A Moment of Science
Most people know illnesses like intestinal upsets can be caused by bacteria. They don't link bacteria with an illness like multiple sclerosis.
Yet just as horses can cause paralyzing injuries, they can also help people learn to walk again through a form of physical rehabilitation called hippotherapy.
Meet the Taricha granulosa newt, otherwise known as the rough skinned newt. It’s a small, slow-moving creature. There’s nothing apparently threatening about it. However, glands in its skin secrete a potent poison, tetrodotoxin. Learn more on this Moment of Science.
We humans are vain. It’s true. What other species watches its weight or worries about aging? Learn more on this Moment of Science.
Botox is the marketing name given to a neurotoxin called botulinum toxin A. This toxin comes from the bacterium that produces the poisons responsible for causing botulism.
Since botulism bacteria cannot survive in oxygen, they form spores that lie dormant until they’re in an oxygen-free environment. For example, the oxygen-free insides of canned goods are prime breeding grounds for botulism.
In the last few years, a scourge from the Middle East has posed a biological threat to North American well-being–mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus.
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