.) But fear not, coffin connoisseurs: There's a new artisanal artifact in town -- the world's oldest solid cheese, over 3,000 years in the making. The tomb of Ptahmes, mayor of Memphis, the ancient capital of Egypt during the 13th century BC, contains quite the trove of treasures. First uncovered in 1885,...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Two teams of Michigan State University researchers – one working at a medieval burial site in Albania, the other at a DNA lab in East Lansing – have shown how modern science can unlock the mysteries of the past. The scientists are the first to confirm the existence of brucellosis, an infectious disease still prevalent today, in ancient skeletal remains. The findings, which appear in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, suggest brucellosis has been endemic to Albania since at least the Middle Ages. Although rare in the United States, brucellosis remains a major problem in...

Could contraceptives offer protection for the nation's last continuously wild herd of American bison? At feeding time, residents of the Brogan Bison Facility cluster around a hay bale, blinking at flecks of alfalfa dust that swirl in the air and settle in their shaggy coats. The herd, chewing and lowing, mills in a holding pasture near Corwin Springs, Montana, surrounded by sweeping mountain views and a seven-strand wire fence. Blue-painted squeeze chutes are settled in the dirt nearby, bordered by a swath of prairie grass that stretches for a few miles until it meets the northern border of Yellowstone National...

Ordinarily, a roundup on the Morgan ranch would happen in the fall. Jim and Sandy Morgan, along with Sandy's parents, Connie and Bruce Malcolm, and perhaps a few neighbors, would head into the hills behind the red butte south of Bridger and bring in the cows and their calves. They would trail behind the cows and check out the bulky calves, admiring the traits for which their Black Angus herd is known. But this week, the roundup came early, at the end of a two-month ordeal that began with the discovery that seven of the Morgans' cows had brucellosis, a...