'Horizontal Tornado' Captured By Amateur Videographer

 Posted on January 23, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  310 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

New images of a weird weather phenomenon known as a roll cloud have surfaced from Richland, Miss. The images, taken on a camera phone by Mississippi resident Daniel Blake Fitzhugh, reveal a seemingly endless roll cloud, or arcus cloud, a low cloud formation that forms over the sea or at the edges of thunderstorms. Fitzhugh sent in an image and video of the cloud to LiveScience after seeing an earlier report of a roll cloud off the coast of Brazil. [Read More]

1 Long Neck, 4 Species: New Giraffe Diversity Revealed

 Posted on January 23, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  464 words  |  Fernande Dalal

When it comes to giraffes, can you spot the difference? A new study reveals there's more to the animals' species diversity than once suspected. The study researchers collected and analyzed DNA from skin samples representing 190 giraffes from across Africa, the first such analysis to include data from all nine formerly accepted subspecies. The results showed that what was long thought to be one giraffe species is in fact four species. [Read More]

6,000 Feet Under: Whale Sharks' Deepest Dives Detected

 Posted on January 23, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  457 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Known as the "gentle giants" of the shark family, whale sharks are the largest fish alive today. But there is much that scientists have yet to discover about their biology and habits. And these massive fish recently revealed a big secret — they're capable of far deeper dives than previously suspected. By using highly sophisticated fin-mounted satellite tags on whale sharks for the first time, scientists observed the deepest recorded dives by a whale shark — nearly 6,000 feet (1,800 meters), approximately the length of 27 football fields. [Read More]

Ancient DNA could reveal full stories on the Dead Sea Scrolls

 Posted on January 23, 2023  |  6 minutes  |  1112 words  |  Fernande Dalal

The Dead Sea Scrolls are made up of tens of thousands of manuscript fragments — mostly made of parchment, or animal skin. Now, scientists are analyzing tiny traces of ancient DNA in these fragments to piece together the story of the early text. In the 1940s, the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which date back 2,000 years, were found in a cave near the archeological site of Qumran in the West Bank, on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, Live Science previously reported. [Read More]

Better Sleep May Help Improve Schizophrenia

 Posted on January 23, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  815 words  |  Patria Henriques

Sleep problems and schizophrenia may have common roots, raising hopes that the devastating mental disorder could be improved by helping patients overcome insomnia. In a new study monitoring the sleep and circadian rhythms of people with schizophrenia, researchers found many more sleep problems in the schizophrenia patients versus mentally healthy controls. Combined with other research linking a schizophrenia-related gene with sleep-wake cycles in mice, the findings suggest that sleep and schizophrenia are more closely intertwined than ever realized, study researcher Russell Foster told LiveScience. [Read More]

Can a Common STD Cause Prostate Cancer?

 Posted on January 23, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  534 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Prostate cancer is the second-most common cancer among men in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society, and almost 30,000 American men die each year from the disease. An international team of medical researchers has now found evidence linking prostate cancer to a common sexually transmitted infection known as trichomoniasis, or simply "trich." Caused by the parasite Trichomonas vaginalis, trich is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections, affecting some 3. [Read More]

Deadliest Earthquakes in History

 Posted on January 23, 2023  |  1 minutes  |  161 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Tsunamis and fires have contributed to some of the largest death tolls in earthquakes. Here are the most notable known earthquake events, based on the number of deaths. Both deaths and magnitudes, when shown, are estimates. DateLocationDeathsMagnitudeCommentsJanuary 23, 1556China, Shansi830,000~8Damage up to 270 miles awayJuly 27, 1976China, Tangshan255,000 (official) 655,000 (estimated)7.5Estimated death toll as high as 655,000.Dec. 26, 2004Sumatra, Indonesia227,8989.1Deaths from earthquake and tsunamiAugust 9, 1138Syria, Aleppo230,000n/aJan. 12, 2010Haiti222,5707.01.3 million displaced. [Read More]

Dinosaur-Era Bird Preserved in 3D Could Rewrite History of Flight

 Posted on January 23, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  488 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Around 120 million years ago, a bird about the size of a pigeon fluttered through Cretaceous forests in what is now Japan. The newly discovered fossil, preserved in three dimensions, is the first primitive Cretaceous bird found outside China. And it may force scientists to rethink some details in the evolution of flight.  The ancient avian, named Fukuipteryx prima, displays something found in modern birds that is absent in other early Cretaceous bird fossils: a bony plate near the tail. [Read More]

Extinct Tree From Christ's Time Rises From the Dead

 Posted on January 23, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  539 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Scientists have grown a tree from what may be the oldest seed ever germinated. The new sapling was sprouted from a 2,000-year-old date palm excavated in Masada, the site of a cliff-side fortress in Israel where ancient Jews are said to have killed themselves to avoid capture by Roman invaders. Dubbed the "Methuselah Tree" after the oldest person in the Bible, the new plant has been growing steadily, and after 26 months, the tree was nearly four-feet (1. [Read More]

Lengthy clinical trials to test vaccines modified for variants won't be necessary, FDA says

 Posted on January 23, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  504 words  |  Fernande Dalal

If the novel coronavirus mutates such that current COVID-19 vaccines are no longer effective at fighting the virus, researchers will have to modify the vaccines.  But new guidelines issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) indicate that long, extensive clinical trials may not be necessary to test the modified vaccines. Rather, the modified vaccines can be tested in small-scale trials like those conducted to develop the flu vaccine every year, The New York Times reported. [Read More]