Top 10 Amazing Moon Facts

 Posted on May 9, 2023  |  6 minutes  |  1211 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Lunar FactsDid you know there's no such thing as a full moon? No dark side, either. And if you think the moon is causing the wild moods of a certain someone, then read on ... The Big WhackThe moon formed as a result of a collision known as the Giant Impact or the Big Whack, scientists figure. It went like this: A giant Mars-sized object hit Earth 4.6 billion years ago shortly after the birth of the sun and the solar system. [Read More]

Watch a Robot Salamander Swim and Walk (Video)

 Posted on May 9, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  530 words  |  Fernande Dalal

A new salamander robot has been designed that can walk, swim and turn around corners. The new salamander-inspired bot is helping scientists understand exactly how the spinal cord orchestrates movement.   "We want to make spinal cord models and validate them on robots. Here we want to start simple," Auke Ijspeert, a roboticist at the the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Lausanne, said in a recently published TED Talk. [Read More]

Disney Princes and Princesses Still Slaves to Some Stereotypes

 Posted on May 8, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  885 words  |  Fernande Dalal

While women may be shedding some of their traditional gender roles, the pretty pink princess culture still abounds in the media and in merchandise aimed at young girls. Meanwhile, scientists now find that Disney princesses have evolved over time to be less stereotypically "pink," while Prince Charming has lost some of his manly muscle. But both characters have a ways to go before they transform into healthy boys and girls unburdened of negative gender stereotypes, the researchers say. [Read More]

Executions: 7 Gruesome Ways to Take a Life

 Posted on May 8, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  893 words  |  Patria Henriques

A recent execution by lethal injection that went awry has renewed interest in the protection against "cruel and unusual punishment," as guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. On Tuesday (April 29), convicted murderer Clayton Lockett was executed by the state of Oklahoma, but not before he convulsed on the gurney, then raised his head and said, "Something's wrong." The execution was halted, but Lockett was later pronounced dead of a heart attack by prison officials. [Read More]

For Love or Money: How Finances Influence Your Search for a Mate

 Posted on May 8, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  719 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Like it or not, money has a say in whether people get into or stay in romantic relationships. But it's surprisingly hard to know for sure just how much the almighty dollar can influence your decisions about whether to swipe right on Tinder, or even to step out of a committed relationship. Now, a new study shows that having more money, or even just thinking that you do, could influence your dating life. [Read More]

Fountains of Plasma Rain Might Explain One of the Biggest Mysteries of the Sun

 Posted on May 8, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  494 words  |  Patria Henriques

Today's weather forecast on the sun calls for a high of 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,500 degrees Celsius), constant supersonic wind, mysterious eruptions of giant lava-lamp-blobs and, oh yes, light rain. So, you know, pack an umbrella. As bizarre as it sounds, rain on the sun is a relatively common occurrence. Unlike rain on Earth, where liquid water evaporates, condenses into clouds, then falls back down in droplets after growing sufficiently heavy, solar rain results from the rapid heating and cooling of plasma (the hot, charged gas that comprises the sun). [Read More]

Higgs boson possibly caught in act of never-before-seen transformation

 Posted on May 8, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  831 words  |  Trudie Dory

Scientists may have observed the Higgs boson doing a new trick: creating pairs of muons. When the Higgs boson was discovered at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2012, it was the final piece of Standard Model of particle physics puzzle, a particle that had been— long theorized to exist alongside quarks, electrons, neutrinos, muons, gluons, photons and the other known particles, but never before seen. Its role: the physical manifestation of the Higgs field, a feature of the universe that physicists believe endows particles with mass. [Read More]

How to Organize Your Medicine Cabinet

 Posted on May 8, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  589 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

For many of us, those miniature closets we call medicine cabinets can barely contain today's super-size bottles of pills and potions. But the daunting task of organizing them isn’t optional, experts say, because a spillover of supplies is the last thing we'd want to encounter in a crisis. Ironically, one thing that should never be stored in a medicine cabinet is medication – either prescription strength or over-the-counter, said Keith Hodges, an executive committee member of the National Community Pharmacists Association. [Read More]

Scientists Drill Deepest Hole Ever in Antarctica

 Posted on May 8, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  289 words  |  Trudie Dory

Scientists weren't trying to break a word record when they drilled the deepest hole ever made in Antarctica.  Rather, they're hoping that by peeking below the ice sheet, they'll be better equiped to predict how the area will respond to climate change in the coming years, according to a statement from the British Antarctic Survey, which is leading the project. Scientists have been planning the project, called BEAMISH (Bed Access, Monitoring and Ice Sheet History), for the past 20 years. [Read More]

The 'Fireworks Galaxy' Is Exploding in X-Ray Light, and Scientists Are Confused

 Posted on May 8, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  600 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Don't be alarmed, but the Fireworks galaxy is exploding. To be fair, it's been exploding for a while — at least since 1917 (give or take the 25 million years that light takes to travel from that galaxy to Earth), when astronomers first glimpsed a large star erupting into a supernova there. Since then, scientists have detected nearly a dozen stellar explosions in the busy galaxy, but none quite like the mysterious green blotch of X-ray light visible in the image above. [Read More]