ScienceDaily: Science & Society News

Plant extinctions from South Africa's three biodiversity hot spots represent 45.4 percent of all extinctions from 10 of the world's 36 hotspots, new research finds.

Animal-assisted therapy has many benefits in health care. Yet, its biological and psychosocial effects in the military are unknown, especially for injured, airlifted patients. Researchers teamed up with a non-profit animal organization that trains therapy dogs to see if an animal-assisted intervention could reduce stress in this setting. Results showed that levels of the stress biomarkers cortisol, alpha-amylase, and immunoglobulin A, significantly decreased after a 20-minute intervention with the dogs, regardless of post-traumatic stress symptom severity.

By sequencing virus genomes from infected travelers, analyzing travel patterns and mosquito modeling, researchers unearthed a spike in Zika cases from travelers returning from Cuba during the summer of 2017 that was not captured by local reports.

Over two million Muslim travelers just finished the annual religious pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, traveling during some of the country's hottest weather. New research finds pilgrims in future summers may have to endure heat and humidity extreme enough to endanger their health.

Australian men are now living longer than any other group of males in the world, according to new research.

The introduction of China's universal two-child policy, that permits all couples to have two children, has led to an extra 5.4 million births, finds a new study.