Going barefoot in parts of Africa, Asia and South America is dangerous.

Hookworms live in the soil and enter the body through the feet. By feeding on victims' blood, the worms cause anemia and, in children, stunted growth and learning problems. These infections afflict an estimated 700 million of the world's poor. 

Researchers have decoded the genome of the hookworm, Necator americanus, finding clues to how it infects and survives in humans. Necator americanus causes about 85 percent of human hookworm infections, which are not usually fatal. However, in pregnant women, the worm can cause severe anemia, leading to maternal deaths and low birth weights that contribute to newborn deaths.

Researchers have discovered the genetic machinery that turns the common gut bacterium Bacteroides ovatus
 into the Swiss Army knife of the digestive tract, helping us metabolize a main component of dietary fiber from the cell walls of fruits and vegetables.

The findings illuminate the specialized roles played by key members of the vast microbial community living in the human gut, and could inform the development of tailored microbiota transplants to improve intestinal health after antibiotic use or illness. 

 About 92 percent of the population harbors bacteria with a variant of the gene sequence, according to the researchers' survey of public genome data from 250 adult humans. 

A new paper claims that exposure to secondhand smoke at home or in the car increases the odds of children being readmitted to the hospital within a year of being admitted for asthma.

A new estimate has said that tidal power generated by turbines placed in the Pentland Firth, between mainland Scotland and Orkney, could power about half of Scotland - they estimate 1.9 gigawatts could be available.

Results using data from the Gaia-ESO project has provided some evidence backing up theoretical divisions in the chemical composition of the stars that make up the Milky Way's disc – the vast collection of giant gas clouds and billions of stars that give our Galaxy its 'flying saucer' shape -  and suggesting that stars in the inner regions of the Galactic disc were the first to form.

Measuring a 27-dimensional quantum state is a time-consuming, multistage process using a technique called quantum tomography, which is similar to creating a 3D image from many 2D ones.

Researchers have instead been able to apply direct measurement to do this in a single experiment with no post-processing. In a new paper they demonstrate direct measurements of the quantum state associated with the orbital-angular momentum.

Want a more accurate estimate of waiting time to get through security at airports? 

Obviously monitoring Bluetooth and Wi-Fi is one way to go, but often people shut those off in the airport to conserve energy. Monitoring cell phones and tablets doesn't work if only 30% of people have them on. 

As many of us know, queues at airports are arranged in mazes using retractable ribbon barriers. Security personnel adjust the barriers according to the size of the queue, and analysis also 'learns' how the flow of people moves over time. This is then used to give an estimate of how long it takes for the queue to pass through security.

Researchers recently got 54 volunteers to try on free shoes. But this wasn't for fun, it was for a biomechanical study of the shoes manufactured by the Majorcan Camper brand.

The six designs of men's and women's footwear were then analyzed using optical motion capture systems, force plates, in-shoe pressure measurement devices and electromyography (EMG) sensors. The aim was to determine the parameters that affect how comfortable the shoes are.

It is estimated that one in 50 people in England have some form of learning disability such as Down’s syndrome, but when they become hospitalized they basically become 'invisible', according to a new paper. 

Hospital patients with learning disabilities face longer waits and mismanaged treatment due to a failure to understand them by nursing staff. In one case, a patient who had problems making herself understood was accused of being drunk by hard pressed hospital staff.

A young star named HD 142527 in the constellation Lupus (the Wolf) has revealed that cosmic dust, which is component material of planets, is circling around the star in a form of asymmetric ring. 

By measuring the density of dust in the densest part of the ring, astronomers imaging it with  the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) found that it is highly possible that planets are now being formed in that region.