1,060 New Species Discovered in New Guinea

 Posted on March 12, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  419 words  |  Trudie Dory

More than 1,000 new species have been discovered in New Guinea in a 10-year span, according to a new report from conservation organization WWF. Among the 1,060 species uncovered between 1998 and 2008 are 12 mammals, including a giant, wooly rat that lives inside a volcano and a snub-fin dolphin with a face like the Kool-Aid man. New Guinea is the world's second-largest island, smaller than Greenland but larger than Borneo and Madagascar, and is split between two countries: Papua New Guinea to the east and Indonesia to the west. [Read More]

Ancient Egyptian Soldier's Letter Home Deciphered

 Posted on March 12, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  665 words  |  Fernande Dalal

A newly deciphered letter home dating back around 1,800 years reveals the pleas of a young Egyptian soldier named Aurelius Polion who was serving, probably as a volunteer, in a Roman legion in Europe. In the letter, written mainly in Greek, Polion tells his family that he is desperate to hear from them and that he is going to request leave to make the long journey home to see them. [Read More]

Beautiful Earth Visualization Shows the World's Weather in Motion

 Posted on March 12, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  394 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

A stunning, blue-and-green visualization of the globe allows viewers to see the world's wind and weather patterns as forecast by supercomputers around the world. The striking animation, called "earth," was designed by computer programmer Cameron Beccario, an engineering manager at the computer coding company Indeed Tokyo in Japan. The interactive graphic allows users to toggle between views that show the flow of wind; the movement of ocean currents and the height of waves; the air temperature; and the circulation of air pollutants around the globe. [Read More]

Eating too much salt could mess with your immune cells

 Posted on March 12, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  587 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Eating too much salt may reduce the amount of energy that immune system cells can make, preventing them from working normally, according to a new study. Eating an excess of sodium has previously been linked to many different problems in the body, including high blood pressure and higher risk of stroke, heart failure, osteoporosis, stomach cancer and kidney disease, Live Science previously reported. "Of course the first thing you think of is the cardiovascular risk," [Read More]

Glow-in-the-dark baby squid and tardigrades to be blasted into space

 Posted on March 12, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  706 words  |  Trudie Dory

NASA is preparing to rocket around 5,000 tardigrades — those adorably pudgy "water bears —" and 128 glow-in-the-dark baby squid into space. The animals are heading to the International Space Station (ISS) next week as part of SpaceX's 22nd cargo resupply mission. SpaceX is set to launch the microscopic critters onboard a Falcon 9 rocket on June 3 1:29 p.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Related: 8 reasons why we love tardigrades [Read More]

Invasive Species

 Posted on March 12, 2023  |  1 minutes  |  49 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Invasive 'murder hornets' are officially back in the US

By Jeanna Bryner published 13 August 21

An invasive and destructive "murder hornet" has been spotted in Washington state for the first time this year, and the alien-looking insect was behaving accordingly — attacking a hive of paper wasps.

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It's a Girl! Healthy Giraffe Born at Dallas Zoo

 Posted on March 12, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  500 words  |  Trudie Dory

The giraffe born at the Dallas Zoo last week is a healthy baby girl, according to a zoo spokeswoman. The spindly-legged bundle of joy weighs 139 lbs. (63 kilograms) and stands 5 feet 10 inches (1.8 meters) tall, said Laurie Holloway, the Dallas Zoo's director of communications and social media. A giraffe named Katiegave birth to the calf on Friday (April 10), and the event was streamed live online. The zoo is holding a public vote to name the calf later this week, Holloway told Live Science. [Read More]

Mariner's Astrolabe from 1503 Shipwreck Is World's Oldest

 Posted on March 12, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  737 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

A rare navigational tool has snagged a Guinness World Record as the oldest mariner's astrolabe. The astrolabe dates to between 1496 and 1501; it sank to the bottom with a shipwreck in 1503 near the coast of the island of Al-Ḥallānīyah, in what is now Oman. The find is one of only 104 historical astrolabes in existence. "It is a great privilege to find something so rare, something so historically important," [Read More]

Red Sea dolphins slather their skin in coral mucus, because nature is wonderfully gross

 Posted on March 12, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  979 words  |  Patria Henriques

Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins take their skin care seriously — in fact, the marine mammals medicate their skin by rubbing up against certain types of corals and sponges, which produce compounds that may help guard the dolphins' skin against infection. Scientists first saw these dolphins scraping their slippery skin against corals about 13 years ago, in the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt. It was then that a team of researchers — including Angela Ziltener, a wildlife biologist at the University of Zurich — spotted the dolphins gliding toward and nuzzling against a bush-like coral species known as gorgonian coral (Rumphella aggregata). [Read More]

Shipwreck Alley Threatened by Invasive Mussels

 Posted on March 12, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  581 words  |  Trudie Dory

Known as Shipwreck Alley, Thunder Bay in northwest Lake Huron presents a forbidding scene for boaters and captains but a wonder for divers and marine archaeologists. Its chilly bottom is dotted with dozens of wrecks, from 19th-century schooners to passenger-carrying steamboats to steel-moving freighters that have fallen prey to the bay's unpredictable weather and dangerous shoals. More than 50 of these historic hulks are protected by the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, which was created in 2000 and covers 448 square miles (1,160 square kilometers) off the northeast coast of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. [Read More]