John Glenn, First American to Orbit the Earth, Dies at 95

John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, died today (Dec. 8). He was 95.

The former astronaut and U.S. senator was being hospitalized at the Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University in Columbus when he died. In 2014, Glenn suffered a minor stroke, affecting his vision, after undergoing heart-valve replacement surgery.

"We are saddened by the loss of Sen. John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth. A true American hero. Godspeed, John Glenn. Ad astra," NASA wrote on Twitter.

The last of NASA's original seven astronauts to die, Glenn circled the world three times on board the Mercury capsule "Friendship 7" before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on Feb. 20, 1962.

"Zero-g and I feel fine," Glenn reported to the ground five minutes into the flight. "Oh, that view is tremendous."

Thirty-six years later, at the age of 77, he returned to orbit aboard the space shuttle Discovery, becoming the oldest person, worldwide, to fly into space.

A colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps who flew combat flights during World War II and the Korean War, Glenn served for 25 years as a U.S. senator representing his home state of Ohio. He was honored with the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honors awarded by the United States.

Glenn was named an astronaut in April 1959, two years after he set a transcontinental speed record flying a jet from California to New York in three hours and 23 minutes. On his historic flight in 1962, Glenn made three revolutions of the Earth on board the Mercury-Atlas 6 orbital mission in just four hours and 55 minutes.

"During my [three-orbit] flight, I was able to perform basic research experiments, which helped contribute to what we know about humans in space," Glenn told me in November 1996. "The primary scientific objective of my [Mercury flight] was to determine the reaction of the body's senses to weightlessness."

The historic mission, which came after orbital missions by two Russian cosmonauts and sub-orbital launches by two of Glenn's fellow Mercury astronauts, also established the United States as a contender for the first time in the space race with the Soviet Union. [In Photos: John Glenn, First American in Orbit]

"There was a strong feeling in this country that we needed to surpass the Soviet's advances and regain our position at the top," Glenn told me. "It is hard to imagine the strength of those convictions today — especially with the collapse of the Soviet Union — but you can bet they were a strong motivator for America."

The successful flight made Glenn an instant hero. Deemed too valuable to the country to risk flying on another rocket, Glenn served as an advisor to NASA until 1964.

"Since I was not going to be on active flight status, I stayed on with NASA for a couple of years to plow my experience back into the program and then went on to other pursuits," Glenn said.

He retired from the Marine Corps the following year to run for the Senate.

Winning his third campaign in 1974, Glenn served for four terms, becoming chief author of the 1978 Nonproliferation Act, chairing the Government Affairs Committee from 1978 until 1995, and sitting on the Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees and the Special Committee on Aging.

In 1984, he ran and lost in the Democratic primary to be a candidate for the President of the United States.

On Feb. 20, 1997, 35 years to the day after he first orbited the Earth, Glenn announced that he would retire from the Senate. Eleven months later, NASA confirmed his return to space to study how microgravity affects aging.

"I'm proud to have been part of the beginning of America's space program, and needless to say I'm excited to be back and I am honored and privileged," said Glenn at a Jan. 16, 1998 press conference announcing his second flight. "The important thing is the opportunity that this gives to take us in some new directions with research. I think that is really what we are kicking off."

For almost nine days, from Oct. 29 through Nov. 7, 1998, Glenn and his six STS-95 crew mates on board Discovery completed 134 orbits, conducting 80 medical and material research experiments, and deploying and retrieving a free-flying science platform.

On his touch down, Glenn had logged a total of nine days, two hours and 39 minutes off the planet on his two history-making spaceflights.

"I took a little lapel pin that I had on my first flight — took it up again on [the space shuttle] flight — and that has been one of my prized possessions because it has been on both flights along with me," Glenn told me in 1998.

John Herschel Glenn, Jr., was born in Cambridge, Ohio on July 18, 1921. He attended Muskingum College and began flying lessons, earning his pilot's license in 1941. Glenn left college before earning his degree (though he was awarded a Bachelor of Science in engineering from Muskingum in 1962) and enlisted in the Naval Aviation Cadet Program. He was commissioned in the Marine Corps in 1943.

Bestowed with the Distinguished Flying Cross and NASA Distinguished Service Medal, among many other awards, Glenn was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1976, the International Space Hall of Fame in 1977 and the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1990.

The NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in Cleveland, Ohio was renamed in his honor in 1999. Two Ohio roadways bear his name, as do at least eight grade schools located across the country.

In 2014, the U.S. Navy christened the USNS John Glenn, a mobile landing platform, for his service as an aviator and astronaut. In 2006, Ohio State University founded the John Glenn College of Public Affairs. In May 2016, the country's second international airport was renamed for John Glenn in Columbus, Ohio.

Blue Origin, a commercial spaceflight company founded by Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos, named its orbital-class launch vehicle the "New Glenn" in September 2016.

In 1999, Glenn collaborated with Nick Taylor to author his biography, "John Glenn: A Memoir" (Bantam Books). He was portrayed in the 1983 feature film "The Right Stuff" by actor Ed Harris, in the 2016 ABC limited event series "The Astronaut Wives Club" by Sam Reid, and in the upcoming Fox feature film "Hidden Figures" by Glen Powell.

In March 2001, Glenn took a turn playing himself, making a cameo appearance on the NBC TV sitcom "Frasier."

In 1943, Glenn married the former Annie Margaret Castor of New Concord, Ohio. Together they had a son, Dave and daughter, Lyn and two grandchildren.

Fungal Infection Causes Swirling, 'Maze-Like' Rash

Fungal infections can show up in some pretty unusual ways, and a neat, "maze-like" pattern of concentric rings on the skin is one of them.

Such was the case for a young woman in Fiji, whose rash, typified by a distinctive, swirling pattern, was caused by the fungus Trichophyton concentricum, according to a recent report of her case.

The 18-year-old woman told doctors that she had had the itchy rash for three years, according to the brief report, which was published Dec. 7 in The New England Journal of Medicine. When she saw the doctors, the rash covered about 70 percent of her body.

The fungus, which causes an infection called tinea imbricata, is rare in the United States, said Dr. Carrick Burns, a dermatologist at the United States Naval Hospital Yokosuka in Japan and the lead author of the report. Burns treated the woman in Fiji. [Here's a Giant List of the Strangest Medical Cases We've Covered]

The fungus is usually found in regions such as the South Pacific and Central America, however, Burns said. He noted that he had never seen a case of tinea imbricata before working in the South Pacific in 2015.

The infection is rare, but has some common cousins, including athlete's foot and ringworm. Indeed, the medical term for a ringworm infection is "tinea," according to the National Library of Medicine, and athlete's foot, or "tinea pedis," is also known as "ringworm of the foot." Both fungal infections can be caused by fungi of the same genus as the one that causes the tinea imbricata infection,Trichophyton.

Though these infections' appearances differ, a T. concentricum infection has similarities to those that are caused by other Trichophyton species, Burns told Live Science.

As with athlete's foot or ringworm, for example, the infection is noninvasive, Burns said. In other words, the infection doesn't spread beyond a person's skin. The biggest risk to a person is that the fungus causes the outermost layer of the skin to break down, providing a route for bacteria to enter. This can lead to bacterial infections, Burns said.

The woman in Fiji told the doctors that she had taken anti-fungal medications in the past, and they temporarily cleared up the rash, according to the report. Burns noted that it can be difficult to completely get rid of the infection when patients live in remote areas, because the medications are expensive and hard to get access to. And in some cases, the rash comes back simply because the person becomes re-infected, he said.

When the doctors saw the woman, they gave her more anti-fungal medications to get rid of her "active infection," they wrote in the report. They also advised her to soak her skin in a diluted vinegar to prevent the infection from coming back, they wrote. [7 Home Remedies That Actually Work (and the Science Behind Them)]

Vinegar, or acetic acid, "is an excellent antimicrobial that can treat and prevent superficial bacterial and fungal infections," Burns said. It's particularly useful in areas of the world where other options, such as medicated creams, are not available, he said. Vinegar tends to be available in "even the most remote locations," he added.

In addition to helping prevent infections, vinegar also has a "keratolytic effect," meaning that it helps remove excess skin, Burns said. Rashes such as tinea imbricata can lead to a buildup of flaky, scaling skin, and vinegar can help remove it.

Plague Strikes 6 Cats in Idaho

Half a dozen pet cats in Idaho were infected with plague this year, according to a new report of the cases.

In May through July, veterinarians in Idaho tested 12 cats that had gotten sick, checking to see if the animals were infected with plague. Six of the tests came back positive, according to the report, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

All of the cats had come into contact with ground squirrels or other wild rodents or rabbits before getting sick, the CDC said. Most of the cats lived in an area of southwestern Idaho where health officials had previously found dead squirrels that tested positive for plague.

Plague is caused by bacteria called Yersinia pestis, which can infect humans and other mammals. The disease can spread through bites from infected fleas, or from contact with an infected mammal.

No human cases of plague were tied to the Idaho cats, the report said. But felines can spread the disease to humans through bites and scratches, and in some cases, by breathing out droplets that contain the bacteria.

"Pet owners can reduce the risk for plague in pets by controlling pet roaming," controlling fleas on pets, and minimizing habitats for mice and rats inside and outside the home, the CDC said. [10 Deadly Diseases That Hopped Across Species]

When the cats with plaque got sick, most of them had a fever and enlarged lymph nodes, the report said. Other symptoms of plague in cats include fatigue and loss of appetite, the CDC said.

Three of the cats were treated with antibiotics, and two survived. The other three cats died or were euthanized before they could be treated with antibiotics, the report said.

Cats are highly susceptible to plague, more likely than dogs to become sick with the bacterial infection, the CDC said.

"Veterinarians should consider the diagnosis of plague in pets, including cats," if the animals show symptoms of the disease and have had contact with rodents or other sick pets in an area where plague is known to occur, the report said.

Feathered Dinosaur Lost Its Tail in Sticky Trap 99 Million Years Ago

About 99 million years ago, an unlucky juvenile dinosaur wandered into a sticky trap and sacrificed a chunk of its tail.

That dinosaur's loss was paleontology's gain. Millions of years later, the truncated tail hangs suspended in a chunk of amber, its feathers and a hint of pigment in preserved soft tissue still visible.

Researchers described the remarkable specimen in a new study, identifying it as the first evidence in amber from a nonavian theropod — a meat-eating and feathered dinosaur that doesn't belong to the lineage that led to modern birds. The remarkable preservation provides a snapshot of dinosaur biology that can't be retrieved from the fossil record, and offers a rare glimpse of feather structures in extinct dinosaurs, which could help scientists better understand how feathers evolved across the dinosaur family tree. 

A growing body of evidence has emerged in the past two decades indicating the variety of feathers produced by nonavian dinosaurs, but the feathers present an incomplete picture, the study authors wrote. Fossilized feathers are usually compressed and distorted and difficult to reconstruct in 3D. In many cases, they appear in the geologic record without any skeletal fossils nearby, making it impossible for scientists to identify their species. 

But amber preserves 3D structures beautifully. The tail fragment described in the study measures about 1.4 inches (36.7 millimeters) and is densely covered with feathers that are reddish brown along the upper surface and paler and finer underneath

Computed tomography (CT) scans further revealed soft tissues — skin, ligaments and muscles, mostly replaced by carbon. The authors noted that the tail contains at least eight complete vertebrae, and the shape of the bones suggested that this is only a small piece of what was likely a long tail that possibly contained as many as 25 vertebrae, though its overall size suggested that the dinosaur was not fully grown.

And the structure of the tailbones — a string of vertebrae, rather than a fused rod — indicated that the tail's feathery former owner was a nonavian dinosaur, likely a coelurosaur (SEE-luh-ruh-saur), a type of theropod that shared many features with birds.

The fossil feathers have a branching structure that produced both large and small filaments, but they lack a central shaft known as a "rachis," which is an evolutionary feature of modern feathers. This hints that branching in feathers evolved first, the study authors wrote.

This stunning find underscores the unique role that amber plays in helping scientists to interpret what animals may have looked like millions of years ago, and how evolution shaped living animals and their extinct relatives.

"Amber pieces preserve tiny snapshots of ancient ecosystems, but they record microscopic details, three-dimensional arrangements, and labile tissues that are difficult to study in other settings," study co-author Ryan McKellar, a curator of invertebrate paleontology at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada, said in a statement.

"This is a new source of information that is worth researching with intensity and protecting as a fossil resource," McKellar said.