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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...

College tuition has gone up 60 percent in the last decade, but some enterprising coeds are finding financial aid in a creative way — by landing a sugar daddy to the pay the bills. And students at Texas State University in San Marcos are right up there with the best of them. Dating (and we use that term loosely) site SeekingArrangement.com recently examined the fastest growing “sugar baby” schools in the country, and Texas State came in at No. 10. The average Texas student graduates with more than $24,000 in student debt, so the average $3,000 per month that a...