Have Sex While You Sleep
Posted on March 20, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 418 words
| Arica Deslauriers
If you think it’s impossible to have sex while you sleep, think again, according to a new study.
There are at least 11 different sex-related sleep disorders, collectively referred to as “sexsomnia” or “sleepsex,” that affect people who are otherwise psychologically healthy—causing them to unknowingly engage in various sexual activities during the night.
Carlos Schenck, a psychiatrist at the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center, and his colleagues have studied a number of behavioral disorders associated with sleep.
[Read More]How Blood-Bloated Mosquitoes Stealthily Avoid a Swat
Posted on March 20, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 544 words
| Patria Henriques
After a mosquito bites you and drinks its fill, how does it escape quickly and sneakily, to avoid getting smacked? To make their liftoff smoother and less noticeable to their victims, blood-bloated mosquitoes adjust their takeoff technique, researchers have discovered.
Using an array of high-speed cameras and 3D-motion analysis, scientists tracked 63 takeoff maneuvers in mosquitoes, describing their results in a new study. They found that full mosquitoes prepared for liftoff by first beating their wings, then gradually increasing downward pressure with their legs, and finally pushing off almost imperceptibly.
[Read More]Johnson & Johnson says COVID-19 vaccine protects against delta variant
Posted on March 20, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 638 words
| Patria Henriques
The Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine is highly effective against the highly transmissible delta variant, the company announced on Thursday (July 1).
Though the analysis was conducted on only a small number of participants and hasn't yet been peer-reviewed, it suggests that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, like the Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines, may provide a buffer for the U.S. against the highly transmissible variant. The findings were submitted as two separate studies to the preprint server bioRxiv.
[Read More]Lightbulbs: Incandescent, Fluorescent, LED (Infographic)
Posted on March 20, 2023
| 1 minutes
| 90 words
| Patria Henriques
In the age of incandescent bulbs, people chose a lightbulb based on the number of watts it produced. Today, lighting choices have expanded, and people shop according to lumens, a unit of brightness. Look for the Lighting Facts label when shopping for bulbs.
Incandescent bulbs work by heating a tungsgten filament to 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,200 degrees Celsius).
Compact Fluorescent bulbs work by heating a gas that produces ultraviolet light. The coating inside the bulb converts the invisible ultraviolet light into visible light.
[Read More]Living Warmer: How 2 Degrees Will Change Earth
Posted on March 20, 2023
| 6 minutes
| 1121 words
| Trudie Dory
Accomplishing it is arguably the most difficult problem facing the world, but at least the target is clear. Negotiators gathered in Cancύn, Mexico, are shooting to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), a goal set a year ago in Copenhagen.
As international climate talks head toward the two-decade mark, achieving this goal is anything but a certainty. But if you take the leap of faith and envision Earth in 2100 with its overall surface temperature 2 degrees warmer than now, what is the planet like?
[Read More]New 'Doomsday Preppers' Show Highlights Extreme Survivalists
Posted on March 20, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 653 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
It's better to be safe than sorry, which is why FEMA guidelines recommend stockpiling your pantry with three days worth of food in case of a natural disaster. Meanwhile, Paul Range and Gloria Haswell have enough in store to feed 22 people for 15 years — as well as enough guns, bullets and bug-out vehicles to wage a small war. The couple occupies nine steel shipping containers arranged in a castle formation outside Floresville, Texas.
[Read More]Next Solar Eclipse: ‘Ring of Fire’ on May 20, 2012
Posted on March 20, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 497 words
| Trudie Dory
Updated May 17, 4:17 pm ET
The next solar eclipse will grace the afternoon and early evening skies over much of the United States this Sunday (May 20), offering up a spectacular site for those lucky enough to see it.
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon gets directly between Earth and the sun. Sunday’s event will be an partial solar eclipse across most of the United States and Canada, and a more compelling annular solar eclipse for a narrow swath of residents in the West and Southwest.
[Read More]Season of Birth May Affect the Rest of Your Life
Posted on March 20, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 585 words
| Fernande Dalal
The season in which you are born may affect everything from your eyesight to your eating habits and overall health later in life, according to a blossoming field of research. The latest study shows that spring babies are more likely to suffer from anorexia nervosa as adults.
"We found an excess of anorexia births in the spring months compared to the general population," said study researcher Lahiru Handunnetthi, of the Wellcome Trust Center for Human Genetics.
[Read More]Volcanoes Snuffed Out Most Life 250 Million Years Ago
Posted on March 20, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 494 words
| Trudie Dory
Scientists have gone back-and-forth in recent years on what caused the various mass extinctions clearly evident in the fossil record. The worst of these, known as the Great Dying, occurred 250 million years ago. More than 90 percent of all species perished.
Experts are pretty sure an asteroid was behind a more recent mass extinction, which took with it the dinosaurs, about 65 million years ago. A more controversial recent claim has been that a similar impact caused the Great Dying.
[Read More]Zigzagging Rodents Dodge Death with Unpredictable Moves
Posted on March 20, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 670 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Four legs good, two legs bad? Not if you're a jerboa, a tiny, bipedal, desert rodent. These miniscule mammals get around using only their two hind legs to hop, skip and jump across their arid habitats.
And the creatures mix and match those locomotion styles to produce hard-to-follow moves that help them evade the jaws of hungry predators, according to a new study.
In fact, researchers found that jerboas' fancy footwork was much more unpredictable than the movements of other small desert rodents that scurry on four legs to avoid trouble.
[Read More]