10 things we learned about the first Americans in 2018
Posted on April 10, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 953 words
| Patria Henriques
The first AmericansThe year 2018 was full of scientific discoveries about the first people to set foot on the Americas. Though the basics of the journey — from Siberia into North America across the Bering Strait land bridge are agreed upon — researchers still don't know exactly where, when or how people first arrived at the continent. From the origins of the oldest North American mummy to unknown genetic connections between the early inhabitants of North and South America, here are the 10 most fascinating things we learned about the first Americans.
[Read More]After recovering from COVID-19, are you immune?
Posted on April 10, 2023
| 7 minutes
| 1427 words
| Trudie Dory
As coronavirus spreads across the globe, a crucial question has emerged: After recovering from an infection, are people immune?
This question is important for understanding who can safely go back to work, as well as for understanding how long the worst impacts of the pandemic are likely to last. Because the virus is so new, the answer isn't fully understood. But so far, scientists say, it looks like SARS-CoV-2 probably induces immunity like other coronaviruses.
[Read More]Are Probiotics Safe for Kids?
Posted on April 10, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 677 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Probiotics are so common in yogurt these days, you might not think twice about giving foods laced with "good" bacteria to your youngsters. But do probiotics provide any benefits for children?
In general, giving probiotics to your kids is not harmful, but there's not a lot of proof it does much good, either. Some studies show probiotics might be beneficial in treating and preventing diarrhea, but the effects are modest, experts say.
[Read More]Astronomers Spotted a Car-Size Asteroid Just Hours Before Impact
Posted on April 10, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 599 words
| Fernande Dalal
Astronomers discovered a car-size asteroid hours before it slammed into Earth and burned up in the atmosphere this past weekend, news sources report.
Scientists in Hawaii initially spotted the asteroid, named 2019 MO, on Saturday (June 22). Soon after, the heavenly traveler broke apart in large fireball as it hit the atmosphere about 240 miles (380 kilometers) south of San Juan, Puerto Rico, according to the University of Hawaii.
This is only the fourth time in history that scientists have spotted an asteroid so close to impact.
[Read More]Boneworms Gnawed on Ancient Reptile Corpses
Posted on April 10, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 369 words
| Patria Henriques
Bone-gnawing worms that feast on whale carcasses at the bottom of the ocean may be far more ancient than scientists previously thought, scavenging corpses in the abyss long before mammals ever began living at sea.
Marine boneworms, known as Osedax, were first discovered in 2002 off the coast of California in an underwater valley called the Monterey Submarine Canyon. These eyeless, mouthless creatures feed by digging rootlike structures into bone, with symbiotic bacteria helping to release nutrients from the skeletons that they can then absorb.
[Read More]Capitalism vs. Socialism: Happiness Could Care Less
Posted on April 10, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 784 words
| Patria Henriques
Socialist or not, one might argue that being bailed out feels better than going under, personally, industrially and nationally. At least in the short run.
A new analysis of the happiness, or more specifically the "life satisfaction," of people living in parts of Europe in the 1990s as the Iron Curtain fell sheds more light on how our personal feelings of well-being respond to socialism, capitalism and big economic transitions.
[Read More]Christmas Trees Wither Under Midwest Drought
Posted on April 10, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 280 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
This article was provided by AccuWeather.com.
Corn was not the only crop to suffer due to the dry conditions in the Midwest this year. Christmas tree farmers also lost some of their trees.
The Wyffel Tree Farm in Moline, Ill. was one farm that lost Christmas trees.
In April, Rick and Kathy Wyffel planted 900 Fir trees and 600 Scotch pines on their 13 acre family farm, Rick Wyffel said.
[Read More]Human Evolution's Biggest Questions May Find Answers in New Analysis
Posted on April 10, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 928 words
| Trudie Dory
Recent controversies about human evolution — such as what the ancestor of the human lineage might have been, whether the mysterious "hobbit" was a different species and whether ancient humans were all one species — could find answers in new analyses of human fossils, researchers say.
This research, based on statistical analyses of a newly compiled data set of ancient human fossils, supports the proposal that the recently unearthed species Australopithecus sediba may be the ancestor of the human lineage, that the hobbit was a different species and not just a deformed modern human, and that early humans were made up of two species, not one, scientists added.
[Read More]In Photos: Scotland's Cave of the Dead
Posted on April 10, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 631 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Sea caveArchaeologists have created a three-dimensional digital model of a hard-to-reach sea cave on the coast at Moray in the far north of Scotland.
Excavations at the Sculptor’s Cave have shown that it was used in the late Bronze Age for a funeral practice known as excarnation, where human bodies are left to rot until the bones can be cleaned and collected.
Preparing the deadSculptor’s Cave consists of a single large chamber scoured out of the base of a sandstone cliff by the action of the sea.
[Read More]More accurate clocks may add more disorder to the universe, scientists say
Posted on April 10, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 721 words
| Patria Henriques
What’s the price of an accurate clock? Entropy, a new study has revealed.
Entropy — or disorder — is created every time a clock ticks. Now scientists working with a tiny clock have proven a simple relationship: The more accurate a clock runs, the more entropy it generates.
"If you want your clock to be more accurate, you’ve got to pay for it,” study co-author Natalia Ares, a physicist at the University of Oxford, told Live Science.
[Read More]