TopNews

The winter season is common for many viral infections. This season, it’s not humans but dogs in the US to get severely affected. The dogs in 24 states of the US are contracting canine influenza, similar to pneumonia in humans. Several dog day care centers are closed down temporarily across the states to prevent the flu from spreading.

After encountering a number of cases of the influenza and its symptoms, the veterinarians concluded that the dogs are infected with different strains of influenza and the most common is H3N2 flu. This causes difficulties to dogs such as lethargy, trouble breathing, coughing, difficulty eating, or loss of appetite. However, the disease isn’t fatal and if reported early, it could be cured relatively quickly.

Trevor Sullivan of Detroit is a 15 years old child who asked his mother to capture his first moments of life with a new heart on camera. This child underwent heart transplant on November 13 at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This emotional video of the child with his father encourages many organ donors.

Trevor was ill for almost a year; the illness was mistaken as an allergy by his parents. It only came to notice that the child was suffering from severe Cardiomyopathy in February 2015 when his heart got failed and he was taken to the hospital immediately. The boy had to wait for eight months to finally find a donor in November 2015, and the very next day the surgery for heart transplant was scheduled.

A latest study has suggested that feelings of empathy aren’t unique to human beings. The Emory University’s Yerkes National Primate Research Center’s researchers have found that prairie voles console the ones they love when they seem distressed.

Prairie voles are tiny rodents famous for creating lifelong, monogamous bonds and sharing parental care of their little ones.

To carry out the study, the researchers temporarily separated prairie voles from some of their closest relatives and gave them mild shocks.

On reuniting the voles, they discovered that the non-stressed individuals instantly comforted the stressed voles by licking and grooming them. As per the release, it turned out that the well known ‘love hormone’ oxytocin plays a vital role in this behavior.

One of formally conjoined twin brothers, Conner has finally gone home 13 months after birth. They were conjoined along abdomen and had fused livers and a common tiny intestine.

Leaving behind his twin brother, Conner has been discharged from the hospital. This is the first time when the twins are not together. According to the mother of boys, Michelle Brantley, the other twin is still under treatment at Wolfson Children’s Hospital. Whereas Bryan Mirabal, the boys’ father called the phase ‘teaching time’.

The twins took birth in December 2014. Recently, Conner’s brother Carter weighed in at 16 pounds, and Brantley claimed that they’re both doing fine.

Independence Plaza at Space Center Houston has been officially opened for the public after three and a half years. On Saturday January 23, Space Center Houston disclosed its $14 million Independence Plaza when the exhibit complex was opened to the public with a ceremony.

The exhibit has showcased a shuttle replica, known as Independence, which is present on the top of the original NASA 905 shuttle carrier aircraft.

On Saturday, visitors finally got the permission to go inside both of the one-of-a-kind vessels. They were able to access a space shuttle replica and the first Boeing 747 shuttle aircraft that was used to transport shuttles to and from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

A video was released by SpaceX this past week, wherein its Dragon 2 spacecraft was seen performing a five-second hover test successfully at the rocket facility of the company in McGregor, Texas.

With this the company has achieved another milestone as it is working hard towards completing NASA certification of the latest spacecraft, which is going to replace the present version of Dragon.

Since a few years, SpaceX has been sending supplies to the International Space Station with the help of the original Dragon capsule, and the company has won a new contract to extend that business into the 2020s, lately.