Don't take your smartphone to bed if you want a good night's sleep

It's bad enough that your kids can't tear themselves from their smartphone screen during daylight hours. (You know that describes you, too.)

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Opioid crisis hurting Canadians' life expectancy: official

An opioid crisis that has claimed thousands of lives across North America has become a drag on the average life expectancy in Canada, the government statistical agency said Thursday.

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NICER's night moves trace the X-ray sky

In this image, numerous sweeping arcs seem to congregate at various bright regions. You may wonder: What is being shown? Air traffic routes? Information moving around the global internet? Magnetic fields looping across active areas on the Sun?

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Uncovering microgel mysteries

Researchers at Shinshu University successfully recorded previously unexplained behavior of hydrogel microspheres (microgels) using a newly customized tool: temperature-controlled high-speed atomic force microscopy (TC HS AFM). This machine, which is the only one in the world, was assembled by Dr. Takayuki Uchihashi of Nagoya University to investigate proteins. It was applied for the first time to the study of microgels by the team at Daisuke Suzuki Laboratory, Graduate School of Textile Science & Technology and RISM (Research Initiative for Supra-Materials) of Shinshu University. The study lead by first year doctoral candidate, Yuichiro Nishizawa, succeeded in observing the structure of the microgels which had been difficult due to limitations of previous equipment.

* This article was originally published here

Infectious Diseases A-Z: Vaccine best way to prevent hepatitis A as infections rise nearly 300%

Drug use and homelessness are cited as two main reasons why hepatitis A infections have increased nearly 300% in the U.S. since 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "Hepatitis A is a viral hepatitis that can infect humans, and it infects through the oral-fecal route," says Dr. Stacey Rizza, an infectious diseases specialist at Mayo Clinic.

* This article was originally published here

Godzilla is back and he's bigger than ever: The evolutionary biology of the monster

Godzilla first made his debut in 1954. At inception, he was a 50-meter tall metaphor for indiscriminate destruction, particularly U.S. hydrogen-bomb testing in the Marshall Islands, which, in the film, destroyed Godzilla's deep-sea ecosystem. Sixty-five years and 35 films later, Godzilla is back and bigger than ever in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. At 119.8 meters tall, Godzilla battles it out for supremacy against three god-sized monsters, all with the future of humanity at stake. Film critics and fans have long observed that Godzilla has been getting larger over time, as buildings become taller. In fact, Godzilla has evolved 30 times faster than other organisms on Earth, according to a team of Dartmouth scientists whose findings are published in Science.

* This article was originally published here