Study: Older Siblings Have Higher IQs

 Posted on April 19, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  483 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Being the oldest child in the family has its perks: later bedtimes, no hand-me-downs, and, according to a new study, a higher IQ. The study, detailed in the June 22 issue of the journal Science, analyzed the IQs of nearly 250,000 Norwegian 18- and 19-year-old draftees and found that older siblings had higher scores than younger siblings. Another study, by the same authors of the new Science study but published recently in the journal Intelligence, looked at more than 100,000 Norwegian brothers and found that first-borns on average had an IQ 2. [Read More]

Why Is NOAA's Brand-New, Billion-Dollar Weather Satellite Going Blind?

 Posted on April 19, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  740 words  |  Fernande Dalal

A very expensive satellite's first several months in space are going very wrong. The cooling system that the multibillion-dollar device needs in order to properly observe the atmosphere failed to start, leaving the satellite partly blind. Named GOES-17, the glitchy orbiter is a brand-new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite. It's the second in an $11 billion family of four high-resolution, state-of-the-art weather satellites that NOAA developed to replace the aging previous generation of geostationary skywatchers: GOES-13, GOES-14 and GOES-15. [Read More]

6,000 WWII-era bomb craters mapped in Poland

 Posted on April 18, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  743 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Toward the end of World War II, Allied planes dropped tens of thousands of bombs on a region of Germany that's now part of Poland, and the devastation is recorded in thousands of craters that remain to this day.  Researchers recently mapped and analyzed the deeply scarred landscape for the first time, counting around 6,000 bomb craters ranging from 16 to 49 feet (5 to 15 meters) in diameter. Some areas held as many as 30 craters in a single hectare (10,000 square meters). [Read More]

8 Quirky Species Discovered in Lava-Tube Caves

 Posted on April 18, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  657 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Updated Tues., Sept. 10 at 11:10 a.m. ET. Eight new arthropod species and a new hibernating site for Townsend's big-eared bats have been discovered in New Mexico lava-tube caves, adding to the limited ecologic understanding of this unique habitat type. Lava-tube caves form when underground offshoots of lava flows spill downslope but cool around the edges, emptying hollow, arterylike cavities that can span many miles long. More than 200 such caves extend beneath El Malpais National Monument in western New Mexico and sometimes support ecosystems distinct from more commonly known limestone caves, which can develop different shapes and air current patterns. [Read More]

A mini fractal universe may lie inside charged black holes (if they exist)

 Posted on April 18, 2023  |  6 minutes  |  1100 words  |  Trudie Dory

Black holes are perhaps the strangest, least-understood objects in our universe. With so much potential — being linked to everything from wormholes to new baby universes — they have sucked in physicists for decades.  But as strange as these known objects are, even stranger types of black holes could be dreamed up. In one upside-down, hypothetical version of the universe, a bizarre type of black hole could exist that is stranger than an M. [Read More]

Amazon River Dated to 11 Million Years Old

 Posted on April 18, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  496 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

The Amazon River and its current lengthy and transcontinental bed is about 11 million years old, according to a new study. Previously, the river's exact age was unknown, researchers say. The Amazon, which starts in the Andes and flows easterly into the Atlantic Ocean, originated as a transcontinental river back in the Miocene Epoch between 11.8 million and 11.3 million years ago, and took its present shape about 2.4 million years ago, according to the study by Carina Hoorn of the University of Amsterdam, Jorge Figueiredo of the University of Liverpool, England, and colleagues. [Read More]

Coronavirus pandemic could last over 18 months, according to a federal plan

 Posted on April 18, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  544 words  |  Trudie Dory

The coronavirus pandemic could last over 18 months, according to a 100-page federal government response plan recently shared with The New York Times. The next year and a half could include "multiple waves of illness," according to the document. "The spread and severity of COVID-19 will be difficult to forecast and characterize."  What's more, increasing COVID-19 cases in the U.S. will mean more hospitalizations among at-risk people, which could strain the health care system, they wrote. [Read More]

Dark Knight of the Jurassic? Tiny Dinosaur Had Batlike Wings

 Posted on April 18, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  644 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Move over, Batman — there's a new Dark Knight in town. A tiny dinosaur with batlike wings may have glided through the Jurassic forests of what is now northeastern China, say paleontologists who analyzed the animal's bones.  Unlike any dinosaur ever found, the feathered pipsqueak may have been a failed experiment in early bird flight, the researchers say. Unlike its close relatives — birds and birdlike dinosaurs — the new specimen had long, rodlike bones on its wrists connected by soft, fleshy tissue. [Read More]

Don't miss Comet NEOWISE in the evening sky now. It won't be back for 6,800 years.

 Posted on April 18, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  794 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

An amazing comet that thrilled early-morning stargazers earlier this month is now visible in the evening sky, and it's a sight you won't want to miss. After all, this comet won't be back for 6,800 years, NASA says.  Comet NEOWISE can now be seen just after sunset for observers in the Northern Hemisphere, according to NASA. (Sorry, Southern Hemisphere skywatchers, it's not visible there.) The comet made its closest approach to the sun July 3 but was only visible before dawn until now. [Read More]

Favorite Tastes Change with Age, Rat Study Shows

 Posted on April 18, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  302 words  |  Trudie Dory

Tastes change with age, at least in rats, new research suggests. Younger rats prefer more sugar and umami flavor in foods and showed a stronger aversion to bitter foods compared with elderly rats, according to a study presented today (July 30) at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior. "To our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating a reduced aversion to bitter taste in aged rats," [Read More]