Skara Brae: Prehistoric Scottish Village

 Posted on March 11, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  1038 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Skara Brae is a prehistoric village that was in use between roughly 3100 B.C. and 2500 B.C. Located on the west coast of the main island of Orkney, in Scotland, what makes the site special is its good state of preservation. Visitors can still see the furniture of the stone houses that people used 5,000 years ago. After it was abandoned, it was covered with sand dunes and wasn’t discovered until A. [Read More]

Too Many Jockeys Die Racing Horses (Op-Ed)

 Posted on March 11, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  977 words  |  Fernande Dalal

This article was originally published on The Conversation. The publication contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Horse racing claimed the lives of three jockeys recently – two in Australia and one in the United States – and some prominent industry professionals have openly claimed that deaths in racing are part of the sport. But changes made in the past to the racing industry have led to a reduction in jockey deaths – and more could be done now. [Read More]

'Lost' Medieval Music Performed for First Time in 1,000 Years

 Posted on March 10, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  394 words  |  Fernande Dalal

The language of music is universal, but can be lost over time. After a 20-year reconstruction effort, a researcher and a performer of medieval music have brought "lost" songs from the Middle Ages back to life. The "Songs of Consolation" were recently performed at the University of Cambridgein the United Kingdom. Reconstructed from "neumes" (medieval symbols used to represent musical notation), the tunes accompanied poems from Roman philosopher Boethius' magnum opus, " [Read More]

4,000-Year-Old Game Board Carved into the Earth Shows How Nomads Had Fun

 Posted on March 10, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  813 words  |  Trudie Dory

A pattern of small holes cut into the floor of an ancient rock shelter in Azerbaijan shows that one of the world's most ancient board games was played there by nomadic herders around 4,000 years ago, according to an archaeologist who has investigated the find. Walter Crist, a research associate with the American Museum of Natural History in New York, visited the rock shelter in a national park in Azerbaijan last year, searching for traces of the ancient game now known as " [Read More]

5 'Hidden' Sources of Caffeine

 Posted on March 10, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  554 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced this week that it will take a closer look at the health effects of caffeine, which can be found in a variety of sources and add up over the course of a day. The agency "is taking a fresh look at the potential impact that the totality of new and easy sources of caffeine may have on the health of children and adolescents," Mike Taylor, the FDA's deputy, said in a statement. [Read More]

7 Worst Foods Available with Food Stamps

 Posted on March 10, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  725 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was designed to help low-income Americans meet their nutritional needs. And with about 47 million people enrolled in SNAP, it's the government's largest food assistance program. But in reality, SNAP benefits (often referred to as food stamps) are used to purchase hundreds of grocery store items that have virtually no nutritional value. Unlike alcohol and cigarettes, junk food is not on the brief list of items that can't be bought using a SNAP card. [Read More]

Amoeba Causes Disease That Spreads in Unconventional Way

 Posted on March 10, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  664 words  |  Fernande Dalal

A rare heat-loving amoeba caused an infection that killed a 9-year-old girl in Kansas on July 9, and new research may help shed light on how it and other similar infectious diseases spread. The amoeba, Naegleria fowleri, and the infection it causes, belong to a class of infectious diseases called sapronoses. Conventional infectious diseases spread from contact between people or other animals, but sapronoses are different — the infections they cause come from tiny organisms that are living in water or soil rather than inhabiting a living host. [Read More]

Ancient Giraffe-Sized Creature Pole-Vaulted into the Sky

 Posted on March 10, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  913 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Giraffe-sized pterosaurs may have pole-vaulted with their arms to launch themselves, just as vampire bats do, scientists now suggest. Once airborne, these giant reptiles could have flown vast distances, even crossing continents, they added. Pterosaurs were prehistoric winged reptiles that dominated the skies during the age of dinosaurs, and went extinct at the same time their brethren did 65 million years ago. The largest pterosaur reached the height of a giraffe, raising controversy as to whether such giant beasts could ever actually fly. [Read More]

Ancient Super-Predators Could Take Down Young Mammoths

 Posted on March 10, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  752 words  |  Trudie Dory

Nearly a million years ago, a cave hyena could have taken down a 5-year-old mastodon weighing more than a ton. And in packs, the predators may have been equipped to demolish a 9-year-old mastodon weighing a hefty 2 tons. That's according to new computer models that can calculate how big a target an ancient hypercarnivore, such as the cave hyena and the saber-toothed cat that rely solely on meat for sustenance, might have tackled, researchers say. [Read More]

Here's What Sugar Does to Your Brain

 Posted on March 10, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  949 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

We love sweet treats. But too much sugar in our diets can lead to weight gain and obesity, Type 2 diabetes and dental decay. We know we shouldn't be eating candy, ice cream, cookies, cakes and drinking sugary sodas, but sometimes they are so hard to resist. It's as if our brain is hardwired to want these foods. As a neuroscientist my research centers on how modern day "obesogenic," or obesity-promoting, diets change the brain. [Read More]