Dave the Giant Earthworm Sets Record in UK, World
Posted on April 16, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 495 words
| Patria Henriques
Imagine being in your garden and stumbling on an enormous earthworm that measures about as long as a standard bowling pin is tall, and that weighs about the same as a small chocolate bar. The encounter, while likely startling, ended up being a record-setting encounter for a man in the United Kingdom, after he came across what has now been crowned the earthworm that is not only the longest ever found in the U.
[Read More]Dramatic effect of coronavirus lockdowns seen from space
Posted on April 16, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 465 words
| Patria Henriques
The new coronavirus' impact on China is so stark that it can be seen from space — as a dramatic drop in air pollution, according to data from U.S. and European satellites.
Orbital instruments designed to monitor air quality picked up a substantial drop in concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution since January. NO2 is a harmful substance emitted by gas vehicles, power plants and other machines that burn fossil fuels.
[Read More]Earth's core is a billion years old
Posted on April 16, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 856 words
| Trudie Dory
The solid inner core of Earth is a mere billion years old, new research finds.
Modern Earth is like a layer cake, with a solid outer crust, a hot, viscous mantle, a liquid outer core and a solid inner core. That solid inner core is growing slowly as the liquid iron in the core cools and crystallizes. This process helps power the churning motion of the liquid outer core, which in turn creates the magnetic field that surrounds Earth and helps protect the planet from harmful cosmic radiation.
[Read More]Fake Weed, Real Drug: K2 Causing Hallucinations in Teens
Posted on April 16, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 796 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Teens are getting high on an emerging drug called "fake weed," a concoction also known as K2 and "spice" that is also causing hallucinations, vomiting, agitation and other dangerous effects.
In the last month, Dr. Anthony Scalzo, a professor of toxicology at Saint Louis University, has seen nearly 30 cases of teenagers experiencing these adverse effects after smoking the fake weed, a legal substance that reportedly offers a marijuana-like high.
[Read More]Jewish doctors in Nazi-occupied Poland stopped an epidemic in its tracks. Here’s how.
Posted on April 16, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 813 words
| Arica Deslauriers
When a deadly typhus outbreak struck Poland's Warsaw ghetto during WWII, Jewish doctors helped stop the disease in its tracks, saving thousands.
More than 400,000 Jewish people were crammed into the 1.3-square-mile (3.4 square kilometers) ghetto in the Nazi-occupied country, and severe overcrowding, exposure to the elements and starvation created a perfect incubator for epidemics. When typhus broke out in 1941, it should have devastated the ghetto's vulnerable population.
But the disease began to sharply decline far sooner than expected, a new study finds.
[Read More]Man-Made Earthquake Hotspot Revealed: Oklahoma
Posted on April 16, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 794 words
| Patria Henriques
The chances of a damaging earthquake occurring in parts of Oklahoma and some neighboring states are just as likely as they are in temblor-heavy California, according to a report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
The culprit? Man-made activities related to oil and gas production are creating the shaky conditions in a region of the central and eastern U.S., the USGS seismologists say.
USGS scientists just released their first map that includes earthquake risks from both natural and human-induced causes for the coming year.
[Read More]New 3D Computer Chip Uses Nanotech to Boost Processing Power
Posted on April 16, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 793 words
| Trudie Dory
A new type of 3D computer chip that combines two cutting-edge nanotechnologies could dramatically increase the speed and energy efficiency of processors, a new study said.
Today's chips separate memory (which stores data) and logic circuits (which process data), and data is shuttled back and forth between these two components to carry out operations. But due to the limited number of connections between memory and logic circuits, this is becoming a major bottleneck, particularly because computers are expected to deal with ever-increasing amounts of data.
[Read More]Nobel Prize in Physics: 1901-Present
Posted on April 16, 2023
| 15 minutes
| 3180 words
| Fernande Dalal
According to Alfred Nobel's will, the Nobel Prize in Physics was to go to "the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics." The prize has been awarded every year except for 1916, 1931, 1934, 1940, 1941 and 1942.
Here is the full list of winners:
2019: Canadian-American James Peebles of Princeton University received one-half of the Nobel "for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology,"
[Read More]Prostate Cancer: PSA Test (Part 2)
Posted on April 16, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 626 words
| Patria Henriques
This is the second part of a three-part series on the PSA test for prostate cancer.
Cancer of the prostate is one of the most common types of cancer among American men. More than 6 in 10 cases of prostate cancer cases occur in men 65 and older. Treatment for prostate cancer works best when the disease is found early.
Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is a protein produced by the cells of the prostate gland.
[Read More]When Did Women Start to Outlive Men?
Posted on April 16, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 381 words
| Patria Henriques
It's well known that women live longer than men do, but this wasn't always the case: A new study finds that differences between men and women's life expectancies began to emerge in the late 1800s.
For the study, researchers analyzed information from people born between 1800 and 1935 in 13 developed countries.
They found that over this time period, death rates decreased among both men and women. But starting in 1880, death rates decreased much faster among women, leading to differences in mortality rates between the sexes.
[Read More]