Woman Sneezed and Out Popped an Inch-Long Worm

An unidentified Greek woman’s close encounter with a family of sheep is nothing to sneeze at. It all started next to a field of grazing sheep in Greece, where the 58-year-old was working outdoors. She noticed numerous flies swarming around her face, and about a week later began experiencing pain in her sinuses. The next few weeks brought severe coughing, but no other symptoms. Then one day, she sneezed and out popped a worm. Soon after, an ENT got to work surgically removing 10 larvae and a pupa (a teenage insect between the larval and adult stages) from the sinuses on the side of her nose. With the help of some nasal decongestants, the woman made a full recovery. DNA testing of the dislodged critters revealed that they were baby sheep bot flies, a parasite with a well-documented history of taking up residence in the nasal passages of sheep and goats. So how did this horror show wriggle into being? There have been a handful of cases of these flies setting up shop in human cavities, most commonly around the eyes — a condition known as ophthalmic myiasis — rather than in the nose or mouth. Historically, the larvae in those cases were unable to develop past the first larval stage into full worm-like creatures. The 58-year-old "wormectomy" patient apparently had a seriously deviated septum, keeping the interlopers from being sucked into the nasal passages and allowing them to camp out in the sinuses.

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How to visit Russia’s "Valley of Death" and Survive

For centuries, a tiny piece of land known as the Valley of Death in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula wasn’t known to humanity until it was accidentally discovered in the 20th century. According to legend, two hunters found this bizarre place in the 1930s at the foot of the Kikpnych Volcano, on the upper Geyzernaya River. The men were faced with an arid land with no grass or plants, covered with the bodies of dead animals. After several minutes the pair felt strong headaches and fled the area, a decision which saved their lives. The story the hunters told about the territory raised strong interest, and in the 1940s and 1950s many adventure seekers journeyed to the valley in a bid to solve its mystery, but not all returned. Locals say about 80 people have been lost there. After analyzing research carried out from 1975 to 1983, scientists came to the conclusion that the animals and birds are killed by the high concentration of poisonous gases that rise from the volcano. A deadly mix of hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, carbon disulphide, and other elements accumulates in the valley’s lowlands without any winds to blow it away. The Valley of Death is a relatively small area just 1.2 miles long and 1,640 feet wide. The period from May to October makes this territory a natural killer, as that’s when the snow cover melts and frees the deadly gases. The first victims are birds that drink the water in the thawed river. They are followed by foxes which come to the valley to hunt. This attracts larger predators, including bears and wolverines. The bodies of the dead animals are preserved for a long time because the deadly gases prevent the bacteria responsible for decomposition. Partially rotted animal bodies in the valley are not uncommon. So why don’t animals run when they begin to feel the symptoms? Some believe that elements in the valley’s gases can cause partial paralysis, but that hasn’t been proven. Humans are often hit with headaches, fever and weakness as warning signs to leave. How do tourists visit the Valley of Death? It an be observed from a specially organized observation deck installed at a safe distance from the valley. Visitors can enjoy the incredible landscape and listen to interesting facts explained by a tour guide. The number of excursions in May and June is limited. A one-day walking tour is 1,470 Rubles ($18.72) per person.

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Researchers Debunk the “5-Second Rule”

Is eating food that has fallen to the floor ever truly safe? Many cling to the “5-second rule,” which asserts that, if you pick up dropped food within five seconds of it hitting the ground, it’s still safe to eat. Now, researchers at Rutgers have disproved the widely accepted notion. They found that moisture, the type of surface, and contact time all contribute to cross-contamination. In some instances, the transfer of bacteria begins in less than one second. The researchers tested four surfaces – stainless steel, ceramic tile, wood and carpet – and four different foods — watermelon, bread, gummy candy, and bread and butter. They also looked at four different contact times – less than one second, five seconds, 30 seconds and 300 seconds. Surfaces were inoculated with bacteria and allowed to completely dry before food samples were dropped and left to remain for the specified periods. Not surprisingly, watermelon had the most contamination, with the gummy candy having the least. Transfer of bacteria from surfaces to food appears to be affected most by moisture. Bacteria don't have legs, they move with the moisture, and the wetter the food, the higher the risk of transfer. Also, longer food contact times usually result in the transfer of more bacteria from each surface to food. Perhaps unexpectedly, carpet has very low transfer rates compared with those of tile and stainless steel, whereas transfer from wood is more variable. So while the researchers demonstrated that the 5-second rule is “real” in the sense that longer contact time results in more bacterial transfer, it also shows other factors, including the nature of the food and the surface it falls on, are of equal or greater importance. The bottom line: bacteria can contaminate instantaneously.

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Why Nobody Wants to Live in NYC’s Thinnest Skyscraper

The world's skinniest skyscraper is complete and ready for residents. Manhattan's newest skyscraper — 111 West 57th Street, also known as Steinway Tower — is officially open. Unfortunately, the planners chose aesthetics over practicality, and now one of New York’s tallest building sits unoccupied. At 1,428 feet tall and barely wider than a tennis court, Steinway Tower is the thinnest skyscraper ever constructed in human history. The engineering alone pushed the limits of what concrete, steel, and physics will allow, and the story of how this building got built and what happened to the people who built it is one of the strangest in the history of construction. When most people look at this specific skyscraper, they think about it falling over sideways. When the wind blows, the building may tip — that's the obvious fear, but it's not actually the problem. The problem with Steinway Tower is that it was trying to pull itself out of the ground. Here’s what that means. When wind hits a tall, thin building, it doesn't just push horizontally. The forces transfer down through the structure and create what engineers call uplift, which is a vertical pulling force at the base. In an extreme case, it's like trying to yank the building straight up out of the earth. For a normal wide skyscraper, the building's own weight keeps it planted because there’s enough mass spread across enough ground that the physics work out fine. However, Steinway Tower is so thin that its footprint is tiny. There's nowhere near enough weight at the base to resist the forces being generated at the top. So, the engineers had to invent a solution. They drilled 200 steel anchors into the bedrock beneath Manhattan. That's nearly 100 feet straight down. Each anchor is essentially a giant bolt connecting the base of the building to the rock of the earth. Together, they act like the roots of a tree, holding the structure in place against forces that would otherwise tear it free. Once the foundation problem was solved, the team ran straight into the next problem: the walls. In a normal skyscraper, the structural core is thick, and that thickness carries the load, but in a building as thin as this one, every inch of wall you dedicate to structure is an inch you can't sell. On Billionaire's Row in Manhattan, every single inch of floor space is worth thousands of dollars. The thinnest skyscraper in the world, the miracle of engineering on Billionaires Row is now being reported as a safety hazard. For buyers already on the fence, that's a deal breaker.

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