How Much Do Babies’ Skulls Get Squished During Birth? A Whole Lot, 3D Images Reveal

 Posted on April 18, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  324 words  |  Trudie Dory

When babies pass through the mother's birth canal, the tight fit temporarily squashes their wee heads, elongating their flexible skulls and changing the shape of their brains. Now, scientists have created 3D images that demonstrate the extent of that amazing conehead-like distortion. Babies' heads can change shape under pressure because the bones in their skulls haven't fused together yet, according to the Mayo Clinic. Soft regions at the top of the head accommodate being squeezed through the birth canal and allow room for the brain to grow during infancy. [Read More]

If There's a Wormhole Hiding in Our Galaxy, Could We Really Find It?

 Posted on April 18, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  765 words  |  Trudie Dory

Wormholes, passageways that connect one universe or time to another, are still only theoretical — but that doesn't mean physicists aren't looking for them. In a new study, researchers describe how to find wormholes in the folds of our galaxy. These hypothetical passageways, created by folding a region of space like a piece of paper, are predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity. But they require extreme gravitational conditions, such as those around supermassive black holes. [Read More]

Irma Batters Florida, Could Retain Hurricane Strength Through Monday

 Posted on April 18, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  584 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Irma struck the U.S. mainland today (Sept. 10), making landfall in Florida at 9:10 a.m. local time as a Category 4 hurricane, and experts predict that Irma will remain a hurricane though the morning of Sept. 11 and perhaps longer. After hitting Cudjoe Key in the Florida Keys, Irma moved toward Florida's southwestern coast. The storm departed the Keys at 12 p.m. local time and made a second landfall at 3:35 p. [Read More]

Not Just a Band-Aid: How‘Smart Bandages’ Will Change Medicine (Video)

 Posted on April 18, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  624 words  |  Trudie Dory

Charlie Heck, multimedia news editor at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Some bandages are embedded with medicine to treat wounds, but researchers have something much more sophisticated in mind for the future of chronic wound care — "smart bandages." With support from NSF, a team of researchers from Harvard, Purdue, Tufts and Brigham and Women's Hospital is bringing together advances in sensors, biomaterials, tissue engineering, microsystems technology and microelectronics to create smart bandages for wounds that require ongoing care, such as burns, diabetic ulcers and bed sores. [Read More]

Oklahoma Suffers Its 2,724th Earthquake Since 2010

 Posted on April 18, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  1032 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

A cluster of earthquakes in Oklahoma earlier this month helped push the state to 62 temblors this year alone of magnitude 3.0 or more — and 2,724 of that magnitude or more since 2010.  This year is on track for a huge decline from the peak of Oklahoma's restlessness in 2015, when the state felt a staggering 903 quakes of magnitude 3 or greater. But it's also a far cry from Oklahoma's norm before 2009, when the state recorded an average of one or two magnitude 3. [Read More]

Oops! 5 Retracted Science Studies

 Posted on April 18, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  811 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Bad science?When you read about medical breakthroughs in the newspapers, you shouldn't get your hopes up. This is not because of journalistic hyperbole or even the fact that cures often are years away from the initial publication of result. It seems that an increasing number of scientific studies are just plain wrong and are ultimately retracted. Worse, a study published in October 2012 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (uh, if it's true) claims that the majority of retractions are due to some type of misconduct, and not honest mistakes, as long assumed. [Read More]

Simian Stone Age: Monkeys Used Rocks as Tools for Hundreds of Years

 Posted on April 18, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  1046 words  |  Trudie Dory

A group of wild capuchin monkeys in Brazil have used stones as tools to prepare their favorite meal of cashew nuts for more than 700 years, according to a new study. Archaeologists found evidence that capuchin monkeys in Brazilꞌs Serra da Capivara National Park have used stones to smash open the shells of cashew nuts and seeds for at least 100 monkey generations. The researchers observed young monkeys learning to use stones as tools from older monkeys at recognizable " [Read More]

Why Self-Consciousness Peaks in Teenage Years

 Posted on April 18, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  367 words  |  Patria Henriques

Some of the more awkward growth spurts that mark adolescence occur in the brain, and a new study suggests certain developmental changes might make teens ultra-sensitive to the gaze of other people. Teens are famous for their self-consciousness and suspicion that everyone is watching them. In the new study, compared with children and adults, teens who thought one of their peers was looking at them experienced much stronger emotional, physiological and neural reactions, the researchers found. [Read More]

'Cosmic Watch' App Lets You Track Stars and Planets in Real Time

 Posted on April 17, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  582 words  |  Patria Henriques

More often than not, time is merely a metric for setting schedules. But a new app aims to change how you view time, by moving beyond hours, minutes and seconds to reveal your position in the cosmos and relate that position to the movement of celestial bodies. The app, named the Cosmic Watch, can tell you what the solar system was like when you were born, or set the scene for the next solar eclipse. [Read More]

Animal Sex: 7 Tales of Naughty Acts in the Wild

 Posted on April 17, 2023  |  6 minutes  |  1258 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Animal Sex TalesFrom small and subtle to large and in charge, sex in the animal kingdom is just as varied as the beasts themselves. While mating in black widow spiders involves a vibrating song and dance, some bats perform oral sex on their partners to prolong the naughty act, and for chimps, well, let's just say, sex is bold and involves swollen bottoms and penis displays. How kangaroos do itKangaroos are capable of breeding all year-round, though most mating occurs in late spring and early summer. [Read More]