Amazing Caves: Pictures of the Earth's Innards
Posted on April 5, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 362 words
| Fernande Dalal
Altamira BisonA painted bison on the ceiling of Altamira cave in Spain. The cave is closed to the public because human incursions have caused damage to the 14,000-year-old paintings.
Altamira Cave DeerA deer painted in Altamira Cave's "Polychrome Hall," a passage full of red ochre Paleolithic paintings. To the lower left are sensors to measure temperature and humidity in the cave.
Polychrome Hall, AltamiraRocky Polychrome Hall in Altamira Cave has been compared to a Paleolithic Sistine Chapel because of its decorated ceiling.
[Read More]Ancient 'hangover prevention' ring found in Israel
Posted on April 5, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 673 words
| Arica Deslauriers
A gold ring found in the ruins of an ancient wine factory may have been worn more than 1,000 years ago for its beauty — or to ward off a hangover.
Archaeologists recently discovered the ring in Yavne, Israel, during the excavation of a site dating to Byzantine times (around A.D. 330 to 1453), where a massive wine factory once dominated the landscape. The factory is thought to have been the biggest producer of commercial wine during this period, exporting a high-quality vintage across ancient Israel and beyond, representatives of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) wrote on Facebook(opens in new tab).
[Read More]Dazzling Map Shows More Than 150 Years of Hurricanes
Posted on April 5, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 403 words
| Fernande Dalal
A new map done up in glowing colors reveals the swirling paths hurricanes and tropical storms have tread across our planet since 1851.
If it looks a little odd at first, it's because this hurricane map offers a unique perspective of the Earth; Antarctica is smack in the middle, and the rest of the planet unfurls around it like the petals of a tulip.
The Americas are on the right, Asia is on the left; the storms plotted on the map grow brighter as their intensity increases.
[Read More]Deadly Gut Bacteria Cause Half a Million Infections Yearly
Posted on April 5, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 531 words
| Trudie Dory
Nearly half a million cases of the difficult-to-treat and sometimes deadly infection called "C. diff" now occur yearly in the United States, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Researchers found that in 2011, Americans had an estimated 453,000 infections with the bacteria Clostridium difficile, or C. difficile, which can cause severe diarrhea, and frequently comes back after treatment.
About two-thirds of these cases occurred among people in hospitals, the report found.
[Read More]Hookah Smoke Contains Cancer-Causing Chemical
Posted on April 5, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 533 words
| Fernande Dalal
People who smoke a hookah or inhale secondhand hookah smoke may be breathing in the chemical benzene, a substance that previous research has linked with an increased risk of leukemia, according to a new study.
In the study, researchers collected urine samples from 105 hookah smokers before and after they smoked from a hookah, a pipe that's used to smoke flavored tobacco. They also collected urine samples from 103 people who didn't smoke hookah tobacco but attended events where they'd be exposed to hookah smoke, to test the effect of secondhand hookah smoke on these people's bodies.
[Read More]How Big Is the Mississippi River Flood?
Posted on April 5, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 622 words
| Arica Deslauriers
The deadly tornadoes and rainstorms that tore across the Midwest last month combined with melting snow have left the Mississippi River bursting at the seams. Amidst the evacuations and extensive flooding along the river, experts know records are being broken, but they say they won't know the full extent of the flood — such as how much water has actually breached the riverbanks — until things quiet down.
"We get rain across the [Mississippi River] basin all the time, and if it is spread out in time it will not cause a problem,"
[Read More]How Japan's 2011 Earthquake Happened (Infographic)
Posted on April 5, 2023
| 1 minutes
| 202 words
| Fernande Dalal
The Tohoku earthquake fault is a complex mosaic, with patches that stick and patches that slide smoothly. Though the entire fault ruptured, or broke apart, during the earthquake, some parts moved in different ways. The deeper part of the fault shifted quickly, while the shallow part, very near the surface, slid slowly.
The Japan Trench is the result of the Pacific Ocean plate pressing down under the continental plate carrying the islands of Japan.
[Read More]How to watch rare Halloween 'blue moon' tonight
Posted on April 5, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 513 words
| Trudie Dory
If anyone is trying to wake some dark spirits, tonight's the night.
Halloween is here (Oct. 31), along with a full "blue moon" — meaning the second full moon in a single month. All Hallow's Eve full moons are rare enough, occurring about once every 19 years. But this is the first time since 1944 that trick-or-treating has lined up with a blue moon, according to the Farmer's Almanac.
[Read More]Male Spiders Must Twerk — or Be Eaten
Posted on April 5, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 614 words
| Fernande Dalal
Miley Cyrus may have made "twerking" a household word, but male black widow spiders are the real masters of the rump-jiggling dance move. These arachnids twerk their abdomens to avoid getting eaten by potential mates.
The vibrations caused by the male spider's twerking travel along the females' webs, alerting the females to the presence of a potential mate, a new study finds. The vibrations are very different from the staccato, sporadic movements caused by ensnared prey.
[Read More]Masks Protect Against Colds, Flu
Posted on April 5, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 641 words
| Arica Deslauriers
They may look silly but a new study finds surgical masks are your best protection against a cold or the flu.
Donning a face mask — either a surgical mask or a P2/N95 respirator mask (high particulate filter mask) — boosts protection from severe respiratory illnesses such as influenza and SARS, say researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW). These masks are not necessarily the same as the dust masks that some people use when cleaning or doing construction work.
[Read More]