This Valentine's Day, as you bask in the beauty of your beloved, don't just thank his or her genes and your good fortune; thank microbes.

Research on the microbes that inhabit our bodies has progressed rapidly in recent years. Scientists think that these communities, most of which live in the gut, shape our health in myriad ways, affecting our vulnerability to allergic diseases like hay fever, how much weight we put on, our susceptibility to infection and maybe even our moods.

They can also, it seems, make us sexy.

Susan Erdman, a microbiologist at M.I.T., calls it the "glow of health." The microbes you harbor, she argues, can make your skin smooth and your hair shiny; they may even put a spring in your step. She stumbled on the possibility some years ago when, after feeding mice a probiotic microbe originally isolated from human breast milk, a technician in her lab noticed that the animals grew unusually lustrous fur. Further observation of males revealed thick skin bristling with active follicles, elevated testosterone levels and oversize testicles, which the animals liked showing off.

Microbes had transformed these animals into rodent heartthrobs.

When given to females, the probiotic also prompted deeper changes. Levels of a protein called interleukin 10, which helps to prevent inflammatory disease and ensure successful pregnancy, went up, as did an important hormone called oxytocin.

Oxytocin, often called the love hormone, helps mammals bond with one another. Our bodies may release it when we kiss (and mean it), when women breast-feed, even when people hang out with good friends. And the elevated oxytocin Dr. Erdman saw had important effects during motherhood. Some of the mice in her studies were eating a high-fat, high-sugar diet — junk-foody fare that's known to shift the microbiome into an unhealthy state. Not surprisingly perhaps, mothers that didn't imbibe the probiotics were less caring and tended to neglect their pups. But mothers that had high oxytocin thanks to the probiotic were nurturing and reared their pups more successfully.

What Dr. Erdman's research suggests is that the microbes we carry, the same ones that make us attractive to potential mates, also directly influence our reproductive success. So when mammals choose mates based on the glow of health, they're choosing not just an attractive set of genes, but also perhaps a microbial community that might facilitate reproduction.

Another way to look at it: By making their hosts sexy, and by increasing hormones that bring mammals together, microbes help to ensure their own continued existence — the creation of another host. "Everyone wins," Dr. Erdman told me.

A rare two-headed calf was born in Batken region, local veterinarian Astanakul Muratov told Turmush regional news service.

The calf was born on February 9 in the village of Ak-Tilek, Kadamjay district.

Owner of the cow that gave birth to a rare two-headed calf is local villager Muhammad Karabayev.

"The owner of the calf and I after the birth checked the health of the animal, it was OK first minutes of its life despite the rare condition. But because it could not suck milk, the animal died after 20 minutes," said Muratov.

Veterinarians that arrived in the place are studying the died animal, he added.

According to experts, this condition is very rare. It happens only once in 400 million births. Experts term the condition of having two or more heads polycephaly. A polycephalic animal with two heads is described as bicephalic.

A male juvenile humpback whale was found washed ashore Sunday morning near 80th Street in Virginia Beach. The whale had suffered propeller wounds.

Matt Klepeisz, a spokesman for the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center, said the whale had been reported off the Cape Henry area on Saturday morning and came ashore either Saturday night or Sunday morning at 80th Street.

According to Alex Costidis, an aquarium stranding team coordinator, the whale, after being spotted at Cape Henry, was seen at Rudee Inlet. The stranding team stayed with it Saturday, taking samples from the water until sunset. The whale was reported ashore Sunday morning at 80th Street by a passerby.

Costidis said the black and white whale had "three large propeller wounds." He estimated the whale was 2 to 4 years old and weighed 13,000 to 16,000 pounds. It measured more than 30 feet long.

Two Exeter Quay swans have been found 'decapitated' in just under a week.

The first gruesome discovery came last Saturday when locals say they spotted a dead swan at The Quay, which was later confirmed by Exeter City Council.

Dale Williams, who lives nearby, said friends discovered a dead swan around the area, which was cleared up by the council.

Exeter City Council confirmed that a swan was found on Saturday near the Mill on the Exe, and was reported to the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) on Monday.

The second animal was discovered on Wednesday, when witnesses discovered what they described as a 'headless' swan, under the blue footbridge, which was reported to the police.

Several people were injured after two rampaging bulls escaped their pen during a bull fighting festival.

A large crowd crammed into 'La Chona' stadium in the town of Encarnación de Díaz, Jalisco, Mexico when a bull called the 'Primoroso', which translates to the exquisite one, broke its door and ran into the bull ring, according to local reports.

Another named 'Inolvidable,' or the unforgettable, also escaped out of the pen soon after but made its way to the bottom of the stands causing spectators to hurry for the exits.

'Inolvidable' was filmed goring Spanish bull-fighter Adolfo Ramírez in the back and flinging him into the bull ring.

As soon as Ramirez landed in the ring he was quickly gored in the back by Primoroso who was circling the arena.

Every golfer needs a putter he can rely on — especially when an alligator decides to play through. North Fort Myers resident Tony Aarts used his Cleveland Golf putter to subdue a 10-foot gator that attacked him Wednesday as he was approaching the fourth hole at Magnolia Landing Golf & Country Club.

"As I was walking about 5 to 6 feet away from the water I heard a splash, and as soon as I heard that splash I knew it was an alligator, and he got me," Aarts said. The gator grabbed Aarts by his right ankle. He wound up on his back and rolled into the nearby water hazard as they struggled.

"I remember having a club in my hand, and as soon as he had me in the water up to my waist, I started hitting him over the head," Aarts said. The gator didn't give up easily, and soon the water was up to Aarts' chest.

"He was looking at me with his big eyes, and I kept hitting him," Aarts said. "And I'm thinking I'm getting deeper and deeper, and I thought you're not gonna get me." A subtle change of club technique helped turn the tide in Aarts' favor. "I started hitting him in the eye socket," Aarts said. "I hit him three times and he let go of my foot, so I crawled back out and by that time the guys were there."

Bernie Hynson says he won't ever forget his 100th career victory.

The Woodrow Wilson High School girls' basketball coach reached that milestone on Saturday when his team beat Delran 43-35 in a consolation game of the South Jersey Invitational Basketball Tournament.

Woodrow Wilson scored the victory even though two players, including a starter, were sent to the hospital after being bitten by a dog that entered the team bus as the Tigers were preparing to travel to Eastern High School.

"It was one of those freak things that could never happen in a million years," Hynson said. "But it happened to us."

Hynson said that junior Halima Scott, a starting guard, and sophomore Tayla Alford were attacked by a dog that the coach described as a pit bull.

"One of those real muscular dogs," Hynson said.

Some resorts in Thailand offer tourists the opportunity to learn the ropes of being a mahout, an elephant handler in Asia that works with, rides on and tends to elephants.

In some cases, tourists are allowed to bath the elephants in a river, and while that sounds like it might be fun, one woman discovered the downside of doing so:


The video was posted Friday on LiveLeak, and though it's hard to say how recent the incident occurred, it nevertheless offers a reminder that elephants are still wild animals, even captive ones.

In this instance, the woman unfortunately did something that the elephant did not like.

As she wiped down the top of the elephant's trunk with a sponge, the elephant suddenly swept its head forward and with its tusks, bound together at the tips, tossed the woman into the air, sending her and her sunglasses and headband flying.

A swimmer in Melbourne Beach was bitten on his hand by a shark Saturday afternoon, police said.

The incident was reported about 1:30 p.m. at Ocean Park near Ocean Avenue and Atlantic Street. Melbourne Police Chief Dan Duncan said the 22-year-old man was being treated for the bite at Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne. He was taken there by Brevard County Fire Rescue.

Ocean Park has no lifeguards in the winter months, Duncan said. Brevard County Parks and Recreation provides lifeguards in the summer, he said. Signs are posted at the beach advising people to swim at their own risk, Duncan said.

Forest department officials claimed to have ended the menace of a man-eating tigress that killed three persons last week by tranquilising the big cat and shifting it to Lucknow zoo on Saturday. The two-year-old tigress had struck terror among the residents of hundreds of villages around a 4-km radius of the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve area spread over an area of 730 square km and had killed six persons and injured another woman since November last year.

The PTR DFO, however, said it had yet not been confirmed if they had tranquilised the same man-eating tigress.

The killings snowballed into a major electoral issue with residents of 275 villages situated in proximity of the tiger reserve, who threatened to boycott polls demanding a permanent solution to the problem of wild animals straying into human habitations, destroying life and property.