Science kit deals 2022: Fun & educational STEM sets on offer at Amazon, Target, and more

 Posted on January 26, 2023  |  8 minutes  |  1653 words  |  Patria Henriques

If you’re looking for science kit deals for kids, you’ve come to the right place. It’s natural for youngsters to be curious about the world around them, and how things work. Indeed, if you’re a parent you’ve probably had to endure your child asking you “why?” constantly since they were old enough to say the word. But this appetite for knowledge is a good thing, and a great way to teach a child about some of the more interesting elements in our world is with a science kit. [Read More]

Selena Gomez's Diagnosis: What Is Lupus?

 Posted on January 26, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  699 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

The pop star Selena Gomez recently announced that she was diagnosed with lupus and underwent chemotherapy for the condition in 2013. The autoimmune diagnosis was behind her decision to cancel her 2013 tour and spend years out of the spotlight. "I was diagnosed with lupus, and I've been through chemotherapy. That's what my break was really about. I could've had a stroke," Gomez told Billboard Magazine in a recent interview. [Read More]

T. Rex's Cousin: 'Great Tyrant' a Meat-Eating Monster

 Posted on January 26, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  445 words  |  Fernande Dalal

A long-lost Chinese cousin of T. rex has been discovered, one comparable in size to the legendary predator and one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs ever found. The remains of this huge carnivore were discovered in a fossil quarry, which together with nearby sites in eastern China hold one of the largest concentrations of dinosaur bones in the world. "We named the new species Zhuchengtyrannus magnus, which means the 'Great Tyrant from Zhucheng,' because the bones were found in the city of Zhucheng, in eastern China's Shandong province," [Read More]

The First Runner's High: Jogging Separated Humans from Apes

 Posted on January 26, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  758 words  |  Fernande Dalal

No offense, but your long neck, flat face and well-endowed buttocks are the reason you have an edge over pigs and monkeys in the marathon. And you can thank your hungry ancestors for these useful anatomical features, which may also have led to the big brain you now enjoy. A new study suggests the need for endurance made us what we are. Hunting or scavenging on the African savannah was the genesis of the Nike empire, the thinking goes. [Read More]

The Strange History of Cheese

 Posted on January 26, 2023  |  6 minutes  |  1250 words  |  Trudie Dory

For many, the mild, slightly nutty flavor of Gruyère is the perfect addition to a steaming bowl of French onion soup or a ham sandwich, but for the medieval peasants who first created it, the flavor was secondary to matters of survival and location. Gruyère resulted from the historic collision of food scarcity and a mountainous geography, yielding a distinct and rigorous cheese-making process. In fact, all cheese types—there are now more than 1,400--initially arose due to the unique constraints forced by geography and the human effort to preserve the valuable commodity that is milk, says food scientist Paul Kindstedt, of the University of Vermont. [Read More]

Trapdoor Spider Named for Obama

 Posted on January 26, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  299 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

First it was the Obamadon, a newly identified (though extinct) toothy lizard from the Late Cretaceous of North America. And now the 44th U.S. president is getting a living creature named after him, too. Meet the Barack Obama trapdoor spider, or Aptostichus barackobamai, a species found in California. It's just one of 33 newly identified species in the state among 40 in the Aptostichus genus. Several of the other new-to-science spiders have pop culture-inspired monikers, from A. [Read More]

Virtual Pop Star Steps into Real World

 Posted on January 26, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  233 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Some Japanese music fans just can't get enough of virtual diva Hatsune Miku, whether she's singing and dancing in a live holographic concert or on a handheld video game console. A super fan decided to take the next step by hacking a video game so that he could interact with the imaginary pop idol in the real world — for better or for worse. The hacker posted a video showing Miku's anime figure strolling around real-world settings such as a park and inside a kitchen. [Read More]

What Should 'God Particle' Be Renamed? Physicists Weigh In

 Posted on January 26, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  906 words  |  Patria Henriques

Physicists love the Higgs boson, but they hate the God particle. The elusive Higgs particle, which scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator announced Tuesday (Dec. 13) that they are closing in on, is popularly known as the "God particle." The moniker, beloved by the press, is almost universally despised by experts who study particle physics. "I detest the name 'God particle,'" Vivek Sharma, a physicist at the University of California, San Diego, and the leader of the Higgs search at LHC's CMS experiment, wrote in an email. [Read More]

Ancient tooth of mysterious Denisovan girl possibly found

 Posted on January 25, 2023  |  6 minutes  |  1245 words  |  Fernande Dalal

The discovery of an ancient molar — a tooth that likely belonged to young girl who lived up to 164,000 years ago in a cave in what is now Laos — is new evidence that the mysterious human lineage dubbed the Denisovans, previously known only from caves in Siberia and China, also lived in Southeast Asia, a new study finds. "This shows that Denisovans lived in a wide range of environments and latitude and were able to adapt to extreme conditions, from the cold mountains of the Altai [in Russia] and Tibet to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia," [Read More]

Black Tar Heroin May Be Causing Deadly 'Flesh-Eating' Infections in San Diego

 Posted on January 25, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  304 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Seven people in San Diego have died in recent months from a "flesh eating" infection tied to use of black tar heroin, according to health officials. On Wednesday (Dec. 4), the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency announced that nine people in the area had been hospitalized with a serious infection called myonecrosis over a two-month period (from Oct. 2 to Nov. 24). Of these, seven died. The patients ranged in age from 19 to 57 years, and all had used black tar heroin, according to a statement from the agency. [Read More]