News and Updates from WonderHowTo: Page 5

That soil under your feet is not just dirt. It is teeming with life that may not change as fast as we would like when challenged by global warming.

As summer heats up, new maps from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gives us our best guess at where Zika-carrying mosquitoes could be hanging out this year in the US.

Texas has become the 18th state to pass a bill into law regarding autonomous vehicles, the third this month to do so.

Apple CEO Tim Cook's June 5 announcement that the company is developing autonomous software should have some companies rattled. At least, Morgan Stanley thinks Tesla should be.

Tesla has confirmed the EV carmaker has begun to upload videos from models equipped with its latest flavor of Autopilot, as Tesla seeks to "fleet source" data to help improve its cars' machine learning capabilities.

Yogurt is more than an excellent source of protein, calcium, and gut-healthy probiotic bacteria. A protein isolated from probiotic lactobacillus bacteria in yogurt is capable of inhibiting drug-resistant bacteria.

Nissan began to offer Level 2 driving capacities in a mainstream model when it debuted its ProPilot self-drive option for its Serena minivan in Japan last year.

While Lyme disease can be disabling, the wrong treatment for the infection can be fatal.

General Motors (GM) has begun production of 130 Chevrolet Bolt EV driverless test vehicles at its Orion Township, Mich. plant as it expands its fleet to total 180 models deployed in San Francisco; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Detroit.

Like humans, cats can suffer infections caused by ticks, and too often, the disease is fatal. Learn about tickborne diseases that affect cats and what you can do to protect Fluffy from an untimely demise.

Even before we are born, our immune system is hard at work. New research shows how the developing fetal immune system takes advantage of the time and opportunity of gestation — in the presence of mom's cells and tissues — to develop a sense of self.

Citrus greening disease — caused by a bacteria spread by psyllid insects — is threatening to wipe out Florida's citrus crop. Researchers have identified a small protein found in a second bacteria living in the insects that helps bacteria causing citrus greening disease survive and spread. They believe the discovery could result in a spray that could potentially help save the trees from the bacterial invasion.

Waymo revealed more clues about its future business model after it said yesterday it plans to kill its Firefly pod-like car project and focus more closely on offering driverless systems for commercially available car and truck models.

Uber CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick is taking an indefinite leave of absence from the company, as Uber's recent upheaval has far overshadowed any developments in its driverless initiative during the past few days.

Apple is working on autonomous systems for vehicles, which could then be implemented with the help of car manufacturers.

A Norwegian shipping company says it will launch an unmanned container ship within four years, as the shipping industry begins to apply driverless technology to commercial sea transportation.

A case of West Nile virus recently confirmed in a person in Barton County, is the first human case of 2017 in Kansas. State health officials confirmed the appearance of West Nile this year in a press release on June 9th.

The $25 million development alliance Jaguar Land Rover's mobility unit InMotion has formed with US-based ride-share firm Lyft reflects how the British luxury carmaker is leaning towards a fleet service business model for its driverless offerings.

A recently confirmed polio outbreak in Syria is connected to low levels of vaccination, worsened by conflict. It is the first confirmed incidence of polio in Syria since 2014. Before 2013, the last case of polio in Syria was in 1999.

Mosquitoes are a big problem, and citronella candles are not the solution.

Intense exercise can cause problems with our digestive tract. It even has a name — "Exercise-induced Gastrointestinal Syndrome." Simply put, strenuous exercise can damage the gut and let the bacteria that reside there potentially pass into the bloodstream.

The next-generation Audi A8 to launch in July is expected to be the world's first Level 3-capable production car to go on sale in retail channels.

Nissan said Thursday it will add automatic emergency braking (AEB) capabilities to one million models of its cars and trucks in the US by 2018. But the Japanese carmaker largely remains an exception among mainstream automakers by offering the system as standard.

Delphi Automotive PLC has announced it is partnering with Transdev Group to develop on-demand driverless transportation systems, a deal that shows promise for autonomous development on a global scale.

Las Vegas is known as the city of sin, a place for gambling, fine dining, and decadence. Now, you can add another notable characteristic to that list: West Nile. You may want to hold off on scheduling your trip to the Sin City — or at least stock up on bug spray — because health officials have reported that mosquitoes in Southern Nevada have tested positive for the virus.

In Indianapolis, two-year-old Kenley Ratliff has passed away from what is suspected to be Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF), a tick-borne illness. The young girl fell ill with a fever, and just a week later, passed away. Now her family and doctors are looking into the cause of her death and warning others to check themselves for ticks this summer.

Honda president Takahiro Hachigo has just announced that Honda will complete development of fully self-driving cars by 2025. While the company aims to have level 3 — or conditionally autonomous cars requiring human intervention only in emergencies — on the road in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, these level 4 cars would require no intervention in most environments and thus bring Honda one step closer to producing fully driverless cars.

Multistate outbreaks of Salmonella infection in humans have led the Centers for Disease Control to advise caution when interacting with poultry. A press release on June 1st mentioned eight multistate outbreaks connected to backyard flocks. As of May 25, 372 people in 47 states were reported infected with the outbreaks' Salmonella strains. That means this year could be as bad as 2016, a record year, for salmonella outbreaks with 895 people infected.

New "radar road signature" technology from Bosch will be used to create maps for high-accuracy self driving. The new map is the first to use radar signals for a localization layer.

Listeria monocytogenes bacteria don't play fair. Healthy people can usually handle the food-borne infection, but the bacterial infection hits pregnant women, fetuses and cancer patients very hard. Interestingly, a new study found that other bacteria may help prevent Listeria infections in those people.

The US Department of Transportation says it is actively completing a previously promised revision of voluntary guidelines for driverless vehicles originally drafted by President Obama's administration.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) issued a health alert for a Boston mumps outbreak, on Monday, June 5th, to healthcare providers and local boards of health. There have been 12 reported cases of mumps during the recent outbreak. The affected residents' symptoms occurred between March 24th and May 31st, and 10 of the 12 had symptoms after May 9th. There have been 35 confirmed cases of mumps in 2017 in Massachusetts, and "nearly 300" suspected cases in the continuing outbreak.

Demand for Tesla's driverless features as well as its ultra-long battery ranges and a reputation for offering the best-in-class electric car driving experience helped Tesla see a 32% surge in its value as a brand, topping out at $5.9 billion in the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands study, released June 5.

Responding to the emergence of Zika in the US, researchers investigated what type of repellent works best to reduce your odds of a mosquito bite from Aedes aegypti, the mosquito species that spreads the Zika virus.

To much of the United States, Zika seems like a tropical disease that causes horrible problems in other countries but is nothing to be worried about stateside. It may make you rethink your beach vacation abroad, but not much more than that. However, if you live in Florida or Texas, the possibility of getting a Zika infection where you live is real — and local outbreaks are more and more a possibility.

Joe McKenna died when he was 30 years old. A young married man with his future ahead of him, he was cleaning up the station where he worked as a fireman. Struck by a piece of equipment fallen from a shelf, Joe complained of a sore shoulder. Over the next week, Joe worsened and ended up in the hospital. Chilled, feverish, and delirious, his organs shut down from an infection we'd now call septic shock.

Waymo's transfer of its driverless car know-how to commercial trucks will likely pose few challenges for the self-driving unit of Alphabet, which owns Google.

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), a leading IT trade association, has published its first report on risks and recommendations for connected-vehicle security, ahead of when driverless cars are about to see volume production in the near future.

Sherif Marakby has returned to Ford as the VP of AVs & Electrification after a brief stint with Uber. Marakby's VP title will be effective June 12.

Bacteriotherapy sounds a lot more amenable of a term than "fecal transplant," yet they're both treatments that use bacteria itself to cure or treat infections. Fecal transplants, specifically, are an up-and-coming treatment option for a potentially deadly and difficult-to-treat diarrheal infection called Clostridium difficile.