The guidance comes as childhood obesity rates have continued to rise over the past decade and a half, increasing from 17% to 20%, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since the 1980s, obesity rates have tripled in children and quadrupled in adolescents.

If you suspect your dog is “gay,” rest assured that some homosexual behaviors like humping or cuddling up to other dogs of the same sex are nothing out of the ordinary.

The unprecedented experiment could transform the way that sperm from many different species is transported, pioneering applications for “infertility treatments, livestock production, maintenance of strains of genetically modified individuals, and conservation of genetic resources, including those of endangered species,” according to a study published on iScience on Thursday.

One of the hardest parts of controlling COVID-19 is that it’s very difficult to know if you or someone you know is carrying it asymptomatically. So you might let your guard down, spend time in close proximity to someone else, and help it spread. Testing is useful to curb this issue, but the wait on a test result can still take days. So it’s difficult to say for sure, at any given moment, if you actually have COVID-19 or not.

A new device being developed at Caltech, dubbed the SARS-CoV-2 RapidPlex, could put this uncertainty to an end. It’s a SARS-CoV-2 sensor that’s being designed for use at home. When it comes into contact with a drop of blood or saliva, it can determine if you’re infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus in a mere 10 minutes. The results of the test could be beamed right to your phone over Bluetooth.

A rare “singing” dog native to New Guinea was rediscovered in the wild after scientists had believed the breed had gone extinct for over 50 years.

The breed—known for its unique vocalizations similar to the song of the humpback whale—was first studied in 1897.

Researchers say that due to inbreeding in captivity and because both breeds were separated for several decades, the “singing” dog and the highland wild dog have no identical genomes. But this does not mean that they are different breeds.

"The New Guinea ‘singing’ dog that we know of today is a breed that was basically created by people," Dr. Elaine Ostrander, a distinguished investigator for the National Institutes of Health and senior author of the study, wrote.

Q. Inappropriate food: My son, “Chris,” is 9. A few weeks ago, we decided to open our bubble to include the family of “Neil,” Chris’s best friend. Both of Neil’s parents are doctors, so this seemed like a safe decision. Both parents were born and raised in India. We let Chris have dinner at their place the other night since both boys were having a great time together. When we came to pick up Chris, Neil’s mom recounted to me how much chicken curry and lentils and vegetables Chris ate. I couldn’t believe that they served my son spicy curries without even calling to ask us if that would be OK! I was taken aback and gently mentioned that spicy foods can be hard on small tummies, but it didn’t seem to register. Thankfully Chris didn’t get sick. My wife says to drop it because any conversation will look racial in nature and to only let the boys play at our place. Please help.

Early results of a study from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) suggest that coronavirus can be transmitted through the air from tiny saliva droplets that are expelled when people speak.

Although the research is yet to be published or peer reviewed, the preliminary findings could have major implications in developing strategies for halting the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Monday letter from the study's authors.

"Further studies are needed to assess the viral titer [concentrations] present in speech-induced droplets in asymptomatic COVID-19 positive persons, but our results suggest that speaking can indeed be a major mode of SARS-CoV-2 transmission," wrote the researchers.

The study used laser imaging to detect thousands of droplets ejected when a person said the words "stay healthy." Researchers said that although droplets produced during speech are tiny, they can transmit a broad range of respiratory diseases. Speech is also said to produce more droplets than coughing, which may be a more obvious mode of transmission.

"Droplets emitted while speaking are much smaller than those emitted when coughing or sneezing," the researchers wrote. "Nonetheless they are sufficiently large to carry a variety of respiratory pathogens, including the measles virus, influenza virus, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Moreover, multiple studies have shown that speaking actually produces significantly more droplets than coughing."

A school has been accused of secretly allowing a 13-year-old girl to attend ‘radicalising’ mentoring sessions that convinced her that she was transgender.

Ashleigh and Ged Barnett allege that until the one-to-one sessions began last September, their daughter appeared comfortable in her body and showed little interest in transgender issues.

But they say she had changed completely by November, sporting a short haircut and talking about feeling that she was really a boy.

They were confused by the transformation until they met her headteacher to discuss another matter and learned that their daughter had been having weekly sessions with the head of the school’s LGBT group.

Mrs Barnett said: ‘The school didn’t think it was fit to tell us. We are her parents, but responsibility to care for our child has been taken away. The attitude is that it’s the child’s choice and it’s got nothing to do with us.

‘Children at 13 or 14, especially girls, are sometimes not happy in their own bodies – that’s what puberty does to you. They are very vulnerable. It only takes one person with an agenda to plant a little seed that they are “in the wrong body”.’

The COVID-19 outbreak is giving new meaning to those “sustainable” shopping bags that politicians and environmentalists have been so eager to impose on the public. These reusable tote bags can sustain the COVID-19 and flu viruses — and spread the viruses throughout the store.

Researchers have been warning for years about the risks of these bags spreading deadly viral and bacterial diseases, but public officials have ignored their concerns, determined to eliminate single-use bags and other plastic products despite their obvious advantages in reducing the spread of pathogens. In New York state, a new law took effect this month banning single-use plastic bags in most retail businesses, and this week Democratic state legislators advanced a bill that would force coffee shops to accept consumers’ reusable cups — a practice that Starbucks and other chains have wisely suspended to avoid spreading the COVID-19 virus.

John Flanagan, the Republican leader of the New York state Senate, has criticized the new legislation and called for a suspension of the law banning plastic bags. “Senate Democrats’ desperate need to be green is unclean during the coronavirus outbreak,” he said Tuesday, but so far he’s been a lonely voice among public officials.