Marrying Your Cousin: Is It Actually As Bad As We Thought?
Marrying your cousin has long been considered taboo, but new research says that procreating with your cousins may not be as risky as previously thought. Popular Science's Eleanor Cummins breaks down the findings.
Eleanor Cummins, Editorial Assistant at Popular Science, breaks down the findings. Columbia University data scientist Yaniv Erlich studied a family tree of 13 million people to see how marrying various relatives impacts the risk of genetic birth defects. He found that one set of first cousins having children doesn't necessarily pose a high risk of having children with birth defects, but if the trend continues beyond one generation, then the risk increases exponentially.
Women often use hormone therapy to relieve hot flashes and other menopause symptoms — and new research suggests patches or creams may be safer for their blood pressure than pills.
The cause of global warming is showing no signs of slowing as heat-trapping carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere increased to record highs in its annual Spring peak, jumping at one of the fastest rates on record, officials announced Monday.
Scientists have discovered a new asteroid that's been tagging along with Earth for the past 2,000 years. The space rock is called a "quasi-moon," since it's only slightly influenced by the Earth's gravitational pull, but it still makes the journey around the sun much like the earth does.
