Elephant poaching is alive and well — and the elephants are not. A team of scientists examining seized shipments of elephant tusks from Africa have found that the vast majority of the ivory came from elephants that died within the last three years.
The sobering results, published in the Proceedings...
Bonobos can’t read. But if they could, they would need reading glasses when they hit middle age — just like us.
Scientists figured this out by spying on a colony of 14 wild bonobos living in a reserve in the Democratic Republic of Congo. When the primates groomed their companions, the younger members...
One way to emphasize the technical capabilities of workout wear is with an actual workout. And that’s exactly what was going on in a Culver City studio space Wednesday morning as Adidas and Stella McCartney launched the spring/summer 2017 collection, the latest under their long-running collaboration.
...Mention “animal rescues” and chances are, you’ll think of dogs, cats or even marine mammals — but not farm animals. Author Tracey Stewart, a former veterinary technician, and her spouse, former Daily Show host Jon, have become advocates for abused farm animals. To help Farm Sanctuary celebrate...
Walk into Banker Supply Co. in Echo Park and you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd just entered an exhibition space instead of a new bike store.
The “cycling lifestyle” boutique, as it's described by founder Nick Drombosky, opened for business last month in an 1,800-square-foot space with high...
Are you suffering from election stress disorder?
It seems like everyone I know has it. Last week my kindergartner woke up at 5 a.m. with nightmares about “two people running for president.” One friend wrote on Facebook that she is barely sleeping at all and now fills the pre-dawn hours canning...
It’s time to change the clocks on Sunday and get an "extra" hour of sleep. What could be wrong with that?
Well, it depends on whom you ask.
Dr. Alon Y. Avidan, the director of the UCLA Sleep Disorders Center, says the fall time switch is certainly easier on the body than when we lose an hour of...
Climate change may sometimes seem so big and abstract that it can be difficult to grasp the scope of the problem. But now, scientists have found a way to bring the numbers down to Earth: For every metric ton of carbon dioxide released into the air, three square meters of Arctic sea ice disappear....
Attention smokers: For every year that you continue your pack-a-day habit, the DNA in every cell in your lungs acquires about 150 new mutations.
Some of those mutations may be harmless, but the more there are, the greater the risk that one or more of them will wind up causing cancer.
The threat...
The Ebola virus that went on a deadly three-year rampage in West Africa before it was smothered earlier this year was on the move in more ways than one. Two new studies show that, in the course of the West African epidemic, the Ebola virus underwent evolutionary changes that made it more deadly...
A new estimate of the health impact of soda taxes in Mexico sheds some light on what’s at stake in ballot measures coming to a vote in three Bay-area cities and Boulder, Colo. next week. In cases of heart disease and diabetes averted, the model suggests that, in Mexico, those levies are on track...
Michael Cannilla, a 53-year-old Staten Island, N.Y., maintenance contractor, is a gregarious guy who keeps up with high school friends on Facebook, quotes his barber, and signs off of phone conversations with a cheerful “God bless.”
But when talk turns to presidential politics, this otherwise good-natured...
They call it the “Jacuzzi of Despair.”
The underwater lake, discovered 3,300 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, is a pit of super-salty water and dissolved methane that kills any critter unlucky enough to fall inside.
The discovery was made last year by a San Pedro-based research vessel,...
A little social support from your best buds goes a long way, whether you’re a human or a chimp. A new study that followed a chimpanzee community in the forests of Uganda has found that quality time with close companions significantly decreased stress hormone levels in the primates — whether they...
PlateFit workout is done on a vibrating plate.
The fight against childhood obesity should begin in doctors’ offices with routine weight screening for all kids ages 6 and up, according to fresh advice from health experts.
Draft guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force urge pediatricians and other clinicians to check the body mass...
Good night, sleep tight, and don’t look into that tablet light.
Dads and moms who are concerned about the quantity and quality of their children’s sleep should keep mobile devices like phones, tablets and laptops out of kids’ bedrooms, according to a new study published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics.
...One hundred percent.
That is the probability that a published study that finds no link between sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and poorer metabolic health was underwritten by the makers of sugar-sweetened beverages, or authored by researchers with financial ties to that industry.
Compare that...
Think online social networks have no bearing on your real life? Think again. Scientists who studied Facebook activity and mortality rates of registered California voters found that people who received many friend requests were far less likely to die over a two-year period than those who did not....
For many women in California, a new law that was supposed to make getting birth control easier has been a little disappointing.
Under the law, women should be able to go to a pharmacy without a doctor’s prescription and pick up hormonal contraception, including pills and patches. Although the legislation...
Each Halloween, we are reminded that we are a nation divided.
Some of us think going to an amusement park and being chased by people dressed as zombies is a really fun way to spend a Saturday night.
Others think that sounds like torture.
So why do some people love to be scared, while others find...
If you’ve inhaled so many “fun size” Halloween candies that you feel like you could die, scientists have some good news: That is extremely unlikely.
Of all the ways to go, overdosing on candy might not seem so bad. But death by candy is actually pretty hard to pull off.
In order to give yourself...
Actor-director Matthew Modine is 57 now and in great shape -- even though he doesn't go to the gym much. The father of two is car-less in New York City, his primary residence, getting around on a bike for the last 30 years. In the process he became an activist, founding the bike-lane advocacy group...
In the 1950s, California wildlife authorities used to fly over remote lakes and creeks in Yosemite National Park and deliver precious cargo: hatchery-raised trout.
The policy was great for fishing enthusiasts. But for the yellow-legged frogs that shared those waters, the arrival of hungry trout...
If you ever wondered what went on inside a dinosaur’s head, here’s a fossil that might blow your mind. Scientists say they’ve made the first discovery of fossilized brain tissue from a dinosaur.
The mineralized brain matter, appearing like a brown pebble, probably came from a large dinosaur roughly...
Make no mistake, the tiny common swift found throughout Europe and much of Asia is a lean, mean flying machine.
A new study reveals that these birds spend nearly their entire lives in flight — even eating, mating, molting and probably sleeping on the wing.
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden...
Actress Jenna Dewan Tatum owns an Ojai farm with rescued horses, goats, chickens and dogs, which help fuel her well-followed social media presence and her advocacy for animals.
Tatum, 35, who plays Lucy Lane, Lois Lane’s sister in CBS’ “Supergirl,” believes veganism positively affects not just...
Show up in costume for a free Halloween-themed outdoor yoga class set to live music in Santa Monica on Sunday, put on by Leah Marsh, who spearheaded the Fit Girl Club movement, and Yoga Nation, which wants to make the practice accessible to everyone. Yoga buffs of any level are invited to Hotchkiss...
In the future, your clothes will work for you. A team of scientists led out of the Georgia Institute of Technology has created a fabric that can gather energy from both sunlight and motion, then store it in embedded fibers.
The textile, described in Science Advances, could help pave the way for...
The Canadian flight attendant widely blamed for bringing HIV to the United States and triggering an epidemic that has killed nearly 700,000 people has been exonerated by science, more than 40 years after his death.
In a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, researchers used newly available genetic...
Too many mothers stop breastfeeding their babies too soon, and a panel of experts says doctors, nurses and other health professionals should do more to change that.
In light of the “convincing evidence that breastfeeding provides substantial health benefits for children,” primary care providers...
A little dishonesty goes a long way. Scientists who studied the brain activity of people who told small lies to benefit themselves found that these fibs appeared to pave the way to telling whoppers later.
The findings, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, demonstrate how self-serving lies...
Cigarette smoking can be blamed for at least 167,133 cancer deaths in the U.S. in a single year, according to a new report.
That’s more than the total number of people who will attend the first four games of the World Series in Cleveland and Chicago. It’s also more than the entire population of...
Federal authorities may list a species as “threatened” based on climate models that show habitat loss in the coming decades, an appeals court decided Monday.
Oil company groups and Alaskan natives had challenged a decision by the federal government to list a sea ice seal subspecies as threatened...
Pete Compton, a 79-year-old retired construction worker from Newport Beach, stunned his daughter twice on his birthday earlier this year: First, he showed up at her Corona home on a bicycle. Next, he turned down her offer to drive him home, instead pedaling all the way back to the beach, a 60-mile...
The most dreaded words for a woman to hear while she's in her hairstylist's chair?
“You have a bald spot.”
It's something that a lot more women appear to be hearing. About one in four are experiencing premature hair loss, whether it's thinning at the top of the scalp, a widening part or hairless...
The case for Planet Nine is growing. Two new findings presented at a planetary science meeting in Pasadena have uncovered hints for the existence of this distant, mysterious world in the motions of known solar system objects.
The results could help astronomers home in on their otherworldly target,...
Wednesday marks the second-annual “Cancer Schmancer” Health Summit spearheaded by actress Fran Drescher. The event will cover an array of cancer-related talks; the holistic approach will be discussed by actress Marilu Henner and her husband, Michael Brown, who dealt with his bladder and lung cancer...
Erin Olivera waited weeks for doctors to tell her why her youngest son was paralyzed.
Ten-month-old Lucian had started crawling oddly — his left leg dragging behind his right — and soon was unable to lift his head, following Erin only with his eyes.
She took him to a hospital in Los Angeles, but...
A new study in mice suggests an unlikely cure for jet lag: oxygen deprivation.
When the animals breathed air with about one-quarter to one-third less oxygen than usual, they adapted to a six-hour time change more rapidly than mice that breathed regular air, according to a report published Thursday...
The European Space Agency says its experimental Mars probe crash-landed and may have exploded when it hit the surface of the Red Planet Wednesday.
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken pictures showing a black spot in the area where the craft, called Schiaparelli, was meant to land.
The...
The American Academy of Pediatrics just updated its recommendations for screen time. Its advice: no screens for children under age 2 and no more than an hour per day for kids between 3 and 5. If you’re dealing with older kids, you’re pretty much on your own.
As any parent can tell you, there’s...
If you have kids or teenagers at home, chances are you have a complicated relationship with screens.
On one hand, you know that capturing monsters in Pokemon Go or taking a portal to the Nether in Minecraft is probably not the healthiest way for your kids to spend the afternoon.
On the other hand,...
The American Academy of Pediatrics released new guidelines Friday to help parents manage their kids’ screen time. Here is some of their advice:
Children under the age of 2 should avoid all digital media use except for video chatting via apps like Skype and Facetime. If you must introduce digital...Talk about a giant find. Paleontologists have dug up the fossil remains of two enormous long-necked dinosaurs in Queensland, Australia. One of them, Savannasaurus elliottorum, represents a species that’s new to science; the other specimen, Diamantinasaurus matildae, features the first skull fragments...
Sheryl Crow: rock ’n’ roller, mom, early-detection cancer screening advocate. The last description she couldn’t imagine before her own breast cancer diagnosis. Like so many of us, she thought of herself as healthy. Now that she’s been cancer-free for a decade, Crow is on a mission to help other...
It does not pay to underestimate a monkey with a rock. Scientists studying the stone-smashing habits of bearded capuchin monkeys in Brazil have found that the primates inadvertently produce stone flakes that look very similar to the flakes used as cutting tools by early humans.
The findings, published...
The European Space Agency says its experimental probe has entered the atmosphere of Mars but it doesn't yet have confirmation that the craft touched down.
Don McCoy, the ExoMars project manager, said some data had been received from the Schiaparelli lander confirming its entry on Wednesday and...
The European palate may not always have been so sophisticated.
This week, researchers report the first evidence of ancient Europeans snacking on rodents at least 5,000 years ago.
The discovery suggests that rodents like mice and voles have not always been mere pests hellbent on annoying humanity...
