Two dead in nationwide outbreak
Contaminated lettuce is suspected in the largest outbreak in Michigan.
Shutterstock photo
Shutterstock photo
Aug. 3, 2026
Two people have died in connection with the nationwide cyclosporiasis outbreak; the first fatalities recorded since the contamination began this summer.
According to a statement issued by officials of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the victims also had significant health factors that may have been amplified by the cyclosporiasis or related dehydration.
Cyclosporiasis is caused by a parasite found in produce when the fruits and vegetables are exposed to human feces contamination during growth or processing. Symptoms can include so called “explosive diarrhea” cramps and other discomfort. It is treated with antibiotics.
Though such contamination is common during the summer, this year’s outbreaks are the worst on record. Since May 1, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed or is investigating more than 18,000 cases in 45 states. More than 423 people have been hospitalized.
The biggest outbreak occurred in Michigan where 11,234 cases have been detected and 193 people have been hospitalized.
Iceberg lettuce grown by Taylor Farms in central Mexico and supplied to Taco Bell restaurants is the suspected cause. The company has recalled some related products.
Michigan health officials say the local outbreak appears to be declining. The number of new cases has dropped from 3,500 during the weeks of July 13 and July 20, to less than 2,000 last week, according to the New York Times.
According to a statement issued by officials of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the victims also had significant health factors that may have been amplified by the cyclosporiasis or related dehydration.
Cyclosporiasis is caused by a parasite found in produce when the fruits and vegetables are exposed to human feces contamination during growth or processing. Symptoms can include so called “explosive diarrhea” cramps and other discomfort. It is treated with antibiotics.
Though such contamination is common during the summer, this year’s outbreaks are the worst on record. Since May 1, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed or is investigating more than 18,000 cases in 45 states. More than 423 people have been hospitalized.
The biggest outbreak occurred in Michigan where 11,234 cases have been detected and 193 people have been hospitalized.
Iceberg lettuce grown by Taylor Farms in central Mexico and supplied to Taco Bell restaurants is the suspected cause. The company has recalled some related products.
Michigan health officials say the local outbreak appears to be declining. The number of new cases has dropped from 3,500 during the weeks of July 13 and July 20, to less than 2,000 last week, according to the New York Times.
Marmots become stars on pay website
Aug. 1, 2026
OnlyFans, the racy pay-to-view website has a new group of performers: Marmots.
And, like the main character in the television show “Margo’s got money troubles”, the decision to take up the trend comes from a similar motivation: a need for money to survive.
Researchers have been studying yellow-bellied marmots for 64 years, but recent federal cutbacks in federal funding have made it difficult for the scientists to continue.
Hence the unusual fund-raising option.
“I spend a lot of time waiting for marmots to do things and had the idea one slow morning,” said Daniel Blumenstein, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and UCLA.
“When I came back with this idea, one of my graduate students said ‘we must do this,’ so here we are.” Blumenstein made his remarks to Live Science.
Yellow-bellied marmots are one of 15 marmot species that can be found throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Their habitat is mostly in the Rocky Mountains and parts of California. They live in social groups and are active during the day, so scientists can easily study the animals’ behavior.
But all that observing can be pricey, so the researchers decided to take matters into their own hands.
On June 17, the marmot project announced on Instagram that the state of funding was so bad that it was turning to OnlyFans, or as they called it, “Only Marms”
The website’s revenue comes from fees viewers pay to see exclusive content. While some videos feature musicians or celebrities, the site is best known for adults-only content.
But these videos will feature g-rated glimpses of the animals, playing, digging and bringing plants to their burrows. It’s not certain what the “OnlyMarms” creators will do if the marmots decide to breed.
So far, viewing has been brisk, with 735 page visits and 44 fans taking part since the marmot show premiered one month ago, a researcher said.
And, like the main character in the television show “Margo’s got money troubles”, the decision to take up the trend comes from a similar motivation: a need for money to survive.
Researchers have been studying yellow-bellied marmots for 64 years, but recent federal cutbacks in federal funding have made it difficult for the scientists to continue.
Hence the unusual fund-raising option.
“I spend a lot of time waiting for marmots to do things and had the idea one slow morning,” said Daniel Blumenstein, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and UCLA.
“When I came back with this idea, one of my graduate students said ‘we must do this,’ so here we are.” Blumenstein made his remarks to Live Science.
Yellow-bellied marmots are one of 15 marmot species that can be found throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Their habitat is mostly in the Rocky Mountains and parts of California. They live in social groups and are active during the day, so scientists can easily study the animals’ behavior.
But all that observing can be pricey, so the researchers decided to take matters into their own hands.
On June 17, the marmot project announced on Instagram that the state of funding was so bad that it was turning to OnlyFans, or as they called it, “Only Marms”
The website’s revenue comes from fees viewers pay to see exclusive content. While some videos feature musicians or celebrities, the site is best known for adults-only content.
But these videos will feature g-rated glimpses of the animals, playing, digging and bringing plants to their burrows. It’s not certain what the “OnlyMarms” creators will do if the marmots decide to breed.
So far, viewing has been brisk, with 735 page visits and 44 fans taking part since the marmot show premiered one month ago, a researcher said.
Academy exhibit aims to reproduce feeling of nature
Visitors experience a simulated underground environment in a new California Academy of Sciences exhibit showing now through Sept. 6.
Dave Boitano/photo
Dave Boitano/photo
June 8, 2026
A journey through a meadow on a sunny day is more than just a path to your destination
It’s a sensory experience made up of sights, sounds and scents that evoke emotions in the hiker.
Imagine what it would feel like to experience a rainforest, or an underground chamber filled with animals and plants that never see sunlight. Or watching sperm whales breech in a vast blue ocean.
Those are just a few of the natural world experiences being recreated this summer within the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
“Vivid: Immerse Your Senses’ is a unique multi-media exhibit now showing through Sept. 6 in the Academy’s second floor Forum exhibition space.
Using high-definition video, stereo sound and even artificially created scents, the show takes viewers through six different ecosystems on a personal journey designed to appeal to the senses.
It’s a travelling show, created by Sensory Odyssey, a Montreal-based company in cooperation with the Natural History Museum of Paris. In addition to San Francisco, the show will make stops in Singapore, Rio de Janeiro, Toronto and Beijing.
Four different darkened chambers, separated by curtains, make up the Academy’s natural sensory world. Huge floor to ceiling projections dominate the rooms and recreate a cave with echolocating bats, an underground world with subterrain mushrooms a, prairie dominated by giant insects, and the arctic.
The complete show is even bigger than the Academy’s version which was adapted to fit the local exhibition space, said Senior Exhibit Content Developer Dana Goldberg.
Vivid was chosen by the Academy staff to experiment with the kind of exhibit offerings shown to the public, Goldberg said.
“It’s pretty light on interpretation,” she said. “You really just enter into this dark space hoping people will be transported and experience these habitats. We want it to be a visual experience.”
Along with visual and auditory stimuli, each chamber has its own scents, taken from nature and emitted at crucial moments in the video. The rainforest smells like tropical flowers, the underground room hints at mushrooms and there’s even fresh grass during the prairie sequence.
I had a hard time sniffing them out, but my sense of smell is not what it used to be. Not to worry, the odors are not designed to overwhelm the visitor, according to Goldberg.
“It’s pretty subtle,” she said. It’s not overpowering. If you happen to be in the right space at the right time. It’s nice.”
By the way, this is the first exhibition in the academy’s history to include an olfactory component.
Though visitors walked into and out of each chamber the day I visited, the best way to take in “Vivid” is by sitting quietly in each chamber for five minutes or more and taking in the entire experience.
By far, the best chamber is dominated by projections of insects filmed in southern French fields. An enormous grasshopper leaps from his perch, looking like a dinosaur. It’s no surprise that audiences spend more time in this section. Goldberg understands the attraction.
“I’m not a bug fan, but I am captivated,” she said. “They are so gorgeous.”
But sensory ability is not limited to humans. Animals such as sloths, honeybees, and a beluga whale have evolved to perceive the world in different ways. Visitors learn about this through animal avatars who speak about their surroundings.
“Vivid” also includes a series of related activities held daily throughout the museum. See the academy’s daily website listings for details.
It’s a sensory experience made up of sights, sounds and scents that evoke emotions in the hiker.
Imagine what it would feel like to experience a rainforest, or an underground chamber filled with animals and plants that never see sunlight. Or watching sperm whales breech in a vast blue ocean.
Those are just a few of the natural world experiences being recreated this summer within the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
“Vivid: Immerse Your Senses’ is a unique multi-media exhibit now showing through Sept. 6 in the Academy’s second floor Forum exhibition space.
Using high-definition video, stereo sound and even artificially created scents, the show takes viewers through six different ecosystems on a personal journey designed to appeal to the senses.
It’s a travelling show, created by Sensory Odyssey, a Montreal-based company in cooperation with the Natural History Museum of Paris. In addition to San Francisco, the show will make stops in Singapore, Rio de Janeiro, Toronto and Beijing.
Four different darkened chambers, separated by curtains, make up the Academy’s natural sensory world. Huge floor to ceiling projections dominate the rooms and recreate a cave with echolocating bats, an underground world with subterrain mushrooms a, prairie dominated by giant insects, and the arctic.
The complete show is even bigger than the Academy’s version which was adapted to fit the local exhibition space, said Senior Exhibit Content Developer Dana Goldberg.
Vivid was chosen by the Academy staff to experiment with the kind of exhibit offerings shown to the public, Goldberg said.
“It’s pretty light on interpretation,” she said. “You really just enter into this dark space hoping people will be transported and experience these habitats. We want it to be a visual experience.”
Along with visual and auditory stimuli, each chamber has its own scents, taken from nature and emitted at crucial moments in the video. The rainforest smells like tropical flowers, the underground room hints at mushrooms and there’s even fresh grass during the prairie sequence.
I had a hard time sniffing them out, but my sense of smell is not what it used to be. Not to worry, the odors are not designed to overwhelm the visitor, according to Goldberg.
“It’s pretty subtle,” she said. It’s not overpowering. If you happen to be in the right space at the right time. It’s nice.”
By the way, this is the first exhibition in the academy’s history to include an olfactory component.
Though visitors walked into and out of each chamber the day I visited, the best way to take in “Vivid” is by sitting quietly in each chamber for five minutes or more and taking in the entire experience.
By far, the best chamber is dominated by projections of insects filmed in southern French fields. An enormous grasshopper leaps from his perch, looking like a dinosaur. It’s no surprise that audiences spend more time in this section. Goldberg understands the attraction.
“I’m not a bug fan, but I am captivated,” she said. “They are so gorgeous.”
But sensory ability is not limited to humans. Animals such as sloths, honeybees, and a beluga whale have evolved to perceive the world in different ways. Visitors learn about this through animal avatars who speak about their surroundings.
“Vivid” also includes a series of related activities held daily throughout the museum. See the academy’s daily website listings for details.
Primatologist Jane Goodall has died at age 91. The following is a story about her visit to the Oakland Zoo three years ago.
Jane Goodall inspires environmentally-conscious students
Dave Boitano/photo Jane Goodall speaks to students at the Oakland Zoo
Oct.6, 2022
There was an atmosphere of anticipation at the Oakland Zoo as an invited crowd of students waited to see a living legend.
Moments later, the students and zoo staff, above the zoo’s large open meadow, burst into applause.
Shouts of “We love you Jane,” erupted as Jane Goodall arrived at the tented venue in a golf cart driven by zoo Chief Executive Officer Nik Dehejia.
In introducing Goodall, Dehejia lauded her legendary work and status as a “true global icon.”
Goodall accepted the praise with a sense of humility, telling the students “the one standing before you is just plain Jane.”
At almost 86 years old, Goodall is a seminal figure in the world of animal behavior, global conservation and environmental activism.
Her soft-spoken narration and familiar pony tail make her instantly recognizable to anyone who has watched National Geographic documentaries with titles like “Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees.” Though she has since become famous, in many ways Goodall is still that young woman in khaki that went to Africa in 1960 to study animals.
She came to the zoo on behalf of “Roots and Shoots,” a global program designed to get youth involved in saving the planet through individual projects no matter how small. Oakland Zoo is part of the Root and Shoots program, and many of the assembled students, from a variety of Bay Area schools are taking part.
Goodall spent her childhood in England reading books about animals and enjoying the company of a neighboring dog, Rusty. Her mother encouraged Goodall’s interest in animals and later accompanied her to Africa.
Working as a waitress in Great Britain, Goodall saved up enough money for an African trip, arriving in Kenya in 1957. She only had enough money for six months but met the well-known anthropologist Louis Leakey who helped raise funds through National Geographic to extend Goodall’s work.
By 1960, Goodall was a primatologist studying a troop of chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park. The animals were shy at first, but one chimp, whom she later named “David Graybeard,” approached her and the others soon followed suit. Her studies of the chimps would yield numerous insights about the animals, their behavior and survival.
By watching Greybeard one day use blades of grass to pick up termites to eat, Goodall made a major discovery: that animals were capable of using tools.
After receiving her doctorate, Goodall later returned to Gombe and opened up a research station.
She was clearly in her element.
“Those were the best days of my life,” she said. “I could spend hours in the rainforest. I got to know the plants and animals that make up the forest ecosystem.”
Her method of giving human names to the animals and focusing on their personalities did not sit well with the august male-dominated world of British primatology.
“I could not talk about their minds, I could not talk about their emotions. I was told that I could not show empathy to the chimpanzees I was studying. Scientists must be coldly objective.”
But Goodall persevered.
“I stood up for my beliefs,” she said. “I didn’t argue with the professors. I just kept on writing about things the way they were.”
While chimpanzees were capable of kindness, Goodall discovered that they had a dark side as well. Chimps can be aggressive at times and even go to war against other groups, like their human counterparts.
By 1986, as the population of chimpanzees was declining, Goodall widened her activities to focus on conservation and aiding humanity. Impoverished Africans were hunting animals for “bush meat, “while clearing rainforests to plant crops and make charcoal for cooking.
Losing rainforest land and the animals that inhabit it can have long-term consequences, Goodall said.
“To me it’s like a tapestry,” she said. “Every time a species disappears from the environment, it’s like pulling a thread from that tapestry. If enough threads are pulled from that ecosystem, it will collapse.”
She started a program to help alleviate poverty, while teaching locals that the environment was just as important to them as to outsiders. The emphasis was on letting people who live near the rainforests make decisions on land use without outside interference.
“The program is still led by local communities and they are not dictated to by a bunch of arrogant white people,” she said.
“Roots and Shoots” began in 1991 when Goodall became aware that young people were angry about the degrading of the environment, but felt helpless to improve the situation. The program is now in 63 countries and involves volunteers from preschoolers age to college students.
The name exemplifies the empowerment students can achieve by not giving up. It’s similar to the struggle a simple seed endures to overcome obstacles and eventually become a tall tree.
“There is a life force, a power in that seed,” she said. “Those little roots can work their way through rocks and gently push them aside and that little shoot on its way to the sun can work its way through a brick wall and eventually knock it down.”
Animal rights activists have criticized zoos for keeping animals locked up and away from their natural environments.
But Goodall disagrees.
“I have been to places where any animal living in the wild is living a life of fear and terror,” she said, “Where they are cutting down the trees and where there are hunters with their bullets. So a good zoo like this is a much better place for animals to live.”
“You are all very lucky to be within travelling distance of a zoo that is as good as this one,” she told the students.
There was an atmosphere of anticipation at the Oakland Zoo as an invited crowd of students waited to see a living legend.
Moments later, the students and zoo staff, above the zoo’s large open meadow, burst into applause.
Shouts of “We love you Jane,” erupted as Jane Goodall arrived at the tented venue in a golf cart driven by zoo Chief Executive Officer Nik Dehejia.
In introducing Goodall, Dehejia lauded her legendary work and status as a “true global icon.”
Goodall accepted the praise with a sense of humility, telling the students “the one standing before you is just plain Jane.”
At almost 86 years old, Goodall is a seminal figure in the world of animal behavior, global conservation and environmental activism.
Her soft-spoken narration and familiar pony tail make her instantly recognizable to anyone who has watched National Geographic documentaries with titles like “Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees.” Though she has since become famous, in many ways Goodall is still that young woman in khaki that went to Africa in 1960 to study animals.
She came to the zoo on behalf of “Roots and Shoots,” a global program designed to get youth involved in saving the planet through individual projects no matter how small. Oakland Zoo is part of the Root and Shoots program, and many of the assembled students, from a variety of Bay Area schools are taking part.
Goodall spent her childhood in England reading books about animals and enjoying the company of a neighboring dog, Rusty. Her mother encouraged Goodall’s interest in animals and later accompanied her to Africa.
Working as a waitress in Great Britain, Goodall saved up enough money for an African trip, arriving in Kenya in 1957. She only had enough money for six months but met the well-known anthropologist Louis Leakey who helped raise funds through National Geographic to extend Goodall’s work.
By 1960, Goodall was a primatologist studying a troop of chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park. The animals were shy at first, but one chimp, whom she later named “David Graybeard,” approached her and the others soon followed suit. Her studies of the chimps would yield numerous insights about the animals, their behavior and survival.
By watching Greybeard one day use blades of grass to pick up termites to eat, Goodall made a major discovery: that animals were capable of using tools.
After receiving her doctorate, Goodall later returned to Gombe and opened up a research station.
She was clearly in her element.
“Those were the best days of my life,” she said. “I could spend hours in the rainforest. I got to know the plants and animals that make up the forest ecosystem.”
Her method of giving human names to the animals and focusing on their personalities did not sit well with the august male-dominated world of British primatology.
“I could not talk about their minds, I could not talk about their emotions. I was told that I could not show empathy to the chimpanzees I was studying. Scientists must be coldly objective.”
But Goodall persevered.
“I stood up for my beliefs,” she said. “I didn’t argue with the professors. I just kept on writing about things the way they were.”
While chimpanzees were capable of kindness, Goodall discovered that they had a dark side as well. Chimps can be aggressive at times and even go to war against other groups, like their human counterparts.
By 1986, as the population of chimpanzees was declining, Goodall widened her activities to focus on conservation and aiding humanity. Impoverished Africans were hunting animals for “bush meat, “while clearing rainforests to plant crops and make charcoal for cooking.
Losing rainforest land and the animals that inhabit it can have long-term consequences, Goodall said.
“To me it’s like a tapestry,” she said. “Every time a species disappears from the environment, it’s like pulling a thread from that tapestry. If enough threads are pulled from that ecosystem, it will collapse.”
She started a program to help alleviate poverty, while teaching locals that the environment was just as important to them as to outsiders. The emphasis was on letting people who live near the rainforests make decisions on land use without outside interference.
“The program is still led by local communities and they are not dictated to by a bunch of arrogant white people,” she said.
“Roots and Shoots” began in 1991 when Goodall became aware that young people were angry about the degrading of the environment, but felt helpless to improve the situation. The program is now in 63 countries and involves volunteers from preschoolers age to college students.
The name exemplifies the empowerment students can achieve by not giving up. It’s similar to the struggle a simple seed endures to overcome obstacles and eventually become a tall tree.
“There is a life force, a power in that seed,” she said. “Those little roots can work their way through rocks and gently push them aside and that little shoot on its way to the sun can work its way through a brick wall and eventually knock it down.”
Animal rights activists have criticized zoos for keeping animals locked up and away from their natural environments.
But Goodall disagrees.
“I have been to places where any animal living in the wild is living a life of fear and terror,” she said, “Where they are cutting down the trees and where there are hunters with their bullets. So a good zoo like this is a much better place for animals to live.”
“You are all very lucky to be within travelling distance of a zoo that is as good as this one,” she told the students.
Dinosaurs live again in Attenborough production
David Attenborough is known for narrating documentaries featuring a wide variety of the earth’s animals. He is used to describing living creatures, but his latest natural history venture features beasts that died millions of years ago.
Not that it matters. Viewers of “Prehistoric Planet” will be just as moved by the plight of a baby T-Rex as that cute penguin that gets devoured by a leopard seal in one of Attenborough’s typical ventures.
Now being streamed on Apple+, “Prehistoric Planet’ is the latest offering by the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Natural History Unit.
Known for other popular documentaries like The “Blue Planet” and “Planet Earth,“ the division produces 100 hours of wildlife film and 50 hours of radio shows per year, for distribution on BBC’s domestic channels and private cable networks.
Breathtaking photography and film crews that are willing to spend time in often dangerous places, populated by wild animals, is a hallmark of the unit. Add Attenborough’s mixture of scientific narration mixed with enthusiastic anthropomorphism and you have a formula that has made BBC animal shows a worldwide runaway sensation.
Applying that method to beasts we mostly know only as browning skeletons in a natural history display is a major challenge.
But thanks to the latest computer-enhanced graphics, these Cretaceous Period animals move smoothly through their environment, mimicking the traits of today’s mammals and marine creatures.
The show’s producers claim the dino images and behavior are based on the latest paleontological evidence. In reality, some of the scenes must be conjecture given that none of today’s researchers were around eons ago to observe these creatures first hand.
But that doesn’t get in the way of a good story, whether it’s a male T-Rex swimming to a distant island along with his brood of baby tyrannosaurs or a pair of enormous sauropods locked in a fatal fight.
Spoiler alert: the older male gets knocked to the ground and killed, only to become a carcass capable of feeding other prehistoric predators. Life was tough 60 million years ago.
And then there’s Attenborough himself. His presence alone is enough to convince us that everything we are seeing is true; no mean accomplishment in an era when science itself is being doubted.
A British friend once described Attenborough as a national treasure and this latest production bears that out.
As with other history unit presentations, “Prehistoric Planet’s production values help sell the series. The show’s moody soundtrack was created by a team that included Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer and the executive producers include Jon Favreau who created Disney’s popular sci-fi show, “The Mandalorian.”
Along with the five-episode series, viewers can learn more about the latest dinosaur research on the show’s website and even buy fossils on the site’s store.
Sure, there are plenty of show about the land before time, but “Prehistoric Planet” has enough going for it that it’s worth $4.99 for a subscription to Apple+ just to watch it.
For more on the show, visit the “Prehistoric Planet” website. Apple+ subscription terms and information on the site’s other streaming shows can be found here.
Not that it matters. Viewers of “Prehistoric Planet” will be just as moved by the plight of a baby T-Rex as that cute penguin that gets devoured by a leopard seal in one of Attenborough’s typical ventures.
Now being streamed on Apple+, “Prehistoric Planet’ is the latest offering by the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Natural History Unit.
Known for other popular documentaries like The “Blue Planet” and “Planet Earth,“ the division produces 100 hours of wildlife film and 50 hours of radio shows per year, for distribution on BBC’s domestic channels and private cable networks.
Breathtaking photography and film crews that are willing to spend time in often dangerous places, populated by wild animals, is a hallmark of the unit. Add Attenborough’s mixture of scientific narration mixed with enthusiastic anthropomorphism and you have a formula that has made BBC animal shows a worldwide runaway sensation.
Applying that method to beasts we mostly know only as browning skeletons in a natural history display is a major challenge.
But thanks to the latest computer-enhanced graphics, these Cretaceous Period animals move smoothly through their environment, mimicking the traits of today’s mammals and marine creatures.
The show’s producers claim the dino images and behavior are based on the latest paleontological evidence. In reality, some of the scenes must be conjecture given that none of today’s researchers were around eons ago to observe these creatures first hand.
But that doesn’t get in the way of a good story, whether it’s a male T-Rex swimming to a distant island along with his brood of baby tyrannosaurs or a pair of enormous sauropods locked in a fatal fight.
Spoiler alert: the older male gets knocked to the ground and killed, only to become a carcass capable of feeding other prehistoric predators. Life was tough 60 million years ago.
And then there’s Attenborough himself. His presence alone is enough to convince us that everything we are seeing is true; no mean accomplishment in an era when science itself is being doubted.
A British friend once described Attenborough as a national treasure and this latest production bears that out.
As with other history unit presentations, “Prehistoric Planet’s production values help sell the series. The show’s moody soundtrack was created by a team that included Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer and the executive producers include Jon Favreau who created Disney’s popular sci-fi show, “The Mandalorian.”
Along with the five-episode series, viewers can learn more about the latest dinosaur research on the show’s website and even buy fossils on the site’s store.
Sure, there are plenty of show about the land before time, but “Prehistoric Planet” has enough going for it that it’s worth $4.99 for a subscription to Apple+ just to watch it.
For more on the show, visit the “Prehistoric Planet” website. Apple+ subscription terms and information on the site’s other streaming shows can be found here.
Venom is scary but holds promise for medical treatment
An exhibit now showing at the California Academy of Sciences explores a substance most of us would rather avoid: venom.
The painful and sometimes fatal chemical found in many animals is the dark side of nature; creatures inject it into victims to keep from being killed or to subdue their prey.
But “Venom: Fangs, Stingers, and Spines” is not all bad news. The chemistry found in snakebites, for example, can lower blood pressure and researchers are finding more medicinal spinoffs from the compounds found in these toxic secretions.
Venom is defined as any poisonous compound secreted by an animal intended to harm or disable another. The substance must be injected into the victim from a stinger like a bee or sharp fangs like those found in snakes. As with so much in nature there are exceptions such as spitting snakes that can transmit deadly liquids by spitting it into the eyes of prey.
Many people use the term poisonous incorrectly to describe venomous creatures. Poisonous animals must be eaten or otherwise ingested to cause harm.
To date, between 175,000 and 200,000 venomous creatures have been identified by science. They run the gamut from spiders and scorpions, sea snakes and their terrestrial kin and even one species of octopus.
The exhibit contains a variety of venomous creatures including a jellyfish, spider, a nest of bees and even coral. It also mentions research into cures that are being found by bio medical researchers exploring the chemistry of venom.
“There are things about venom that are being explored for a wide range of therapeutics including pain killers, nervous system disorders or infections that have become resistant to traditional antibiotics,” said Lauren Esposito, an academy entomologist who is featured in the exhibit.
For more on Lauren, visit Meet the Scientists
The painful and sometimes fatal chemical found in many animals is the dark side of nature; creatures inject it into victims to keep from being killed or to subdue their prey.
But “Venom: Fangs, Stingers, and Spines” is not all bad news. The chemistry found in snakebites, for example, can lower blood pressure and researchers are finding more medicinal spinoffs from the compounds found in these toxic secretions.
Venom is defined as any poisonous compound secreted by an animal intended to harm or disable another. The substance must be injected into the victim from a stinger like a bee or sharp fangs like those found in snakes. As with so much in nature there are exceptions such as spitting snakes that can transmit deadly liquids by spitting it into the eyes of prey.
Many people use the term poisonous incorrectly to describe venomous creatures. Poisonous animals must be eaten or otherwise ingested to cause harm.
To date, between 175,000 and 200,000 venomous creatures have been identified by science. They run the gamut from spiders and scorpions, sea snakes and their terrestrial kin and even one species of octopus.
The exhibit contains a variety of venomous creatures including a jellyfish, spider, a nest of bees and even coral. It also mentions research into cures that are being found by bio medical researchers exploring the chemistry of venom.
“There are things about venom that are being explored for a wide range of therapeutics including pain killers, nervous system disorders or infections that have become resistant to traditional antibiotics,” said Lauren Esposito, an academy entomologist who is featured in the exhibit.
For more on Lauren, visit Meet the Scientists
