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Have you ever walked outside during the height of allergy season and nearly sneezed your head off with a rapid-fire series of "Achoos"? If you're like most, the answer is yes, and while these sneezing fits are both annoying and embarrassing at times, there's a scientific reason for why you sometimes have to sneeze in quick succession. First, what the heck causes a sneeze in the first place, and what happens inside your body when one sneaks up on you? Well, sneezing is caused by a number of things, from dust and illness, to emotional responses and even sunlight, though...

Do pack animals just follow their leader? Or if not, how do they reach a consensus? According to observations taken of African wild dogs in Botswana, one option is sneezing. According to new research, if enough animals in the pack sternutate, that constitutes a quorum that it's time to get up and go hunting. The research was initiated by Neil Jordan of the UNSW Centre for Ecosystem Science, who was studying the dogs' social rallies. This is when the dogs, when they have finished resting, conduct energetic greeting ceremonies before running off to hunt. Jordan started to notice that, prior...

This week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) admitted that Ebola can travel through the air in aerosols, but claims that it can never go more than 3 feet. Let's check their math ... CDC (like the World Health Organization) admits that Ebola can be spread through sneezing or coughing. But the CDC itself admits that flu droplets can travel 6 feet. Mythbusters demonstrated that sneezes can nail people some 17 feet away: