Super Termites could be worse than common species

According to researchers, Florida’s two most destructive invasive termite species are interbreeding. Offspring produced by these species are hybrid species, termed as ‘super termite’ and could be seven times more destructive than its parents.

There is an indication that climate change will affect in strange and horrible ways, so entomologists from University of Florida have recorded how unusual weather patterns appear to be causing the swarming seasons of the two species. The two species are the Asian and Formosan termites. The study published in the journal PLoS ONE. Already, Asian and Formosan termites cost about $40 billion in damage every year globally.

Researchers say X-ray wind racing outward from Black Hole present in a galaxy

With the help of Herschel Space Observatory and the X-ray Imaging Spectrometer attached to the Suzaku astronomy satellite, a team of researchers studied a galaxy F11119+3257, present 2.3 billion light years away.

The galaxy has a massive black hole at its center and it’s as big as 16 million of our suns. The researchers have found a link between the X-ray wind created by the black hole and the spreading of raw material.

In fact, NASA has also released a video of the same. “Scientists think ultraluminous infrared galaxies like F11119 represent an early phase in the evolution of quasars, a type of black-hole-powered galaxy with extreme luminosity across a broad wavelength range”, said NASA in a report about the study.

Antibiotic Amoxicillin leads to Positive Behavioral Changes in 7-Year-Old

Life scientist John Rodakis started studying link between brains of unfit kids and gut microorganism after witnessing a marked improvement in health of his autistic son.

A course of antibiotic amoxicillin, which is typically prescribed for strep throat, helped in dramatic improvement in the 7-year-old son of Rodakis.

Shortly, after completion of the course, John and his wife observed a number of positive changes in their child's health.

Rodakis reported that their son started making eye contact, his speech improved a lot and his energy level also increased to a great extent.

His son also started to make some amendments in his routine. Previously he used to avoid all such behaviors, he said.

30 New Fly Species Identified

In a recent paper due to be published in the Journal Zootaxa next month, Los Angeles native Emily Hartop will announce about her discovery of 30 new species of fly.

Hartop, an entomologist at Los Angeles’s Natural History Museum, said these previously unknown species were discovered during a brief three-month scan of local backyards and gardens.

Hartop in a phone interview with The Washington Post said, “I’d be less surprised to find hundreds of new species of Megaselia [a common genus of fly] at a remote site in Costa Rica than I was to find 30 new species right here in L.A”.

It is to inform that the new species were uncovered as part of the natural History Museuim’s Biodiversity Science: City and Nature (BioSCAN) project.

Seven Republicans Join Senate Democrats in Voting To Tie Climate Change to National Security

Seven Republicans joined all Senate Democrats in voting to tie climate change to national security. They also asked for congressional actions to fight the rapidly increasing carbon pollution and investing in energy efficiency and renewable power.

A GOP proposal to stop the president’s Clean Power Plan in its tracks was not even brought up for a vote.

It was seen that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was not able to gather filibuster-proof majority for a low-bore proposal of his own to encourage states to challenge the president's plan to cut carbon pollution from the nation's dirty power plants.

Republican leaders remained committed to derail progress on climate change offering no plan of their own to confront the central environmental challenge of our time.

Margaret Hamburg Supports US FDA Drug Approval Standards

The US Food and Drug Administration's drug approval standards have been defended by Dr. Margaret Hamburg, who has served as Commissioner of the FDA since May 2009. Hamburg defended the standards in her final speech after six years as commissioner against critics seeking weaker regulatory standards.

"The great leaps forward in evidence-based medicine of last 50 years have come in large part as a result of high standards for product approval that Congress put in place after series of disasters involving unsafe and ineffective medical products", said Hamburg, 59, said on Friday at a National Press Club lunch in Washington, DC.

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