By our side for thousands of years, dogs are masters of understanding human communication. A new study finds their ability to understand social cues emerges from an early age — without much training — and that genetics plays a key role.
Why it matters: The findings suggest human preferences for communication may have shaped the domestication and evolution of one of our best animal friends. It could also help researchers to understand dogs' social cognition — and how it compares to humans.
After watching the swift success story of COVID-19 vaccines, researchers and advocates are hopeful renewed funding and vaccine advances might finally lead to an end to the devastating 40-year-old AIDS epidemic.
The big picture: HIV is more difficult to target than the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19 becausethe virus can mutate quickly and a vaccine would need to trigger a broadly neutralizing antibody response.
The most common cancer diagnosed among U.S. Latinas is breast cancer, and it's their leading cause of cancer-related death, research published in the journal Cancer Control found.
Why it matters: "While they are less likely to get breast cancer than other ethnic groups, Hispanic women who are diagnosed are 20% more likely than white women to die from the disease," the Baltimore Sun writes.
Oxygen levels in hundreds of freshwater lakes in the U.S. and around the world are plummeting — and climate change is largely to blame, according to a study published Wednesday.
Why it matters: Per a statement from study co-author Kevin Rose, a professor of biology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: "All complex life depends on oxygen. ... when you start losing oxygen, you have the potential to lose species."
Mexico's health ministry increased the country's total COVID-19 pandemic death toll by 4,272 to 227,840.
Driving the news: Jose Luis Alomia, the ministry's head of epidemiology, told reporters the revision was due to previously suspected cases being confirmed, per Reuters. "We will likely be seeing these adjustments not only in deaths but also in cases," Alomia warned.
U.S. health officials have begun a clinical trial with adults fully vaccinated against COVID-19, administering a booster shot of a different vaccine brand to the one they've already received, the National Institutes of Health announced Tuesday.
Why it matters: The study will examine immune responses and the safety of mixing different vaccines. Scientists will also measure the shots' efficacy in staving off emerging variants, according to a statement from the NIH.
A man in the eastern Jiangsu province of China has become the first person known to have been infected with the rare H10N3 strain of bird flu, the National Health Commission announced Tuesday.
Driving the news: The man from the city of Zhenjiang was hospitalized on April 28 and diagnosed May 28, the governmental health body said in a statement that noted the "risk of large-scale spread is extremely low," per AFP. He's in a stable condition and is expected to be discharged from the hospital.
