Incredible Technology: How to Do Brain Surgery

 Posted on March 23, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  588 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Editor's Note: In this weekly series, LiveScience explores how technology drives scientific exploration and discovery. Few undertakings are as complex or mired in intrigue as brain surgery. Operating on the brain has long been the subject of horror films and sci-fi stories. In Ken Kesey's cult classic "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," the protagonist Randle Patrick McMurphy tragically receives a lobotomy. Lobotomies — surgeries that involve severing most of the connections to and from the brain's prefrontal cortex — were widely performed from the mid-1930s through the mid-1950s. [Read More]

It's Raining Milk! Odd Weather Puzzles Scientists

 Posted on March 23, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  666 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

This story was updated Feb. 24 at 10:20 a.m. EST. Milky white rain poured down on eastern Washington state and northeast Oregon on a wintery morning last week. "I walked out to go somewhere in my car, and I noticed it was covered with mud," said Robin Priddy, director of Benton Clean Air in Kennewick, Washington. "Sometimes it's dusty over here, so I didn't think much of it. But then I started hearing from people that it's raining mud. [Read More]

Lies, Mistakes & More: These Scientific Papers Got Nixed in 2017

 Posted on March 23, 2023  |  8 minutes  |  1536 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Lies, exaggerations, criminal acts, unbridled irony, alternative facts, fake news … No, we're not talking about 2017 politics. This is the 2017 world of science.  This past year, hundreds of scientific papers were retracted from professional journals. In the majority of cases involving these retractions, the reason was an innocent, yet sloppy, error in the methodology of the experiment that the authors themselves caught. But for quite a few papers, the retractions reflected scientific misconduct and a not-so-innocent attempt to tweak the data — or make it up entirely. [Read More]

Marines' Ballistic Underwear Must Also Be Comfy

 Posted on March 23, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  387 words  |  Patria Henriques

Kevlar underwear can protect U.S. Marines against blast fragments flying like bullets through the air, but it lacks the comfort of simple cotton undies or silky unmentionables. Now the U.S. military has begun searching for better alternatives that prevent chafing as well as battle wounds. The U.S. Marine Corps sees comfortable undergarments as being equally important to ballistic protection, according to a new request for information aimed at U.S. manufacturers. [Read More]

Meet Erica, Japan's Next Robot News Anchor

 Posted on March 23, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  357 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

At a mere 23 years old, Japan's latest news anchor would make her parents proud — if she had any. Erica, a lifelike android designed to look like a 23-year-old woman, may soon become a TV news anchor in Japan, the Wall Street Journal reported. According to Hiroshi Ishiguro, director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka Universityand Erica's creator, the android will replace a human news anchor on the airwaves as soon as April, the Daily Mail said. [Read More]

Mummy of Ancient Egyptian Nobleman Discovered Along Nile River

 Posted on March 23, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  552 words  |  Fernande Dalal

A tomb holding the mummy of Shemai, the younger brother of a powerful governor in Egypt, has been discovered near Aswan, Egypt, along the Nile River. The structure dates back more than 3,800 years, archaeologists said. About 14 members of Shemai’s extended family have been found so far in Egypt, with recent research indicating that women played a vital role in this family, acting as "bearers of legitimacy," one Egyptologist said. [Read More]

Rare Ancient Statue Depicts Topless Female Gladiator

 Posted on March 23, 2023  |  6 minutes  |  1104 words  |  Patria Henriques

A small bronze statue dating back nearly 2,000 years may be that of a female gladiator, a victorious one at that, suggests a new study. If confirmed the statue would represent only the second depiction of a woman gladiator known to exist. The gladiator statue shows a topless woman, wearing only a loincloth and a bandage around her left knee. Her hair is long, although neat, and in the air she raises what the researcher, Alfonso Manas of the University of Granada, believes is a sica, a short curved sword used by gladiators. [Read More]

The Evolution of Bullying

 Posted on March 23, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  568 words  |  Patria Henriques

Adolescence is hell, as any 13-year-old or any parent of a 13-year-old will be happy to tell you. Most adults also remember their teen years with a shudder. Given access to the Fountain of Youth, no one would drink that far back. No wonder. Puberty is marked by extravagant physical changes that prepare the body for reproduction. Adolescence is also a hurricane of thoughts, moods and emotions that help us discover who we are. [Read More]

The Truth About 'Green' Cleaning Products

 Posted on March 23, 2023  |  6 minutes  |  1132 words  |  Trudie Dory

When the bathroom starts to look grubby and you pull out all the conventional brushes, sponges, sprays and bleach and start scrubbing, you expose yourself to hundreds of chemicals that have known, and possibly unknown, toxic effects. "Green" cleaning products claim to offer safer alternatives for humans and the planet, but at a higher price. So what's an environmentally conscious germophobe to do? When it comes to humans, the use of any one cleaning product—green or conventional—in small amounts and with proper ventilation probably won't make you ill, says Tom Natan, a chemical engineer with the non-profit National Environmental Trust. [Read More]

The world has a serious deforestation problem: These 7 images prove it.

 Posted on March 23, 2023  |  6 minutes  |  1159 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

In January 2021, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released a report about the state of the world's deforestation problem and 24 "deforestation fronts," or places where large areas of forest are under threat. The study concluded that 106 million acres (43 million hectares) of forest around the world have been stripped away over the last 13 years.  "Nature is in freefall and our climate is changing dangerously — protecting precious forests like the Amazon is a vital part of the solution to this global crisis," [Read More]