Guys, live cannonballs are not recyclable. Ask me how I know.

 Posted on May 10, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  501 words  |  Patria Henriques

A recycling center in Michigan was recently evacuated after someone tried to recycle a Civil War cannonball.  Officials with the police and fire departments in Grand Rapids, Michigan, received a call on May 19 that a cannonball dating to the Civil War had been discovered on the processing line at the Kent County Recycling Center, a representative with the county's  Department of Public Works told Live Science in an email. [Read More]

Lava Gulps Down GoPro Camera, Which Records the Entire, Fiery Affair

 Posted on May 10, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  466 words  |  Trudie Dory

The internet is awash with extreme videos, but footage of lava barreling toward and then melting the lens of a GoPro camera may be one of the hottest (literally) recordings online. The fiery affair happened on Aug. 10, 2016, when Kilauea EcoGuides tours owner and lead guide Erik Storm took a group of tourists from San Francisco to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, according to National Geographic(opens in new tab). The video resurfaced this month after Erez Marom, an Israeli photographer, accidently melted a drone camera when he flew it too close to lava flows in Hawaii, renewing interest in flaming-hot lava footage. [Read More]

Psychedelic Drugs Really Do Trigger a 'Higher' State of Consciousness

 Posted on May 10, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  597 words  |  Fernande Dalal

People who use psychedelic drugs have described the experience as feeling as though they have reached a "higher state of consciousness."  And now, a brain scan study backs them up. People in the study who used psychedelic drugs showed patterns of neural activity that were "higher" by some measures, compared with normal waking consciousness, researchers in England found. Previously, researchers knew that normal waking consciousness is a higher state of consciousness when compared with drowsiness and sleep, being under anesthesia or having certain brain injuries or diseases. [Read More]

The coronavirus 'does not spread easily' from touching surfaces or objects, CDC says

 Posted on May 10, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  727 words  |  Trudie Dory

Editor's Note: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a statement on Friday (May 22) saying this updated wording was done in an attempt to clarify spread beyond person-to-person. "This change was intended to make it easier to read, and was not a result of any new science," the agency wrote in the statement. "After media reports appeared that suggested a change in CDC’s view on transmissibility, it became clear that these edits were confusing. [Read More]

To Avoid a Stroke, Try Upping 'White' Fruits, Veggies

 Posted on May 10, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  559 words  |  Trudie Dory

The old adage that "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" is a good one to follow, according to a new Dutch study. The researchers found that eating plenty of fruits and vegetables with white flesh, such as apples and pears, may protect you against stroke. "To prevent stroke, it may be useful to consume considerable amounts of white fruits and vegetables," Linda M. Oude Griep, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow in human nutrition at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, said in a statement. [Read More]

US and France More Depressed Than Poor Countries

 Posted on May 10, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  673 words  |  Trudie Dory

Depression is more likely to strike in high-income countries than in poor ones, according to new research on depression rates across 18 countries worldwide. The study, published July 25 in the open-access journal BMC Medicine, found that the average lifetime prevalence of major depression in the 10 high-income countries in the study was 14.6 percent. In the eight low- and middle-income countries, the lifetime prevalence of major depression was 11.1 percent. [Read More]

Working Together? Male and Female Brains Just Aren't in Sync

 Posted on May 10, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  719 words  |  Patria Henriques

When men and women work together, their brains may not take the same approach to cooperating, a new study suggests. In the new study, the areas of the brain that lit up were synchronized when two guys worked together to do a task, and when two women did, although the areas were different in men and women. In pairs where there was one man and one woman, the brain activity didn’t sync up. [Read More]

At 310 MPH, New Bullet Train Is World's Fastest

 Posted on May 9, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  322 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Would you ride on a train that floats on air and travels at speeds of 310 mph (500 km/h)? Japan is betting that millions of its citizens would: The nation has successfully tested its new generation of "L0" trains that use magnetic levitation, or "maglev" technology, to achieve record-breaking speeds. The L0 trains — the fastest in the world — are on schedule to be ready for passengers in 2027 on the line connecting Tokyo with Nagoya, a trip of about 218 miles (351 kilometers) that will take just 40 minutes instead of the usual 90 minutes, according to The Independent. [Read More]

Author's Heartbreaking Story: What Are the Signs of Ovarian Cancer?

 Posted on May 9, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  474 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

In a heart-wrenching essay, author Amy Krouse Rosenthal penned a dating profile for her husband to use after she was gone. Rosenthal was running out of time: She was dying of ovarian cancer, which she was diagnosed with in September 2015. "I'm facing a deadline, in this case, a pressing one," Rosenthal wrote in the essay, which was published March 3, 2017, in The New York Times. "I need to say this (and say it right) while I have a) your attention, and b) a pulse. [Read More]

Best Educational Toys & Games for Infants and Toddlers

 Posted on May 9, 2023  |  7 minutes  |  1345 words  |  Fernande Dalal

For babiesIn the first year of a baby's life, the brain doubles in size, according to a 2007 study. The hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped structure deep in the brain that is used in memory processing, reaches its adult size by 10 months of age. These anatomical changes go hand-in-hand with rapid development:  Motor skills, language, and even social understanding all advance by leaps and bounds.   Toddlerhood brings an even more dramatic transformation, as kids learn to walk and talk and solve problems. [Read More]