Scientists recently sent freeze-dried mouse sperm into low-Earth orbit to study the effects of space radiation on fertility and reproduction. After spending between three and six years aboard the International Space Station, the researchers brought the sperm samples back and thawed them to produce healthy mouse pups.

They found gene expression in the space mice didn't differ from pups fertilized with fresh, earthbound sperm, but it was noted that radiation exposure aboard the ISS is lower than what might occur on an interplanetary trip.

Vaccine Hesitancy

A national survey recently cited the most common barriers and reasons why some eligible adults do not get vaccinated for COVID-19. Among the barriers, people claimed they were too busy or did not know their eligibility status. Among the reasons for hesitation: concerns about safety and a false belief that the vaccines can give you COVID-19. One-third cited their personal right to opt out.

Body of Knowledge

Hair grows fast, about six inches per year on average. The only thing in the body that grows faster is bone marrow, which generates about two million red blood cells every second.

Get Me That, Stat!

The persistent mortality divide between urban and rural living has deepened. A new Centers of Disease Control and Prevention study looked at the last 20 years and found that in 2019, the morality rate in urban parts of the U.S. was nearly 665 deaths per 100,000 people; in rural areas, it was 834 deaths per 100,000 people. The gap from 1999 to 2019 grew 172%.

Counts

1 in 5: Ratio of U.S. adolescents who were within a six-minute walking distance of gun violence in recent years

Source: Health Affairs

Mania of the Week

Titillomania: an obsession with scratching oneself.

Never Say 'Diet'

The Major League Eating record for giant cabbage is six pounds, nine ounces in nine minutes, held by Charles Hardy, who was ahead the whole time.

Best Medicine

Girlfriend: When someone tells me I'm ugly, I get super sad and hug them.

Other girlfriend: Why do you do that?

Girlfriend: Because I know how tough life can be for the visually impaired.

Observation

"I refuse to endure months of expensive humiliation from a psychoanalyst only to be told that at the age of four I was in love with my rocking horse." — English playwright Noel Coward (1899-1973)

Perishable Publications

Many, if not most, published research papers have titles that defy comprehension. They use specialized jargon, complex words and opaque phrases such as "nonlinear dynamics." Sometimes they don't, and yet they're still hard to figure out. Here's an actual title of actual published research study: "The Effect of Country Music on Suicide," published in the journal Social Forces.

The bad news doesn't end with that last, sorrowful twang. The authors found in a sample of 49 major U.S. cities that urban areas where a greater percentage of local radio time was devoted to country music also had higher suicide rates.

Not surprising with song titles like "I'm so miserable without you, it's just like having you around." (Billy Walker, 1963).

Self-exam

Q: Can you name the four parts of your fingernails?

A: The matrix, plate, bed and skin around the nail (including the cuticle). The nail bed is obviously the substructure upon which the nail rests. The matrix is the portion of the bed (partial visible as the crescent shaped lunula) that pushes out keratin that forms the nail. The plate is the nail itself.

The skin just beneath the distal of fingertip end of the nail is called the hyponychium.

Med School

Q: The tissue flap that hangs at the back of your throat helps with?

a) Helps you speak

b) Keeping food out of your nasal cavity

c) Keeping your throat from getting dry

A: All of the above. It stops food and liquid from entering the nasal cavity and soft palate when you swallow, assists speech, helps prevent choking and generates a lot of saliva. It's called the uvula.

Curtain Calls

In 1995, 34-year-old James Burns of Michigan noted a troubling noise emanating from beneath his farm truck. He asked a friend to drive the vehicle while he suspended himself beneath to vehicle to identify the problem. Burns' clothes somehow caught on something, and he was pulled into and around the drive shaft, killing him.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Free-Photos at Pixabay