No more rabies from dogs. On World Rabies Day, 28 September, Bhutan was the example everyone pointed to. The WHO confirmed this month that the country has eliminated rabies passed on by dogs, the first in South-East Asia and the second in the world after Mexico. The method was patient rather than harsh: every free-roaming dog sterilised, more than 90% vaccinated, and free treatment in all 20 districts. Nobody has died of dog-transmitted rabies there since June 2023.
Why astronauts get constipated. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen, working with NASA, studied blood samples from 52 astronauts on the International Space Station. Within weeks of arriving, their gut bacteria start fermenting more protein than usual, because food moves more slowly in weightlessness. The study appeared in Nature Communications on 28 September.
Not family after all. Adults and children buried together in medieval Sweden were usually not related, DNA from 142 people at Sigtuna, Västerhus and Fjälkinge shows. One young woman was buried with a scallop shell, the badge of pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela. The Stockholm University study is in Science Advances.