Health and Science

About one third of Earth's largest groundwater basins are being rapidly depleted by human consumption, despite having little accurate data about how much water remains in them, according to two new studies led by the University of California, Irvine (UCI), using data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites. Editor's Note: We would just interject the word, GULP! but we actually fail to see any humor in this subject. more »

An increasing number of states are striving to connect released prisoners to health care programs on the outside. Frequently, that means enrolling them in Medicaid and scheduling appointments for medical services before they are released. Some state programs — in Massachusetts and Connecticut, for example — provide help to all outgoing prisoners. Programs in some other states are more targeted. Those in Rhode Island and New York, for instance, focus on ex-offenders with HIV or AIDS. more »

Beekeepers do not only lose colonies in the winter but also throughout the summer, sometimes at significant levels. In the summer of 2014 (April – October), colony losses surpassed winter losses at 27.4% (total summer loss), with summer losses of 19.8% in 2013. Importantly, commercial beekeepers appear to consistently lose greater numbers of colonies over the summer months than over the winter months, whereas the opposite seems true for smaller-scale beekeepers. Beekeepers reported losing 42.1% of the total number of colonies managed over the last year, second highest annual loss recorded to date. more »

"Sleep is helping wash away toxic proteins at night, preventing them from building up and from potentially destroying brain cells," said UCB neuroscience professor Matthew Walker. "It's providing a power cleanse for the brain. Sleep could be a novel therapeutic target for fighting back against memory impairment in older adults and even those with dementia." more »