Hair-growth Drug Tied to Male Sexual Problems

 Posted on June 26, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  499 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Your plans for a new thick head of hair to restore your confidence and sexual allure just might backfire. The hair-growth drug finasteride, commonly marketed under the trademark name Propecia, can cause persistent sexual dysfunction well after you stop the medication, according to a study released today (March 18) in the Journal of Sexual Medicine. Doctors have long known that finasteride can cause impotence and related sexual problems. Finasteride decreases the conversion of testosterone to the more potent dihydrotestosterone, the latter of which is related to hair loss. [Read More]

I Don't: 5 Myths About Marriage

 Posted on June 26, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  726 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Goin' to the chapelTil death do us part? Marriage has lost some of its cachet as the defining institution of American life, but it's still going strong — and even expanding, opening up to same-sex couples in nine states and the District of Columbia. Despite its ubiquity, marriage is surrounded by its fair share of myths. From divorce rates to the secrets of married sex, here's what's really known.   [Read More]

Is This 1949 Device the World's First E-Reader?

 Posted on June 26, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  304 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Spain in 1949 was a stagnant European backwater. The economy was moribund, dictator Francisco Franco had political opponents jailed or killed, women were unable to testify in court — and the world's first automated reader, precursor to today's e-readers, was invented by a woman named Angela Ruiz Robles. The reader, which she named the Mechanical Encyclopedia, according to the Daily News, operated on compressed air. Text and graphics were contained on spools that users would load onto rotating spindles. [Read More]

Man Captures Stunning, Rare Video of a Fight Between Two Huge Moose

 Posted on June 26, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  252 words  |  Trudie Dory

There's something stoic and strangely serene about the affects of two moose in a video posted to Facebook Tuesday. The two bulls stand there, eyeing each other, not moving much. And then, with an enormous clatter, audible even far up the road, they ram their antlers together, thrusting and bucking. Each appears determined to drive the other to his knees. And then they come apart, and stand there some more, sometimes kicking at the dirt, sometimes still. [Read More]

Photos: Mummies Discovered in Tombs in Ancient Egyptian City

 Posted on June 26, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  353 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Substantial discoveryArchaeologists have discovered several mummies and sarcophagi in two separate tombs near Luxor (ancient Thebes) in Egypt. The individual seen here was buried in what archaeologists call tomb "TT33." [Read more about the Luxor mummy discoveries] More to uncoverThe people in this picture may be part of the same family, the ministry of antiquities said. When exactly these mummies date to is not certain. The tomb they were buried in, TT33, is massive and has been excavated several times since the 19th century, but new finds continue to be made. [Read More]

Quartz Could Hold Key to a Quake Mystery

 Posted on June 26, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  649 words  |  Patria Henriques

Quartz might help solve a mystery as to why Earth's continents repeatedly deform in some areas but not others, scientists find. Areas loaded with the common fragile mineral apparently make up persistent zones of weakness in the Earth's crust. These findings might one day help shed light on the inner workings of the puzzling quakes that rupture in the middle of continents. The unifying theory of plate tectonics revolutionized our understanding of the planet by shedding light on how continents split, move and combine. [Read More]

Seashell Armor Could Offer Transparent Protection for Troops

 Posted on June 26, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  487 words  |  Fernande Dalal

New transparent armor to protect U.S. troops on the battlefield could be inspired by the structure of seashells, researchers say. Scientists would love to develop tough, hard, lightweight materials for applications such as body armor. Increasingly, researchers seek to create materials that mimic structures found in nature, a strategy known as biomimetics. "We have long studied natural exoskeletons as inspiration for the development of advanced engineered protective systems," said study author Christine Ortiz, a materials scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [Read More]

Solar Eclipse-Chasing Jets Aim to Solve Mystery of Sun's Corona

 Posted on June 26, 2023  |  6 minutes  |  1273 words  |  Trudie Dory

The researchers will use cameras installed on two of NASA's WB-57 research jets to make high-resolution moving observations of the sun's corona — the ethereal streamers of glowing gas in the sun's outermost atmosphere that only become visible during a solar eclipse. While observers on the ground will experience up to two-and-a-half minutes of totality (when the moon completely obscures the sun), the NASA-funded team led by Amir Caspi, a solar astrophysicist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, will use the jets to stretch the period of totality to more than 7 minutes, allowing unprecedented observations of the solar corona. [Read More]

Statistically Speaking, Is Friday the 13th Really Unlucky?

 Posted on June 26, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  898 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

The number 13 is synonymous with bad luck. It's considered unlucky to have 13 guests at a dinner party, many buildings don't have a 13th floor and most people avoid getting married or buying a house on a day marked by this dreaded number. Especially superstitious folks even avoid driving on Friday the 13th. But is there any statistical proof to support the superstition that Friday the 13th — or even just the number 13 itself — is unlucky? [Read More]

Surprising Depth to Global Warming's Effects

 Posted on June 26, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  837 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Sarah Purkey is a Ph.D. student in the University of Washington's School of Oceanography. Gregory Johnson is an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. They contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The oceans are the flywheel of the climate system. As atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases increase, the Earth system is warming, and over 90 percent of that increase in heat goes into the ocean. [Read More]