It's amazing how certain things can be linked, such as mobile phones and sperm quality, or even lead exposure and obesity.

That's right, an optometry professor from the University of Houston named Donald Fox discovered this while studying the effects of lead on mice. More on this unfortunate side effect after the jump.

It might not be practically safe to feed babies with pre-chewed food. US government scientists have found out that the AIDS virus can be passed from infected mothers to their babies if they pre-chew the food.

Apparently, the pre-chewing of food occurs often in developing countries where they may have a lack on baby food or may not have a way to blend baby food. Details in the full article.

A strain of the common cold virus has mutated into something less common, but more deadly. The virus has claimed 10 lives in the US within the last 18 months. This mutant strain has led to 140 illnesses across four states, with one of the largest outbreaks claiming a 19-year old in Texas. It's still not known what caused the mutation or what caused the outbreaks. More in the full article.

Resident Evil 4 much? The Las Plagas virus from Capcom's zombie franchise might be a thing out of fiction, but it could have been based off of fact. And the fact is, our world is also home to a nasty amoeba that eats brains.

They're called Naegleria fowleri: microscopic amoebas that reside in warm lakes and other stagnant bodies of water. They make their way up a person's nose, latch on to the brain where they start feeding on brain cells, and eventually cause death within two weeks.

Two days ago, the Naegleria has claimed its latest victim. A boy from Arizona spent a day with his family in Lake Havasu to celebrate their father's birthday. They frolicked on the beach, splashed around, the works. A week later he started complaining about a headache that wouldn't go away. He was taken to the hospital and was diagnosed with what they thought was meningitis.

It wasn't only until later after the boy had passed away did they realize the real culprit. Doctors have speculated that the kid got infected by the Naegleria a few days before his death, coinciding with his time down at Lake Havasu.

It is indeed a sad story. On top of that though is the alarm that this news has brought to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). They've noticed a considerable spike in the number of deaths from the Naegleria. This year alone, there have been six victims already in North America. They speculate that, though these cases are rare, it could eventually rise in the future.

Michael Beach of the CDC said that "This is a heat-loving amoeba. As water temperatures go up, it does better. In future decades, as temperatures rise, we'd expect to see more cases." He also warns the public to not panic about it. Nose clips can reduce the chances of the Naegleria from getting into your head. To begin with, the amoeba has to be sprayed way up your nose for it to latch on. Which means, don't be too boisterous when playing in warm water and try to be more careful when you're doing somersaults.

Some lab tests have been able to stop the amoeba though, but Beach remains that there is little chance of survival once a person gets infected.

Pet-related death is always sad news to report, and this is no exception: a young girl, only three weeks old, died after catching salmonella from her pet turtle last March 1 - her death joining the 22 other cases of infection from reptiles across the United States since September. This report comes directly from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Febrile and going into septic shock, the infant was taken quickly to a Florida hospital, where she received immediate treatment in the form of antibiotics. Unfortunately, it was far too late.

Cultures of cerebrospinal fluid and blood samples taken afterward revealed a strain of salmonella identical to the one carried by girl's pet turtle, the reptile a gift bought from a flea market.

While certainly shocking news, cases like these involving small turtles doesn't seem at all new - in fact, a law that dates back to 1975 bans the sale of turtles with carapaces no bigger than 10 centimetres, or four inches. The pet turtle in this case only measured about 3.2 centimetres, which is really under the 10 cm limit.

Why the ban? Is there a larger chance of getting infected when turtles are still as small as they are? You'd be surprised to know that not only that is enough reason for the ban, but the fact that they look so much like toys - and can be mishandled by children as such - is reason for the law. Infants do have that tendency of chewing on their toys, and a small squirming turtle would look pretty inviting. Plus, with infants and small children not having fully-developed immune systems at their age, salmonella could prove fatal.

Looking at the case, however, it may not be all the turtle's fault. Proper hygiene and good parenting would have prevented this sort of thing from happening easily, with Mum or Dad washing the kid's hands after every playtime with the turtle. And whatever happened to the hard and fast rule of not giving kids toys small enough for them to put into their mouths? Certainly not a good way to instill good habits to your kids.

So remember, children. Wash your hands after handling your pets.

Microwaved food might not be as safe as we originally thought them to be - in fact, they may even be hotbeds for food-related diseases, like salmonella. This rather alarming discovery was the result of a study by researchers at the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), linking microwaved food to small outbreaks of food poisoning.

But doesn't microwaving (or "nuking") food cook it from the inside out, killing bacteria more effectively than other methods of cooking? Contrary to that belief, microwaves actually heat from the outside in.

This results in "cold spots", or uncooked portions of food that bacteria can possibly survive, or even thrive in. Once the food is served (and summarily ingested), well, you know what happens.

The researchers based their study on a salmonella outbreak which took place after a picnic, where dozens of people ate reheated pork. Coincidence and pure bad luck aside, the numbers are startling: 10 out of the 10 people who used the microwave to reheat the pork contracted salmonella, compared to zero of the 20 people who used the conventional skillet or oven.

It's not just that one incident, mind. Another study, this time published in the Epidemiological Infections journal, observed six people suddenly contracting the same disease after consuming a re-heated dish of chicken and vegetables. How was the food reheated? By a 500-watt microwave oven, for a duration of five minutes.

It's a bit startling to see that technology - although indeed making life easier, can also make life somewhat complicated (not to mention painful). But it makes sense, actually. The age-old techniques of stirring and rotating food to make sure everything's cooked is just about thrown out of the window when all you're doing is throwing it into the microwave and punching some buttons. So let this serve as a friendly warning - microwaved food does not mean bacteria free food.