Surprising Truth About the Scorpions Creeping Into Your Home
While they look like something straight out of a horror movie, most scorpions in the U.S. aren't dangerous to humans. According to Jacob Gorneau, a researcher at the California Academy of Sciences, these creatures are shy predators that typically sting only when threatened, usually by accident, USA Today reported.
'They're very unwilling to strike unless they feel like their life is in danger,' Gorneau said.
Scorpions are most often associated with the desert Southwest—Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas—but they've also been spotted as far north as Virginia on the East Coast and southern Canada on the West.
And while some scorpions can handle hot, tropical environments, Gorneau explained that many are surprisingly adaptable. 'Even in places where it snows, they'll burrow deep enough to create a microenvironment that suits them,' he said.
What's driving them into homes? Heat. Extreme temperatures push scorpions to seek cooler, shaded spaces, like basements, bathrooms, or anywhere they can sneak in through pipes, cracks, or under doors. They're also on the hunt for food and moisture, which makes homes an accidental oasis.
Though there are nearly 3,000 known species of scorpions, only one in the U.S., the Arizona bark scorpion, is considered truly dangerous. The rest? Their stings usually hurt about as much as a bee sting, if that.
Still, it's not exactly comforting to find one in your shoe. Prevention tips include sealing entry points, clearing clutter, and keeping your yard trimmed. And if you do come face to face with a scorpion, know that it's probably more afraid of you.
'They've been around for hundreds of millions of years,' Gorneau said. 'They haven't changed much because they haven't had to. Their bodies and habits just work.'
So before you reach for the nearest shoe, remember: the surprising truth is that these creepy crawlers are more Goldilocks than gladiator.Surprising Truth About the Scorpions Creeping Into Your Home first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 5, 2025
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Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
This Space Stock Just Got a New Street-High Price Target
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Since its Nasdaq debut in August 2021 through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger, Rocket Lab's market capitalization has swelled to roughly $21 billion. With a monster 723% rally over the past year that dwarfs the broader S&P 500 Index's ($SPX) 17% return, Rocket Lab has kept its momentum going in 2025, adding 72% year-to-date (YTD). Over the past three months alone, RKLB stock has surged 95%, driven by bullish analyst coverage, a series of successful launches and a major deal with the European Space Agency (ESA). A Look Inside Rocket Lab's Q1 Earnings Report Rocket Lab kicked off fiscal 2025 with a strong start, as its first-quarter earnings report on May 8 highlighted steady revenue growth and continued momentum across both its launch and space systems segments. The company delivered a record $122.6 million in revenue, representing an impressive 32% increase over the same period last year. Operationally, Rocket Lab delivered a flawless performance, achieving 100% mission success for Electron during the quarter. It completed five launches supporting Earth-imaging, monitoring, intelligence, and global wildfire detection missions. Notably, the company successfully executed three of those launches in just 13 days, a rapid pace that highlights its growing efficiency and reliability. Meanwhile, Rocket Lab continues to advance its next-generation Neutron rocket, with Stage 2 qualification now complete and Stage 1 qualification in progress. A key highlight from the quarter was Neutron's selection for the U.S. Space Force's National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1 program, a major $5.6 billion initiative aimed at supporting critical national security missions. In fact, total operating expenses increased 40% annually in the first quarter, primarily driven by a rise in investment in Neutron development. 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CNN
32 minutes ago
- CNN
Could stem cells be used to create life without sperm or egg? Not yet, but here's why scientists are concerned
Scientists are exploring ways to mimic the origins of human life without two fundamental components: sperm and egg. They are coaxing clusters of stem cells – programmable cells that can transform into many different specialized cell types – to form laboratory-grown structures that resemble human embryos. These embryo models are far from perfect replicas. But as labs compete to grow the best likeness, the structures are becoming increasingly complex, looking and behaving in some way as embryos would. The structures could further the study of human development and the causes infertility. However, the dizzying pace of the research, which started little more than a decade ago, is posing ethical, legal and regulatory challenges for the field of developmental biology. 'We could have never anticipated the science would have just progressed like this. It's incredible, it's been transformative how quickly the field has moved, said Amander Clark, a professor of molecular cell and developmental biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the founding director of the UCLA Center for Reproductive Science, Health and Education. 'However, as these models advance, it is crucial that they are studied in a framework that balances scientific progress with ethical, legal and social considerations.' Clark is co-chair of the International Society of Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) Embryo Models Working Group, which is now trying to update such a framework on a global scale. At issue is the question of how far researchers could go with these stem cells, given time and the right conditions. Could scientists eventually replicate an actual embryo that has a heartbeat and experiences pain, or one that could grow into a fully developed human model? As current research stands, no model mimics the development of a human embryo in its entirety — nor is any model suspected of having the potential to form a fetus, the next stage in human development equivalent to week 8 or day 56 in a human pregnancy. Creating embryo models has also been a hit-and-miss process for most research groups, with only a small percentage of stem cells going on to self-organize into embryo-like structures. However, the models do exhibit several internal features and cell types that an embryo needs to develop, such as the amnion, yolk sac and primitive streak, and that could, 'with future improvements, eventually progress toward later embryo structures including heart, brain, and other organ rudiments,' according to a June paper coauthored by Clark and published in the journal Stem Cell Reports. Similar models made with mouse cells have reached the point where the brain begins to develop and a heart forms. Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna tells Fareed about her path to becoming a leading scientist and explains how her discovery of CRISPR can help cure diseases and improve crops. Critically, the goal isn't to develop these models into viable fetuses, ultimately capable of human sentience, but to develop a useful research tool that unlocks the mysteries of how a human cell divides and reproduces to become a human body. The models also make way for experiments that can't be performed on donated embryos in a lab. However, it's possible as research advances that the distinction between a lab-grown model and a living human embryo could become blurred. And because the models lie at the intersection of historically controversial fields — stem cell biology and embryology — the work merits closer oversight than other forms of scientific research, Clark said. Clark and the ISSCR's Embryo Models Working Group in June recommended enhanced oversight of research involving the models. The society's guidelines, which first included guidance on embryo models in 2021, are being revised to incorporate the recommendations of the group and will be released in a few weeks. The current ISSCR guidelines make a distinction between 'integrated embryo models' that replicate the entire embryo, and 'non-integrated models' that replicate just one part of an embryo, requiring stricter oversight of the former. The updated guidelines will instead recommend that all research involving both types of embryo models should undergo 'appropriate ethical and scientific review.' The proposed update will also set out two red lines: The current guidance already prohibits the transfer of human embryo models into a human or animal uterus. The updated version will also advise scientists not use human embryo models to pursue ectogenesis: the development of an embryo outside the human body via the use of artificial wombs — essentially creating life from scratch. According to Clark, the stem cell-based embryo models she and other research teams work on should be considered distinct from research on actual human embryos, usually surplus IVF embryos donated to science. Such research is tightly regulated in many countries, and banned in others, including Germany, Austria and Italy. It makes sense, at least for now, to treat models and real embryos differently, said Emma Cave, a professor of healthcare law at Durham University in the UK who works on embryo models. She uses diamonds as an analogy: Natural diamonds and their commercially lab-grown equivalents are made from the same chemical components, but society assigns them different values. She cautioned there shouldn't be a rush to regulate embryo models too quickly in case it shuts down promising research. 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In the United States, embryo models aren't covered by any specific legal framework, and research proposals are considered by individual institutions and funding bodies, Clark noted. The National Institutes of Health said in 2021 that it would consider applications for public funding of research into embryo models on a case-by-case basis and monitor developments to understand the capabilities of these models. Few other countries, however, appear poised to adopt specific legislation on embryo models, making the guidelines issued by the ISSCR a 'highly influential' reference for researchers around the world, according to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, a London-based organization that advises on ethical issues in biomedicine. The council said in a November 2024 report that international guidelines were key to avoid 'research being carried out that does not meet high ethical and scientific standards; this in turn could impact on the national public perception of risk, leading to a more risk-averse approach that hinders responsible scientific development.' Clark said the ISSCR's updated voluntary guidelines would help scientific funding bodies around the world better evaluate applications and publishers of research understand whether work was performed in an ethically responsible way, particularly in places where the law or other guidelines don't take embryo models into account. The future challenge for regulators is to understand when and whether an embryo model would be functionally the same as a human embryo and therefore potentially afforded the same or similar protection as those surrounding human embryos, said Naomi Moris, group leader at The Francis Crick Institute's developmental models laboratory. The only definitive test would be to transfer the model into the uterus of a surrogate, a move that's forbidden by current bioethical standards. However, Moris is among a group of researchers that has proposed to two tipping points or 'Turing tests' — inspired by computer scientist Alan Turing's way of determining whether machines can think like humans — to evaluate when distinctions between a lab-gown model and a human embryo would disappear. 'These things are not embryos at the moment, they clearly don't have the same capacity as an embryo does. But how would we know ahead of time that we were approaching that?' Moris said. 'That was the logic behind it. What metrics would we use as a kind of proxy for the potential of an embryo model that might then suggest that it was at least approaching the same sorts of equivalency as an embryo.' The first test would measure whether the models can be consistently produced and faithfully develop over a given period as normal embryos would. The second test would assess when animal stem cell embryo models — particularly animals closest to humans such as monkeys — show the potential to form living and fertile animals when transferred into surrogate animal wombs, thus suggesting that the same outcome would in theory be possible for human embryo models. That hasn't happened yet, but Chinese researchers in 2023 created embryo models from the stem cells of macaque monkeys that when implanted in a surrogate monkey triggered signs of early pregnancy. Proponents of the technology say the models offer an equally, and possibly more, useful, ethical alternative to research on scarce and precious human embryos. The models have the potential to be produced at scale in a lab to screen drugs for embryo toxicology, a impactful application given that pregnant women have often been excluded from drug trials because of safety concerns. Yet, the potential for these models to be used in the creation of life has been cause for worry among bioethicists. 'There are commercial and other groups raising the possibility of building an embryo in vitro and combining different bioengineering approaches to bring such an entity to viability,' according to the June paper coauthored by Clark and other members of the ISSCR's embryo model working group. 'Currently the practice of bringing an SCBEM (stem cell-based embryo model) to viability is considered unsafe and unethical and should not be pursued,' the study noted. Cave said ectogenesis may sound like the realm of science fiction, but it isn't impossible. As embryo models continue to be developed, and separate research is advancing into artificial wombs, the two technologies could meet, Cave said. The challenge, she added, is recognizing the value of these research paths but at the same time preventing misuse. Jun Wu, an associate professor at the Department of Molecular Biology at the University of Texas Southwestern is one of a number of stem cell biologists involved in the field. He agreed that ectogenesis should be off the table but explained that researchers developing embryo models must engage in a delicate dance: To the unlock the mysteries of the human embryo, models have to resemble embryos closely enough to offer real insight but they must not resemble them so closely that they risk being viewed as viable. Magdalena Zernicka-Geotz, the Bren professor of biology and biological engineering at Caltech, said she welcomed the new guidelines. She announced in 2023 that her team had succeeded in a world first: growing embryo-like models to a stage resembling 14-day-old embryos. Later the same year, Jacob Hanna, a professor of stem cell biology and embryology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, said his team had gone a step further with a model derived from skin cells that showed all the cell types that are essential for an embryo's development — including the precursor of the placenta. Together the work represented a breakthrough for the models' potential use in research on pregnancy loss: At 14 days the human embryo has begun to attach to the lining of the uterus, a process known as implantation. Many miscarriages occur around this stage, Zernicka-Geotz said. Lab research on human embryos beyond 14 days, including those donated from IVF treatments, is prohibited in most jurisdictions. And while some scientists do study tissue obtained from abortions, such tissue is limited because few procedures take place between week 2 and week 4 of an embryo's development. The ability to grow an embryo model outside of a womb at this developmental stage paves the way for studies that are not possible in living human embryos. 'Far more pregnancies fail than succeed during the critical window just before, during and immediately after implantation. This is why we created in my lab the embryo-like structures from stem cells as a way to really understand this critical and so highly fragile stage of development,' Zernicka-Goetz said. Clark agreed that embryo models could potentially be used to address infertility problems: 'Implantation. It's the big black box. Once the embryo implants in the uterus, we understand very little about the development,' Clark added. 'And if we can't study it, we don't know what we're missing.'
Android Authority
an hour ago
- Android Authority
Watch and learn, Samsung: This Galaxy Ring competitor now predicts your chances of falling sick
Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority TL;DR Circular's smart ring is getting a new Immunity Index that measures your defense against diseases. It accounts for your vitals and gives you a rating on a scale of 0–8. The feature is rolling out to the companion app for the first-gen Circular Ring and will be available for the Ring 2, which is expected to be available soon. Even though the smart ring market is still niche, the entry of big players like Samsung with its Galaxy Ring has set it into motion. Besides already established brands like Oura and (relatively) new entrants like Samsung, a host of smaller brands are looking to benefit from this momentum. Circular, one of these brands, is making noise with unusual (for a smart ring) features such as blood pressure and non-invasive sugar level monitoring right from your finger. While we await its newer generation, Circular's existing model is gaining new insights that predict before you fall sick. The first-generation Circular Ring now takes into account vital health metrics, including HRV or Heart Rate Variability, resting heart rate, irregular breathing patterns during sleep, and variations in skin temperature. This data is consolidated into an Immunity Index, which, Circular says, is designed to indicate a user's 'readiness to fight off diseases.' Based on continuous reading of these metrics, the Immunity Index gives a rating out of eight to quantify users' immunity. It will also warn users of their chances of falling sick, similar to what the Apple Watch does through its Vitals app. My colleague Rita El Khoury also discovered a similar feature worked well on her Oura Ring, which notified her before she fell sick. However, both Galaxy Watch and Pixel Watch currently lack features to detect signs of illness. If you're wondering why Circular chose a rating out of eight instead of ten, it is because it has five tiers based on definite ratings, rather than a more descriptive scale. Continuous details these ratings as follows: 8/8: All Clear, where all your metrics lie in the safe zone 6/8: Slightly vulnerable, indicating one of the metrics may be off 4/8: Vulnerable, where multiple factors could indicate stress or lack of rest 2/8: Advanced risk, for multiple factors off the charts 0/8: Major risk, which indicates the requirement of medical attention The brand is also updating its app to allow tracking of potential symptoms. These features will roll out to all users of the Circular Ring and are promised to be available on the Ring 2, which was announced earlier this year and is up for pre-ordering via Kickstarter. Notably, Continuous has amassed pre-orders worth almost $4 million, which is 400 times the initial target. The campaign page says the sizing kits have already started to be shipped to backers, and delivery of the rings is expected to begin very soon. Follow
