Biologists at the University of Arkansas have discovered a new virus that belongs to a family of viruses that transfers from rodents to humans, some of which cause a fatal cardiopulmonary disease. The study was published ...
Dec 13, 2023
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Maybe you have hay fever, COVID, a cold or the flu, and are reaching for a tissue or handkerchief.
Sep 29, 2023
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Researchers at UCLA Health and Harvard have identified 10 pesticides that significantly damaged neurons implicated in the development of Parkinson's disease, providing new clues about environmental toxins' role in the disease.
May 17, 2023
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It can be a common habit—after a shower or getting out of the pool, grabbing a cotton-tipped swab to clean out one's ears to help get rid of excess water, or to remove what one thinks is earwax build-up.
Oct 13, 2022
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Alcohol is widely used for skin disinfection in medical environments. However, especially in winter, because there is a temperature gap between alcohol and the human body, using alcohol wipes can cause cold shivers.
Dec 20, 2021
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To assess how different styles of face masks affected speech intelligibility in normal hearing listeners, researchers from Washington University in St. Louis put some of the most popular mask designs to the test.
Dec 2, 2021
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DEAR MAYO CLINIC: My daughter is 7 and has been taking swim lessons this summer. She has been complaining about her ears hurting, and our pediatrician diagnosed her with otitis externa and prescribed eardrops. What is otitis ...
Sep 29, 2021
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For Bangkok market sellers, the armpit sweat soaking their T-shirts during the humid monsoon season may contain subtle signs of coronavirus infection, local scientists have said.
Sep 9, 2021
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In the race to stop the spread of COVID-19, a three-layer cloth mask that fits well can effectively filter COVID particles, says a group of UBC researchers.
Feb 3, 2021
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How should I clean and store my face mask?
May 21, 2020
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Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal.
The plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Africa, and India. The greatest diversity of wild cotton species is found in Mexico, followed by Australia and Africa. Cotton was independently domesticated in the Old and New Worlds. The English name derives from the Arabic (al) qutn قُطْن, which began to be used circa 1400 AD.
The fiber most often is spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile. The use of cotton for fabric is known to date to prehistoric times; fragments of cotton fabric dated from 5000 BC have been excavated in Mexico and Pakistan. Although cultivated since antiquity, it was the invention of the cotton gin that so lowered the cost of production that led to its widespread use, and it is the most widely used natural fiber cloth in clothing today.
Current estimates for world production are about 25 million tonnes annually, accounting for 2.5% of the world's arable land. China is the world's largest producer of cotton, but most of this is used domestically. The United States has been the largest exporter for many years.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
