Earth's outer shell ballooned during massive growth spurt 3 billion years ago
Posted on April 6, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 758 words
| Fernande Dalal
Around 3 billion years ago, Earth's crust ballooned during a massive growth spurt, geoscientists have found.
At that time, just 1.5 billion years after Earth formed, the mantle — the layer of silicate rock between the crust and the outer core that was more active in the past — heated up, causing magma from that layer to ooze into fragments of older crust above it. Those fragments acted as "
[Read More]Freezing This Nerve Could Trick Your Body into Losing Weight
Posted on April 6, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 805 words
| Arica Deslauriers
To lose weight, freeze your nerves? That's the idea behind a new approach that may hold promise for weight loss. By freezing a nerve that carries hunger signals from the gut to the brain, you can essentially trick the body to stop feeling hungry.
In a small-scale pilot trial, presented yesterday (March 21) at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society of Interventional Radiology in Los Angeles, researchers reported that the unusual procedure led to decreased appetite and weight loss in all 10 participants.
[Read More]HIV may hide out in brain cells, ready to infect other organs
Posted on April 6, 2023
| 6 minutes
| 1275 words
| Arica Deslauriers
The HIV virus can take refuge in the brain even when treated with antiretroviral therapies, only to later infect other organs in the body if that treatment is stopped, a new study in mice and human tissue suggests.
Untreated HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, cripples the immune system and leaves the body vulnerable to life-threatening illness. Combination antiretroviral therapy, or cART, can significantly lower concentrations of the virus in the body, to the point that the pathogen can become undetectable, symptoms largely disappear and the treated person is no longer infectious to others.
[Read More]How Ice Melts: Longstanding Mystery Solved
Posted on April 6, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 406 words
| Arica Deslauriers
Until now, scientists could not explain why ice cubes in your drink melt. They've known the basics, but the details remained elusive.
A breakthrough new study, announced today, supports a leading theory that melting starts when the fundamental structure of matter begins to crack.
Melting is considered a basic phenomenon in physics. An understanding of how it works is crucial to gaining a firm grasp on the physical world.
"Yet major details about the mechanisms that drive the melting of an ice cube are missing,"
[Read More]Is the coronavirus outbreak as bad as SARS?
Posted on April 6, 2023
| 6 minutes
| 1220 words
| Patria Henriques
As the new coronavirus continues to cross international borders, the two key questions on public health officials' minds are: 'How deadly is it?' and 'Can it be contained?'.
The two outbreaks in recent memory that give the most insight into these questions are the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak, which spread from China to 26 other countries but was contained after eight months, and the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, which originated in Mexico and spread globally despite all containment efforts.
[Read More]Life's Extremes: Leaders vs. Followers
Posted on April 6, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 983 words
| Patria Henriques
In this weekly series, LiveScience examines the psychology and sociology of opposite human behavior and personality types.
"Who wants to lead the class project?" the teacher asks. Some hands go up, others stay down, someone looks at the ground and another kid yells "I do! I do!"
Even at a young age, a few of us jump to the fore, excited to take on the responsibility of leadership. Others of us defer such roles, content to follow who's in charge.
[Read More]Mathematician Claims He Solved 160-Year-Old Math Problem. Critics Say Probably Not.
Posted on April 6, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 460 words
| Patria Henriques
An unsolved 160-year-old math problem may finally have a solution — but critics are wary.
Michael Atiyah, a prominent mathematician emeritus at the University of Edinburgh, announced yesterday (Sept. 24) at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum in Germany that he had come up with a simple proof to solve the Riemann hypothesis.
The hypothesis was first put forth by German mathematician Bernhard Riemann in 1859. Prime numbers, or those whose only factors are 1 and itself — such as 2, 3, 5 and 7— don't seem to follow a regular pattern on the number line.
[Read More]Peruvian Canals Most Ancient in New World
Posted on April 6, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 378 words
| Arica Deslauriers
Any archaeologist will tell you that agriculture is what really kick-started social development in the ancient world. So what about people who lived in arid climates? In Egypt and Mesopotamia they developed irrigation canals.
New discoveries suggest at least one group in the New World had the right idea too.
A team of researchers working in the Andean foothills of Peru has unearthed solid evidence of canals confirmed to be at least 5,400 years old.
[Read More]Underground Chain Reaction Triggered Iceland Eruption
Posted on April 6, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 631 words
| Patria Henriques
The eruptions of Iceland's volcano Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 were apparently triggered by a chain reaction of expanding magma chambers that descended into the Earth, a group of researchers now says.
After nearly two centuries of dormancy, Eyjafjallajökull (AYA-feeyapla-yurkul) erupted many times over the course of 10 weeks. These outbursts spewed a huge plume of ash that generated extraordinary lightning displays, colored sunsets a fiery redacross much of Europe and forced widespread flight cancellations for days.
[Read More]1 Million US Eye Infections Yearly, Most Due to Contacts
Posted on April 5, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 370 words
| Arica Deslauriers
Nearly a million Americans visit the doctor each year for eye infections, which are often related to wearing contact lenses, according to a new report.
In 2010, people made 930,000 doctor's visits plus 58,000 emergency department visits in the United States for microbial keratitis, according to the report, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Microbial keratitis is an infection of the eye's transparent outer covering caused by bacteria, fungi, amebae or viruses.
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