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April is observed as National Autism Awareness Month. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shared that one in 68 children is diagnosed with autism every year.

This time, authors Kennedy Ryan and Ginger Scott have taken an initiative to raise awareness about the issue. Both of them have organized 'Lift: Authors Raising Autism Awareness'.

Kennedy, author of Be Mine Forever, has shared her experience of raising a son with autism. Kennedy affirmed that Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurological condition, which is characterized by developmental delays in the areas of communication, socialization and behavior.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. As a result of this aphorism, the consumption of the apple symbolizes health and healthy habits. But the question is whether apple consumption is actually healthy?

In order to find out if apple consumption was related to a reduction in health care use, Matthew A. Davis, DC, MPH, PhD, of the University of Michigan School of Nursing, Ann Arbor, and his colleagues analyzed the data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2007-2008 and 2009-2010).

They surveyed 8,399 participants who completed a dietary recall questionnaire and compared daily apple eaters, who consumed at least one small apple daily or 149 g of raw apple, with non-apple eaters. Out of them, 753 (9%) were apple eaters and 7,646 (91%) were not.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) verified reports of nearly 155 children in 34 different states from August 2014 to March 2015. All the kids examined by CDC were those who developed acute flaccid myelitis.

Now a research team headed by scientist from the University of California, San Francisco found the genetic signature of enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) in half of the California and Colorado children who were diagnosed with acute flaccid myelitis.

The findings of the research published online in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases strengthen the link between EV-D68 infection and acute flaccid myelitis.

A medieval concoction meant to treat eye infections has surprised researchers in Britain and the US as it's also capable of killing the MRSA superbug.

The recipe comes from the 10th century and calls for two species of Allium (garlic and onion or leek), wine and bile from a cow's stomach. A brass vessel was used to brew the topical potion. It was then strained and left to sit for nine days.

The ingredients used are known to have antibacterial properties. "We thought that Bald's eyesalve might show a small amount of antibiotic activity, because each of the ingredients has been shown by other researchers to have some effect on bacteria in the lab", said microbiologist Freya Harrison.

Seth Shostak, director of the Center for SETI Research at the SETI Institute, proposed a plan to beam the entire Internet into space in order to set up a connection with aliens. "We could transmit the contents of the Internet into outer space. Such a large corpus - with its text, pictures, videos and sounds - would allow clever extraterrestrials to decipher much about our society, and even formulate questions that could be answered with the material in hand", said Shostak.

Using a radio transmitter will take months to send the web into outer space. The better idea is to use a powerful laser as it can convey bits much like an optical fiber and launch these data in a matter of few days.

NASA's partnerships with commercial industry have seen success so far. Keeping in mind the same, NASA has selected 12 Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP).

The move has been taken with a motive to advance concept studies and technology development projects in the areas of advanced propulsion, habitation and small satellites.

As a part of these public-private partnerships, the selected companies will be a partner with NASA for the development of exploration capabilities.

These capabilities are necessary to enable commercial endeavors in space and human exploration to deep-space destinations, including the proving ground of space around the moon, known as cis-lunar space, and Mars.