Prehistoric baby bottles found in Bronze and Iron Age sites in Germany

Archaeologists have found traces of animal and human milk in 2500 to 3200-year-old spouted pottery drinking vessels, suggesting they were used to feed babies Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24332494-300-prehistoric-baby-bottles-found-in-bronze-and-iron-age-sites-in-germany/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

Research Finds Black Carbon Breathed By Mothers Can Cross Into Unborn Children

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Air pollution particles have been found on the fetal side of placentas, indicating that unborn babies are directly exposed to the black carbon produced by motor traffic and fuel burning. The research is the first study to show the placental barrier can be penetrated by particles breathed in by the mother. It…

C-Section Babies Have More Potentially Infectious Gut Bacteria

Scientists from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, UCL, the University of Birmingham and their collaborators discovered that whereas vaginally born babies got most of their gut bacteria from their mother, babies born via caesarean did not, and instead had more bacteria associated with hospital environments in their guts. Science Daily reports: The exact role of the baby’s gut bacteria is unclear and…

C-section babies have a different microbiome – but not for long

Babies born by caesarean section have different gut bacteria to those born vaginally – but the differences largely disappear after six to nine months Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2216818-c-section-babies-have-a-different-microbiome-but-not-for-long/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

2019’s ‘Ig Nobel’ Prizes Honor Strange, Unusual, and Hilarious Research

CNN reports: Pizza might protect against cancer, why wombats poop in cubes and a diaper changing machine that can be used on human babies — these are just some of the research and inventions awarded at this year’s Ig Nobel Prizes, a spoof of the actual Nobel Prize awards. The Ig Nobels are “intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative…

Mini-brains grown in a lab show neural activity like preterm babies

Miniature brains grown in a lab show remarkably similar activity to preterm babies’ brain, dispelling the idea that brains need to develop in a womb to function Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2214687-mini-brains-grown-in-a-lab-show-neural-activity-like-preterm-babies/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…