High Body Fat Linked to Possible 'Brain Shrinkage'
Posted on April 24, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 643 words
| Fernande Dalal
Obesity is tied to a slew of harmful effects in the body, and now, a new study suggests it may also affect brain structure.
The researchers analyzed brain scans and found that higher levels of body fat were tied to lower brain volumes in certain areas. Specifically, too much body fat was linked to reduced amounts of gray matter — the brain tissue that contains nerve cells — in structures in the center of the brain, the researchers said.
[Read More]Meet Au-Spot, the AI robot dog that's training to explore caves on Mars
Posted on April 24, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 583 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Mars exploration is going to the dogs. The robot dogs, that is.
Scientists are equipping four-legged, animal-mimicking robots with artificial intelligence (AI) and an array of sensing equipment to help the bots autonomously navigate treacherous terrain and subsurface caves on the Red Planet.
In a presentation on Dec. 14 at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), held online this year, researchers with NASA/JPL-Caltech introduced their "Mars Dogs,"
[Read More]Photos: The Near-Complete Wankel T. Rex
Posted on April 24, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 339 words
| Arica Deslauriers
Wankel T. rexA cast of the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton known as the Wankel T. rex was installed in front of the Museum of the Rockies at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana in 2001. The actual fossil specimens are being loaned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History for display in the National Museums new paleobiology hall, slated to open in 2019.
[Read More]Poop Stains Help Scientists Track Antarctic Penguin Colonies
Posted on April 24, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 342 words
| Arica Deslauriers
Adélie penguins in Antarctica nest in large colonies, and these groupings leave behind massive poop stains on the icy landscape — marks that are so large they can be tracked by satellites.
For more than 30 years, scientists have used these poop (known as guano) stains as markers to monitor the status of penguin populations. NASA's Earth-observing Landsat satellites have enabled researchers to track penguin populations and find dozens of previously unknown colonies.
[Read More]Sleeping Pills: Older Adults More Likely to Use
Posted on April 24, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 710 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
About 4 percent of Americans use prescription sleep aids, with the drug being more commonly used among women and older adults, a new report from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) shows. However, experts question the effectiveness of the drugs, as well as point out their risks.
In a national survey that was carried out between 2005 and 2010, about 4 percent of adults ages 20 and over reported taking prescription sleep aids in the past 30 days.
[Read More]Sorry, Toby — Winter Storms Don't Have Names (Except on Cable News)
Posted on April 24, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 356 words
| Patria Henriques
A nor'easter is pounding the East Coast today (March 21), and it may or may not be named "Toby," depending on whom you ask.
If you're following the storm on cable news, you probably do call it Toby. The Weather Channel started the convention of naming big winter storms in 2012, and their chosen names have started to trickle into other outlets. (Live Science learned the name Toby after overhearing reporters at another publication that shares our newsroom using it.
[Read More]Teen Boy Discovers Long-Lost Medieval Gravestones in Scottish Churchyard
Posted on April 24, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 628 words
| Patria Henriques
A trio of lost Medieval gravestones have been rediscovered in an Scottish churchyard.
The stones, carved with elaborate, interlacing patterns, were found by a 14-year-old boy during an archaeological survey of the Old Parish Church in Govan, a town established in the Middle Ages that is now part of the city of Glasgow.
"I was just prodding the ground to see if there was anything there, and suddenly it made a noise and I realized I had hit something,"
[Read More]The Top 10 Revolutionary Computers
Posted on April 24, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 687 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Revolutionizing ComputingFrom the Apple Macintosh with its graphical-user interface to the Xerox PARC Alto, which never hit store shelves, to the U.S. Army's 30-ton Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC), there is a long history of computers to explore. Here's a look at how modern computing has changed over the years.
IBM RoadrunnerThe title of fastest supercomputer has become hard to retain for long, but the current champ is also notable for being the first machine with sustained throughput exceeding a petaflop — more than a quadrillion floating point operations per second.
[Read More]Tyrannosaurs bit each other's faces in dino fight clubs
Posted on April 24, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 635 words
| Fernande Dalal
Tyrannosaurs viciously bit each other on the face, though likely not with the intention to kill. Rather, these biting brawls were probably the result of different individuals' competing for prizes, such as territory, mates or higher status, a new study finds.
Researchers made the discovery after analyzing 202 tyrannosaur skulls and jaws that had a total of 324 scars. Almost immediately, the team realized that young tyrannosaurs didn't have bite marks on their faces.
[Read More]What If the Berlin Wall Had Not Fallen in 1989?
Posted on April 24, 2023
| 6 minutes
| 1197 words
| Patria Henriques
On Nov. 9, 1989, the barrier between East and West Berlin — and the real concrete structure symbolising the "Iron Curtain" of the Cold War — was brought crashing down. The fall of the Berlin Wall came to symbolize the collapse of the Soviet Union, signaling the end of a tense and often perilous period in world history that had existed since the end of the Second World War.
[Read More]