Tasmanian Tigers Wrongly Convicted of Killing Sheep
Posted on April 15, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 421 words
| Fernande Dalal
The now-extinct Tasmanian tiger was hunted out of existence in the early 1900s for killing Australian farmers' sheep. But a new study finds that the tiger was framed. In fact, the animals' jaws were so weak that they likely couldn't have hunted anything larger than a possum.
The Tasmanian tiger, also known as the thylacine, was a carnivorous marsupial that looked like a cross between a hyena and a tiger, complete with a smattering of stripes across its back.
[Read More]Those Tiny Cotton Sprouts China Grew on the Moon? They’re Dead Now
Posted on April 15, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 641 words
| Fernande Dalal
They were the little cotton sprouts that could: a handful of seedlings that poked themselves up from the dirt inside a small biosphere on China's lunar lander, Chang'e-4.
Yes, the plants were stunted compared with the earthbound control plants. But they had just survived a space launch and difficult journey to the moon, and were growing in the low gravity and high radiation of extraterrestrial space. They were the first plants ever to grow on the lunar surface.
[Read More]Treating Pedophiles: Therapy Can Work, But It's a Challenge
Posted on April 15, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 1053 words
| Arica Deslauriers
For years David Prescott sat face to face with pedophiles, trying to evaluate if the people before him were making progress in treatment.
Prescott is a licensed therapist who worked in Minnesota, one of the 20 states that have passed civil commitment laws. Courts in these states have the power to confine child molesters, rapists and other sex offenders who have finished their prison sentences but are deemed too dangerous to re-enter the community.
[Read More]Was Roman Emperor Nero's Evil Reputation Just 'Fake News'?
Posted on April 15, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 1038 words
| Trudie Dory
Was the infamously cruel Nero really as terrible an emperor as Roman historians have suggested?
Based on accounts written during and after his reign, Nero (A.D. 37 to 68) has long been considered a power-mad despot whose leadership was defined by terrible acts of violence, such as poisoning a teenage rival, arranging his mother's assassination, setting a fire that destroyed much of Rome, executing Christians and even murdering his own wife.
[Read More]Who Were Cassini and Huygens?
Posted on April 15, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 710 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
NASA's Cassini mission came to a dramatic end last week after two decades in space.
The Cassini orbiter illuminated gigantic storms on Saturn, explored the planet's rings, and revealed potential sources of life in Saturn's moons. The spacecraft deployed the European Space Agency's Huygens probe, which landed on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan in humankind's most distant touchdown to date. The probe beamed back images of Titan's craggy highlands, oily shorelines and steep ravines, lifting the veil on an alien — though in some ways strangely Earth-like — landscape beneath a dense atmosphere.
[Read More]$35 yard sale bowl sells for over $700,000
Posted on April 14, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 300 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
A floral porcelain bowl, purchased for $35 at a yard sale in Connecticut last year, just sold for over $700,000 at a Sotheby's auction.
Only after having the bowl evaluated by experts at Sotheby's did the yard-sale-goer discover that he had casually bought a rare 15th-century Chinese bowl. There are only six other companion bowls like this one known to exist around the world, Live Science previously reported.
The experts estimated the bowl, which is shaped like a lotus bud and painted with cobalt-blue floral patterns, to be worth between $300,000 and $500,000.
[Read More]5 Facts About Friday the 13th
Posted on April 14, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 516 words
| Patria Henriques
If Friday the 13th is unlucky, then 2009 is an unusually unlucky year. This week's Friday the 13th is one of three to endure this year.
The first came last month. The next is in November. Such a rare triple-threat occurs only once every 11 years.
The origin of the link between bad luck and Friday the 13th is murky. The whole thing might date to Biblical times (the 13th guest at the Last Supper betrayed Jesus).
[Read More]Can a Toddler's Athletic Skills Foretell Success?
Posted on April 14, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 493 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Baerke van der Meij can rip soccer ball after soccer ball into a small goal with pinpoint accuracy. He's so good at it, in fact, that after VVV soccer club saw his YouTube video, the club offered him a 10-year professional contract. There's nothing particularly unusual about such a deal, except that Baerke is just 18 months old.
The soccer club has admitted that the contract is just a publicity stunt, but is there any reason to believe that this tyke's ability might someday translate to real skills on the soccer pitch?
[Read More]Earth Checkup: 10 Signs of the Planet's Health
Posted on April 14, 2023
| 7 minutes
| 1382 words
| Trudie Dory
With world leaders gathering at a U.N. summit in Copenhagen to brainstorm ways to quash increasing temperatures and hold back rising seas, LiveScience takes a look at the state of Earth's ecosystems and its inhabitants — from polar bears to us. Here are 10 signs of how well (and not-so-well) our planet is doing.
10. Arctic Meltdown
After dramatic meltdowns in recent summers that have left Arctic ice thinner than in the past, some scientists are increasingly worried about the future survival of Arctic sea ice.
[Read More]Gallery: The 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake
Posted on April 14, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 261 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Unmatched in U.S. HistoryThe massive magnitude-9.2 Alaska earthquake changed the world by proving plate tectonics works. Since the quake struck on March 27, 1964, there has never been another earthquake as powerful. The remarkably low death toll of 131 people belies the quake's incredible effects on the Earth.
Raised seafloorUplifted seafloor at Cape Cleare, Montague Island, Prince William Sound, the flat rocky surface with the white coating is about a quarter of a mile (400 meters) wide.
[Read More]