Cancer Risk May Increase with Height for a Simple Reason
Posted on March 25, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 649 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
The taller you are, the greater your risk of cancer may be, a new study finds.
The idea that there may be a link between height and cancer risk has been around since the 1950s, according to study author Leonard Nunney, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Riverside. So, he decided to investigate.
For the study, which was published Oct. 24 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Nunney analyzed data from four large-scale studies totaling hundreds of thousands of cancer patients.
[Read More]Hidden secrets revealed in microscopic images of ancient artifacts
Posted on March 25, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 493 words
| Trudie Dory
Highly magnified views of archaeological artifacts display their extraordinary hidden beauty and reveal intriguing clues about how they were crafted and used long ago.
For example, a 17th-century Persian textile contains fibers of silk thread that were individually wrapped with thin strips of metal. And the microstructure of a needle from Cyprus retains the touch of the person who shaped it, in traces of dark corrosion that emerged as the needle was rotated and hammered.
[Read More]Hunting on Land Can't Help a Hungry Polar Bear
Posted on March 25, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 529 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Even though some polar bears are hunting on land more often in areas hit by climate change, a diet of bird eggs and berries can't sustain these huge animals, a new study finds.
Only a handful of polar bears have been spotted snacking on land-based foods to supplement their traditional, blubber-rich diet of seals and marine mammals. But researchers have wondered whether the high-protein, high-carbohydrate foods polar bears eat on land — such as caribou and berries — could help these symbols of the perils of climate change survive, as sea-ice loss makes seals harder to snatch.
[Read More]In Photos: Weird Bristle Worm Calls Antarctica Home
Posted on March 25, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 243 words
| Trudie Dory
Weird wormThis odd-looking creature, Eulagisca gigantea, is just 8 inches long and swims in the chilly waters around Antarctica.
Bristles everywhereThe organism belongs to the polycheate class of marine worms, which are also called bristle worms. The golden bristles that ring E. gigantea's body could be used for swimming, creeping along the seafloor or for defense.
Toothy ornamentIts mouth is tipped with a sharp-toothed maw that makes E. gigantea look like Tim Burton's idea of a Christmas ornament.
[Read More]Lights Out for North Korea: Space Photo Reveals Country's Isolation
Posted on March 25, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 498 words
| Trudie Dory
Nighttime imagery of the Earth's surface has been a staple for science geeks and geopolitical analysts for years, revealing details about a region's population, growth and industry in dramatic ways.
A recent image from the International Space Station (ISS) shows in stark detail the utter lack of development in North Korea — widely considered to be an isolated "rogue" state — compared with next-door neighbor South Korea, a rapidly developing industrial power.
[Read More]Scientists are recreating the smell of 16th-century Europe
Posted on March 25, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 695 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
History is written, read, told — but rarely ever is it smelled.
Historians and scientists across Europe have now gotten together with perfumers and museums for a unique project: to capture what Europe smelled like between the 16th and early 20th centuries. A European street today may smell like coffee, fresh-baked bread and cigarettes. But what did it smell like hundreds of years ago? As part of this three-year-long project called "
[Read More]Scientists Hijack Bugs, Turn Them into Cyborgs
Posted on March 25, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 542 words
| Patria Henriques
By implanting electrodes into the muscles of beetles, scientists can now precisely control how cyborg insects walk — an ability that may help these bugs carry out complicated tasks, researchers said in a new study.
For decades, scientists have looked to insects for inspiration when designing robots, with the hope of learning from millions of years of evolution. After all, insects may be the most successful animals on Earth, making up about 75 percent of all animal species known to humanity.
[Read More]Ship Traffic Increases Dramatically, to Oceans' Detriment
Posted on March 25, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 786 words
| Trudie Dory
The demand for global trade is driving huge growth in ship traffic in the world's oceans, with four times as many ships at sea now than in 1992, a new study reports.
The study also found evidence of illegal fishing in protected marine areas, such as ships plying waters around the Kerguelen Islands Marine Reserve in the Southern Indian Ocean, said study author Jean Tournadre, an oceanographer at IFREMER, the French Institute for Marine Research in Plouzane.
[Read More]Study: Zen Meditation Really Does Clear the Mind
Posted on March 25, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 750 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
The seemingly nonsensical Zen practice of "thinking about not thinking" could help free the mind of distractions, new brain scans reveal.
This suggests Zen meditation could help treat attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (so-called ADD or ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety disorder, major depression and other disorders marked by distracting thoughts.
In the last decade, there has been a resurgence of scientific research into meditation, due in part to the wide availability and increasing sophistication of brain-scanning techniques.
[Read More]Worms with Three Sexes Thrive in Arsenic-Laced Lake in California
Posted on March 25, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 561 words
| Patria Henriques
Mono Lake in California contains super salty, arsenic-laced water and very few signs of life. Now, researchers have found eight worm species that thrive in the extreme ecosystem — and one of those species has three sexes, according to a new study.
Mono Lake lies in the eastern Sierra Mountains and serves as habitat for brine shrimp, diving flies, bacteria and algae, but nothing else — or so scientists thought.
[Read More]