Meet the bug that uses the stars to navigate hundreds of miles
When temperatures heat up, nocturnal Bogong moths fly about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) to cool down in caves by the Australian Alps. They later return home to breed and die.
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Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Americans spend less time reading for fun and more time on screens, study finds
Fewer Americans are opening a book for fun each day, with reading for pleasure in the United States down 40% over the past 20 years, a new study finds. Researchers from University College London and the University of Florida analyzed surveys from more than 230,000 Americans aged 15 and older between 2003 and 2023, tracking their daily reading habits. Results, published in the journal iScience on Wednesday, showed the share of people who picked up a book, magazine or e-reader every day dropped about 3% per year. Reading with children was also rare, the study found, with only 2% of adults reporting doing so on average every day. MORE: How phonics is making a comeback as millions of kids struggle to read However, those who did read spent more time doing so, averaging more than 90 minutes daily. "For me, one of the most important takeaways of this study is awareness of how little reading for children is happening," Jill Sonke, one of the study's lead authors as well as director of research initiatives and a research professor at the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine, told ABC News. "As a mother, reading to my children was a really important time for bonding as well as for relaxation and for stimulating my children's interest in reading and their imagination and creativity." The study also found that reading declined more sharply among Black Americans, those with less education or lower incomes, and people in rural areas, with gaps widening over the 20-year study period. The researchers speculated that the drop is likely tied to the rise of digital media, including social platforms, streaming and online browsing. "There's a correlation between time spent on digital media and reductions in reading time," Sonke said. "It does seem logical that the ways in which digital media compete for our time would be a factor in these declines in reading." The auhtors cautioned that less reading could affect health, well-being and literacy. Reading has been linked to stronger language skills, reasoning and empathy, they said. "I think it's important for people to understand that reading for pleasure is actually a health promoting activity," Sonke said. "We know that participating in the arts is a health behavior because it statistically results in improved health outcomes including well-being, social cohesion, mental health." MORE: Many students have still not regained pandemic-era losses in reading, math: Report The study authors say that national strategies often focus mainly on children. The authors suggested that adult reading habits also deserve attention, especially given their impact on health and well-being. The National Literacy Trust, an independent charity based in London that promotes literacy, advises setting aside 10 minutes before bed, carrying a book or e-reader during commutes and making reading a shared family activity. Even small changes can help bring reading back into daily life, the group notes. Raihan El-Naas, MD is a board-certified internal nedicine physician and current endocrinology fellow at Weill Cornell Medical Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit. Solve the daily Crossword
Medscape
30 minutes ago
- Medscape
Infection Risks Differ in Two Patient Groups on Adalimumab
TOPLINE: Among adults treated with adalimumab, those with hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) showed a 53% higher risk for serious infections than adults with psoriasis, with notably increased risks for sepsis and genitourinary infections. METHODOLOGY: Researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study of 10,349 adults (mean age, 44.8 years; 54.5% women) with HS (n = 1650) or psoriasis (n = 8699) from the MarketScan database who initiated treatment with adalimumab between January 2017 and December 2020. Patients with HS were younger (mean age, 36.2 vs 46.5 years), mostly women (77% vs 50.2%), and had higher rates of obesity, Crohn's disease, anxiety, and depression than those with psoriasis. The primary outcome was hospitalization for noncutaneous infections. Secondary outcomes included infection types and length of hospital stay. The median follow-up was 1.01 years in the HS group and 1.29 years in the psoriasis group (P < .001). TAKEAWAY: In the HS group, 73 hospitalizations were recorded compared with 300 in the psoriasis group. The overall unadjusted incidence of infections was higher in the HS group (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 1.56; 95% CI, 1.38-1.79). Patients with HS showed a significantly higher risk for serious infection with adalimumab than those with psoriasis (hazard ratio, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.34-1.86). Patients with HS showed a higher likelihood of sepsis (IRR, 2.07; 95% CI, 1.35-3.12) and genitourinary tract infections (IRR, 2.22; 95% CI, 1.22-3.86). Patients with HS also had higher odds of a longer hospital stay (odds ratio, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.13-1.45). IN PRACTICE: The study findings 'underscore the need for strategies to reduce the infection risk' in patients with HS, the authors of the study wrote. More studies, they added, 'will be important to further understand the risk of infection in this population, focusing on the contribution of the disease severity and therapeutic regimens, as well as investigating prophylactic strategies to reduce infection burden in the HS population.' SOURCE: The study was led by Bruna Galvao de Oliveira Wafae, MD, MMSc, Department of Dermatology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, and was published online on August 20 in JAMA Dermatology. LIMITATIONS: The study did not account for steroid and antibiotic use or dose-dependent effects of adalimumab. Diagnosis algorithms for HS had limited validation. DISCLOSURES: The authors did not report any funding information. Wafae disclosed serving as an investigator for AbbVie, Eli Lilly and Company, Incyte, Moonlake, Avalo, Prometheus, Sanofi, Insmed, UCB, and Bristol Myers Squibb. Other authors reported receiving nonfinancial support, personal fees, investigator fees, and grants from the HS Foundation, Incyte, UCB, Dermatology Foundation, Boehringer Ingelheim, argenx, Takeda, and various other companies outside the submitted work. This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
Washington Post
31 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Fewer Americans read for pleasure as attention spans decline, study finds
Fewer Americans than ever before are reading for pleasure, according to a new study released Wednesday, declining 40 percent in the past 20 years. Only 16 percent of Americans age 15 and over read for leisure every day in 2023, according to a study from researchers at the University of Florida and University College London that was published Wednesday in the journal iScience, compared with 28 percent of Americans in 2003.
