Did Hobbits Live Alongside Modern Humans?
Posted on March 2, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 983 words
| Trudie Dory
The extinct human lineage nicknamed "the hobbit" for its miniature body may have vanished soon before or soon after modern humans arrived on the hobbits' island home, rather than living alongside modern humans for thousands of years as was previously thought, researchers say.
By using new techniques to date hobbit skeletons and the sediment where they were buried, researchers determined that the "hobbit" species, Homo floresiensis, likely vanished earlier than prior estimates had suggested.
[Read More]Fossilized Pterosaur Eggs Hold Perfectly Preserved Embryos Inside
Posted on March 2, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 678 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
The discovery of 215 fossilized pterosaur eggs has revealed a new finding about the young of these ancient reptiles: Pterosaur babies likely couldn't fly after hatching and probably needed their parents to take care of them.
An examination of 16 embryos within these eggs shows that the little pterosaurs had well-developed thigh bones, suggesting that the reptiles could walk shortly after hatching, according to a new study describing the findings.
[Read More]Hooks, Graps & Spines: IDing Moth Genitalia
Posted on March 2, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 328 words
| Fernande Dalal
New moth speciesThree new species of moths have been discovered in South Africa's Tswaing Crater Reserve. Here, a male of the newly-discovered species Urodeta trilobata is shown. All three of the new moths, collected and described by Jurate de Prins, of Belgium's Royal Museum for Central Africa, are tiny, with fringe-like scales on their wings. None have wingspans larger than 7 millimeters (about 0.25 inch).
Moth genitaliaThe new moths were identified partially due to de Prins' examination of the bugs' genitals (pictured: male U.
[Read More]How a Man's Fecal Transplant Turned Fatal
Posted on March 2, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 685 words
| Arica Deslauriers
The first person known to die as a result of a fecal transplant is a 73-year-old man who developed a fatal infection with antibiotic-resistant bacteria that were in the donor's stool sample.
News of the man's death surfaced in June; he was one of two patients in separate clinical trials who became ill after receiving fecal transplants from the same donor, Live Science previously reported.
Both patients developed infections with a strain of Escherichia coli, or E.
[Read More]Marine Biodiversity Threatened, Study Finds
Posted on March 2, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 604 words
| Fernande Dalal
Warming ocean waters, coupled with direct human actions such as pollution and overfishing, may threaten the rich diversity of life under the sea, a new U.S.-Canadian study suggests.
Researchers looked at how various factors have influenced the distribution of a spectrum of species — from seagrass to squid to sharks. Their findings help fill in the moving map of biodiversity across the world's oceans, knowledge that long has lagged behind that of diversity patterns on land.
[Read More]Meet the Ploonets! Runaway Moons with Delusions of Planethood Get Astronomy's Cutest Name Ever
Posted on March 2, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 427 words
| Arica Deslauriers
What do you call a runaway exomoon with delusions of planethood? You call it a "ploonet," of course.
Scientists had previously proposed the endearing term "moonmoons" to describe moons that may orbit other moons in distant solar systems. Now, another team of researchers has coined the melodious nickname "ploonet" for moons of giant planets orbiting hot stars; under certain circumstances, these moons abandon those orbits, becoming satellites of the host star.
[Read More]New Record! Robot Solves Rubik's Cube in Less Than a Second
Posted on March 2, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 328 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Solving a Rubik's Cube is an impressive feat by itself, but now, a robot can do it in record time, cracking the 3D puzzle about 10 times faster than the human who holds the world record.
In just over half of a second (0.637 seconds), the Sub1 Reloaded robot made each side of the Rubik's Cube show a single color. This breaks the previous record of 0.887 seconds achieved by an earlier version of the same machine using a different processor.
[Read More]Photos: This Dinosaur's Feathers Shimmered with Iridescence
Posted on March 2, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 238 words
| Patria Henriques
Rainbow dinosaurDuring the Jurassic period, about 161 million years ago, a duck-size dinosaur dazzled its fellow paleo-beasts with its rainbow-colored, iridescent feathers. This newly analyzed dinosaur, dubbed Caihong juji is the oldest dinosaur on record with iridescent feathers, according to a new study. [Read more about the iridescent dinosaur]
Amazing fossilAfter analyzing the fossil (shown here), researchers named the dinosaur Caihong juji. The genus name comes from the Mandarin word "
[Read More]Robotic Toy 'Leka' Designed for Kids with Autism
Posted on March 2, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 629 words
| Fernande Dalal
The rolling robot BB-8 captivated moviegoers as it helped save the day in the 2016 film "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" — though even the most die-hard fan would admit that we aren't likely to see a real-world robot quite like that in the near future.
However, there's another spherical, programmable, rolling robot currently in development that's capable of doing important work to engage children with special needs, particularly children on the autism spectrum.
[Read More]Save 19% on this Bionic Quadruped Spider Robot for Raspberry Pi
Posted on March 2, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 431 words
| Trudie Dory
Grab this complete Raspberry Pi robot kit and have a blast not only assembling the creepy-cool spider, but especially for older kids you'll learn about coding and other STEM skills along the way.
For Cyber Monday, you can save 19% at Amazon(opens in new tab) on this Adeept DarkPaw Bionic Quadruped Spider Robot Kit for Raspberry Pi. The kit, like other Raspberry Pi kits, is based on a credit card-size PC (sold separately at Amazon) that serves as the foundation for the bionic arachnid.
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