Elf on the Shelf: Cute or Creepy?

 Posted on March 3, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  1026 words  |  Trudie Dory

Ten years ago, a self-published Christmas book launched a new holiday tradition: the Elf on the Shelf. But is this little spy for Santa cute … or creepy? Pinterest and other social media sites are full of creative images of these toy elves getting into mischief, but not everyone is charmed. In fact, experts say, the Elf on the Shelf could send some less-than-appealing messages on proper behavior, privacy and surveillance. [Read More]

God and Evolution Can Co-exist, Scientist Says

 Posted on March 3, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  656 words  |  Trudie Dory

NEW YORK — A scientist is going public with his Christian belief in God and acceptance of evolution, in the wake of the Dover trial and recent, high-profile scholarly writings that have highlighted the contradictions between religiosity and science. Karl W. Giberson, a physics professor at Eastern Nazarene College in Massachusetts, is hardly alone in holding both views (Francis Collins, who headed up federal Human Genome Project, is one widely-known example of a Christian scientist), but the nation's current cultural climate allows such a person to easily make a splash. [Read More]

How Great White Sharks Stumbled into the Mediterranean

 Posted on March 3, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  535 words  |  Trudie Dory

A population of great white sharks in the Mediterranean owes its existence to a few pregnant females that got lost hundreds of thousands of years ago, according to a new study. An international team of scientists has performed the first genetic analysis of this shark community, revealing a close relationship to populations in the general region near Australia. Wrong turn The researchers suspect a group of wayward females set up shop in the Mediterranean after extreme climate change some 450,000 years ago, in the middle or late Pleistocene epoch, produced strange currents that confused them during navigation or uprooted their prey, forcing them to follow their food to distant shores. [Read More]

How the same tech in your Nintendo Wii is tracking wild and wily wolverines

 Posted on March 3, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  759 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

For ecologists studying wolverines — mid-sized carnivores found across the boreal forest and Arctic tundra of North America, across Europe's Nordic mainland, and throughout the Russian north — technology that you'd find in a smartphone is offering an unparalleled glimpse of how these animals behave.  Twenty-five years ago, the only technology available to study wild wolverine behavior were collars that sent out a radio signal revealing an animal's location. Biologists would be lucky to locate a collared animal 50 times in a year, and they'd actually see the animal only a handful of times. [Read More]

Humans Couldn't Keep Up with This Burger-Flipping Robot, So They Fired It

 Posted on March 3, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  475 words  |  Trudie Dory

The burger-flipping robotic fry cook has been temporarily "retired." Why? Because the robot's human colleagues couldn't keep up with it. Built by Miso Robotics, Flippy, described on the company's website as "the world's first autonomous robotic kitchen assistant," was touted as a high-tech helper for fast-food restaurant kitchens in a statement announcing its unveiling in 2017. Equipped with a spatula-tipped arm, Flippy was built to operate alongside human workers and to increase efficiency in cooking and grill maintenance. [Read More]

New Super-Heavy Element 115 Confirmed

 Posted on March 3, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  400 words  |  Patria Henriques

Scientists say they've created a handful of atoms of the elusive element 115, which occupies a mysterious corner of the periodic table. The super-heavy element has yet to be officially named, but it is temporarily called ununpentium, roughly based on the Latin and Greek words for the digits in its atomic number, 115.   The atomic number is the number of protons an element contains. The heaviest element commonly found in nature is uranium, which has 92 protons, but scientists can load even more protons into an atomic nucleus and make heavier elements through nuclear fusion reactions. [Read More]

Tardigrades Apparently Do Huge Poops

 Posted on March 3, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  486 words  |  Trudie Dory

Here are some things that are true about tardigrades: They're tiny, measuring between 0.05 millimeters to 1.2 mm (0.002 to 0.05 inches) long, right on the edge of visible. They're not one species, but a whole phylum of animals. (A phylum is a broad category; There are just 32 phyla in the animal kingdom.) They're incredibly common in wet soil. And they're among the hardiest creatures on Earth, able to survive dehydration, blasts of radiation, and intense swings in temperature. [Read More]

Whale Album: Giants of the Deep

 Posted on March 3, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  697 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Sperm whale and diverThe male sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) is the largest living toothed predator on Earth. Its submarine-like shape is perfectly adapted for deep diving — it can swim down to at least 6,500 feet to feed. The whale’s massive bulbous head is about one-third of the animal’s length. It’s also a massive sound generator that helps the whale navigate. Exhibition entranceThe entrance to Whales: Giants of the Deep at the American Museum of Natural History. [Read More]

What Is Inflammatory Bowel Disease?

 Posted on March 3, 2023  |  6 minutes  |  1244 words  |  Trudie Dory

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a condition that involves chronic inflammation in all or part of the digestive tract. Often painful and debilitating, IBD can lead to life-threatening complications as well as increase the risk for colon cancer. More than 3 million people have IBD, according to a recent government survey. The two most common forms of IBD are ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. In Crohn's, inflammation can occur anywhere in the digestive tract, from the mouth to the anus. [Read More]

Ancient 'crazy beast' from Madagascar had mismatched body and teeth from 'outer space'

 Posted on March 2, 2023  |  6 minutes  |  1139 words  |  Patria Henriques

The oldest complete mammal fossil from the Southern Hemisphere is puzzling scientists with its mismatched body, strange skull holes and teeth that look like they're "from outer space." The new fossil, reported today (April 29) in the journal Nature(opens in new tab), is the oldest (and only) nearly complete skeleton from an extinct group of mammals known as Gondwanatherians. This mysterious bunch lived alongside the dinosaurs on the southern supercontinent of Gondwana. [Read More]