Solid Gold: Poop Could Yield Precious Metals
Posted on February 14, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 406 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Instead of flushing millions down the toilet, humans could be mining their poop for gold.
That's at least what some researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) think. They're looking for ways to squeeze metals like gold and silver out of solid waste.
When poop arrives at a wastewater treatment plant, it is separated into biosolids and treated water. Inevitably about half of the biosolids (3.5 million tons in the United States alone) is sent to landfills or incinerated, while the other half is used as fertilizer.
[Read More]That's Cheating! Medieval Dice with No 1 or 2 Found on Street in Norway
Posted on February 14, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 464 words
| Trudie Dory
Editor's Note: This story was updated at 12:20 p.m. E.T. on Wednesday, April 12
A 600-year-old wooden dice that seems to have been specially designed for cheating during gambling was recently discovered in Norway.
The "cheating dice" was found beside a medieval-era street during archaeological excavations in the Vågsbunnen district in Bergen.
"Over 30 dice from the Middle Ages have been found in Bergen over the years so the discovery of a dice in itself is not very surprising.
[Read More]The Surprising Origin of Alien Abduction Stories
Posted on February 14, 2023
| 7 minutes
| 1351 words
| Fernande Dalal
Hundreds of thousands or millions of Americans believe they have been abducted by aliens. In a typical case, an abductee recounts lying in bed one night when an eerie feeling overcomes him, and alien beings appear out of nowhere. The extraterrestrials transport him to a spacecraft and subject him to a battery of physical and psychological tests. After what seems like hours, he is returned to his bedroom unharmed, and finds that the whole ordeal transpired in minutes.
[Read More]This Brainless, Single-Celled Blob Can Make Complex 'Decisions'
Posted on February 14, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 628 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Tiny, brainless blobs might be able to make decisions: A single-celled organism can "change its mind" to avoid going near an irritating substance, according to new findings.
Over a century ago, American zoologist Herbert Spencer Jennings conducted an experiment on a relatively large, trumpet-shaped, single-celled organism called Stentor roeselii. When Jennings released an irritating carmine powder around the organisms, he observed that they responded in a predictable pattern, he wrote in his findings, which he published in a text called "
[Read More]Watch SpaceX launch and (hopefully) land its giant 10th Starship prototype today
Posted on February 14, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 389 words
| Fernande Dalal
Update, 3:33 p.m. ET, March 3: SpaceX attempted to launch SN10 at 3:14 p.m. ET, but aborted one-tenth of a second before liftoff, just after the rockets fired. After a brief evaluation, the company said at 3:30 p.m. ET that it would make another attempt to launch SN10 about two hours later.
SpaceX appears ready to test its tenth Starship prototype Wednesday (March 3), despite at least one problem in the run-up to launch.
[Read More]Why Are Some Places Snubbing Columbus Day?
Posted on February 14, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 882 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Increasingly, Columbus Day is giving people pause.
More and more towns and cities across the country are electing to celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day as an alternative to — or in addition to — the day intended to honor Columbus' voyages.
Critics of the change see it as just another example of political correctness run amok — another flash point of the culture wars.
As a scholar of Native American history — and a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina — I know the story is more complex than that.
[Read More]Why Do We Still Send Animals into Space?
Posted on February 14, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 661 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
A gray rhesus macaque made history yesterday (Jan. 28) when the primate reportedly flew into space in an Iranian mission. It also became part of a long line of animal astronauts.
But since science has proved time and again that humans can survive the extra-terrestrial trip, why do countries bother sending monkeys and other living creatures up into space at all these days?
In the case of Iran, the demonstration is "
[Read More]'Phantom' Predator's Speedy Dance of Death Is Both Graceful and Creepy
Posted on February 13, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 453 words
| Fernande Dalal
In lakes around the world, fearsome creatures attack with strikes that were recently found to be among the fastest in the animal kingdom.
High-speed footage showed the nightmarish swimmers in action; multiple-jointed mouthparts extended from their heads, revealing branching structures to catch and hold squirming prey — even when the prey sprouted "teeth" from its neck.
Fortunately for humans, these predators are positively puny, measuring just a fraction of an inch.
[Read More]A Sonic Attack in Cuba? How an Acoustic Weapon Might Work
Posted on February 13, 2023
| 6 minutes
| 1111 words
| Trudie Dory
A supersecret sonic weapon being used to attack diplomats in a foreign country may sound like the start of a sci-fi novel, but that's exactly what several U.S. diplomats in Cuba may have been exposed to, the U.S. State Department recently announced.
The physical symptoms, which the State Department would not confirm, but which some news reports have suggested included hearing loss, got so bad that some of these officials had to be recalled from their duties in Havana.
[Read More]Ancient Stonehenge Pigs Had Long Journey Before Their Slaughter
Posted on February 13, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 925 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Countless piggies likely trotted hundreds of miles to Stonehenge and other ancient monuments during the Neolithic, where they were promptly devoured during giant feasts, a new study finds.
After guzzling down the succulent pork, ancient people threw the porcine remains aside, littering the landscape with pig skulls and bones. Now, 2,800 years later, researchers have collected jaw and tooth samples from the remains of 131 of these Neolithic pigs; from the samples, they analyzed the isotopes (an element that has a different number of neutrons than usual in its nucleus) that hint at the animals' origins.
[Read More]