The World's Happiest Countries (The List)

 Posted on February 18, 2023  |  1 minutes  |  120 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

How happy is your country? A new report used interviews with more than 146,000 people around the world to rank 145 countries by the well being of their residents. Participants answered questions about five aspects of their well-being: their sense of purpose, social relationships, financial situations, community involvement and physical health. Based on their responses, participants were considered "thriving," "struggling" or "suffering" in each of those five aspects. Here's the full list of rankings, in order of the percentage of people who were thriving in three or more aspects of well-being: [Read More]

Wacky Humpbacked Dinosaur Looked Like 'Star Wars' Creature

 Posted on February 18, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  594 words  |  Trudie Dory

About 70 million years ago, a humpbacked, duck-billed dinosaur with monstrous front limbs and "mudding hooves" tramped through rivers hunting fish. Though the odd-looking creature, named Deinocheirus mirificus, was discovered nearly 50 years ago, almost nothing was known about the mysterious creature until two new skeletons were unearthed in Mongolia recently. "Deinocheirus was a peculiar humpbacked form with a duckbill-like skull," that could grow to the size of a T. [Read More]

Watch a Mosquito Bite From the Inside of a Mouse

 Posted on February 18, 2023  |  1 minutes  |  180 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

I used to picture mosquitoes liked winged hypodermic needles, jabbing their rigid, needle-like mouthparts into flesh and slurping blood. But it turns out this view was wrong: Their snouts are surprisingly mobile and flexible, and can bend almost 90 degrees once inside the body to search for blood. As you can see in the video below, which I stumbled across on Ed Yong's blog Not Exactly Rocket Science(opens in new tab), the mouthparts contain multiple parts that diverge once entering flesh. [Read More]

Can a Tornado Have More Than One Funnel?

 Posted on February 17, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  517 words  |  Fernande Dalal

{youtube 7qYfsPxfnfE} A deadly three-day storm spawned a reported 267 tornadoes over the weekend, according to the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. But not all of these were single funnel clouds some were what you might call tornado twins and triplets. Storm chasers following the course of the raging storm captured spectacular footage of a phenomenon called a multivortex tornado as the storm barreled through Oklahoma. In these twisters, multiple funnel clouds rotate around each other in a single storm. [Read More]

Decapitated Worms Regrow Their Brains

 Posted on February 17, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  377 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

For some worm species, decapitation is no big deal — they just grow a new head. But far from this superpower being an ancient skill, a recent study suggests that this ability is a relatively recent adaptation, at least evolutionarily speaking. Regeneration is unusual in animals, but the species that can do it are sprinkled throughout the animal kingdom, and include sea stars, hydras, fish, frogs, salamanders and spiders, as well as worms. [Read More]

Delusional People See the World Through Their Mind's Eye

 Posted on February 17, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  737 words  |  Fernande Dalal

A mechanism for how the brain creates and maintains delusions is revealed in a new study. Human beliefs are shaped by perception, but the new research suggests delusions — unfounded but tightly held beliefs — can turn the tables and actually shape perception. People who are prone to forming delusions may not correctly distinguish among different sensory inputs, and may rely on these delusions to help make sense of the world, the study finds. [Read More]

Earth's Magnetic North Pole Continues Drifting, Crosses Prime Meridian

 Posted on February 17, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  452 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Earth's magnetic north pole, which has been wandering faster than expected in recent years, has now crossed the prime meridian.  Magnetic north has been lurching away from its previous home in the Canadian Arctic toward Siberia at a rate of about 34 miles (55 kilometers) a year over the past two decades. The latest model of the Earth's magnetic field, released Dec. 10 by the National Centers for Environmental Information and the British Geological Survey, predicts that this movement will continue, though likely at a slower rate of 25 miles (40 km) each year. [Read More]

Einstein's Brain Reveals Clues to Genius

 Posted on February 17, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  647 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Einstein's brain had extraordinary folding patterns in several regions, which may help explain his genius, newly uncovered photographs suggest. The photographs, published Nov. 16 in the journal Brain, reveal that the brilliant physicist had extra folding in his brain's gray matter, the site of conscious thinking. In particular, the frontal lobes, regions tied to abstract thought and planning, had unusually elaborate folding, analysis suggests. "It's a really sophisticated part of the human brain," [Read More]

Electric eels can supercharge their attacks by working together

 Posted on February 17, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  609 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Stunning new video footage captures electric eels in the Amazon hunting in groups of more than 100. Deadly packs then splinter off to collectively deliver a supercharged jolt that blasts fish out of the water, a new study finds.  This is the first time such group hunting has been seen in Volta's electric eels (Electrophorus voltai), a type of knifefish already known for individually producing the strongest electric shock of any animal. [Read More]

Erectile Dysfunction: Symptoms and Treatment

 Posted on February 17, 2023  |  6 minutes  |  1117 words  |  Trudie Dory

Erectile dysfunction (ED), sometimes called impotence, is the inability to get or keep an erection firm enough for sexual intercourse. The condition has become highly visible in recent years, but that doesn’t make it any more welcome for the 5 to 15 percent of American men whose sex lives are affected. The disorder can occur at any age, but is more common in men over age 75, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). [Read More]