The Daily Populous

A Brief History Of Menstruating In Space

When NASA was preparing for Sally Ride’s first spaceflight in 1983, there was some question about what should go in her personal kit.

Namely, engineers needed to figure out how many tampons she would need for a one-week mission.

After first allowing women into the astronaut corps in 1978, NASA really didn't know what to do with them.

The men were probed, prodded, inspected inside and out until not a body single secret was kept from the physicians.

Seven of the men went on to pass similarly rigorous psychological screening and emerged as NASA’s first class of astronauts.

Sally Ride In Space Sally Ride in orbit (and I'm not implying she was the first to menstruate in space!)

NASA's First Female Astronauts NASA's First female astronauts: Shannon Lucid, Rhea Seddon, Kathy Sullivan, Judy Resnik, Anna Fisher, and Sally Ride. »

Glyphosate perturbs the gut microbiota of honey bees

Authored by pnas.org

Most bee gut bacteria contain the enzyme targeted by glyphosate, but vary in whether they possess susceptible versions and, correspondingly, in tolerance to glyphosate.

Thus, exposure of bees to glyphosate can perturb their beneficial gut microbiota, potentially affecting bee health and their effectiveness as pollinators.

In this study, we investigated the effects of glyphosate exposure on the size and composition of the honey bee gut microbiome. »

$18 million worth of cocaine found in bananas donated to Texas prison, report says

Authored by deseretnews.com

On Friday, two sergeants from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice found nearly $18 million worth of cocaine while unloading two pallets containing 45 boxes of bananas, which were being donated to the Wayne Scott Unit in Brazoria County, Texas, as reported on the department’s Facebook page.

Officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection would eventually confirm that the “white powdery substance” inside the bananas was in fact cocaine.

The bananas, which were fully ripe, had been donated because they arrived at the port but were never claimed. »

Matter clocked speeding toward a black hole at 30 percent the speed of light

Authored by astronomy.com

After falling past the event horizon — the point of no return — nothing can escape a black hole.

While the depths of black holes may forever remain a mystery, astronomers can observe the regions around them.

PG211+143 is a Seyfert galaxy, meaning it hosts a bright, actively feeding black hole at its center pulling in gas and dust from its surroundings. »

Monsanto's global weedkiller harms honeybees, research finds

Authored by theguardian.com

The world’s most used weedkiller damages the beneficial bacteria in the guts of honeybees and makes them more prone to deadly infections, new research has found.

The findings show glyphosate, the most used agricultural chemical ever, may be contributing to the global decline in bees, along with the loss of habitat.

Other research, from China and published in July, showed that honeybee larvae grew more slowly and died more often when exposed to glyphosate. »