Eating More Fish Linked to Lower Risk of Depression
Posted on January 20, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 496 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
People who eat a lot of fish may have a slightly lower risk of depression, according to a new analysis of previous studies.
In their analysis, researchers looked at 26 studies that involved a total of 150,278 people and examined the relationship between depression and the consumption of fish. Ten of the studies were conducted in Europe and seven were done in North America, with the remaining ones conducted in Asia, Oceania and South America.
[Read More]Eating Protein or Fat? It Doesn't Matter, More Means Extra Fat
Posted on January 20, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 792 words
| Trudie Dory
A habit of overeating lean chicken will put as much extra fat on your body as overeating the same number of calories in donuts or butter cookies, a new study says.
Diet studies are notoriously hard to control when the participants are living their everyday lives – we break diet rules or misremember (or lie) about what we eat. So researchers at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La.
[Read More]Good and Bad Angels in Hollywood and the Bible
Posted on January 20, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 561 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
The new film "Legion" is about the final days of mankind, as a group of angels make a last stand in a small diner in New Mexico to protect a woman pregnant with humanity's new savior.
The archangel Michael is played by Paul Bettany, who portrays Charles Darwin in the new film "Creation," also released this Friday. The film poster shows Michael with a hunting knife in one hand and a machine gun in the other.
[Read More]Happier Feet: Antarctica Home to Millions More Penguins Than Thought
Posted on January 20, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 431 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Millions more Adélie penguins are waddling along the icy Antarctic continent than scientists previously thought.
Researchers had estimated that about 2.3 million Adélie penguins called East Antarctica home. But a new survey more than doubles that estimate, to 5.9 million individuals in that area.
A team of scientists completed a comprehensive count of the penguin population using aerial and ground surveys, tagging data and automated cameras during several breeding seasons.
[Read More]How Smallpox Changed the World
Posted on January 20, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 709 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Each Monday, this column turns a page in history to explore the discoveries, events and people that continue to affect the history being made today.
Imagine an Egyptologist's surprise when the mummified pharaoh he found and unwrapped in 1898 bore the familiar scars of smallpox, a disease whose first successful vaccination had been discovered only 100 years earlier.
Today it's a medical success story, but before it was eradicated, the smallpox virus spent more than 3,000 years decimating communities across the globe.
[Read More]How to Avoid Denial and Begin Losing Weight
Posted on January 20, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 458 words
| Trudie Dory
Some years ago, when I knew I had weight to lose, you couldn't have paid me to get on a scale. Now, I think I know why that was so.
Yes, I'm talking about denial. As long as I didn't see the dial on the scale going up, I could go on believing that I still weighed the same as the last time I checked (about 10 months and 15 pounds earlier).
[Read More]Hyena's Laugh Actually Fighting Words
Posted on January 20, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 489 words
| Patria Henriques
A Hyena's giggle is not actually laughter, but a sound of frustration. New research found a way to distinguish individual hyenas based on the peculiarities of their, well, let's call them fighting words.
Until now these squeaky cackles have not been well understood by scientists. Researchers recorded the sounds and did the first ever acoustic analysis of them to understand how the calls vary between individuals, and when they are used.
[Read More]IVF Puppies: First Litter Born by In Vitro Fertilization
Posted on January 20, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 796 words
| Patria Henriques
The first-ever litter of puppies conceived through in vitro fertilization was born recently, unlocking a reproductive secret in domestic dogs that has helped researchers solve a decades-old canine biology puzzle.
The findings, published online today (Dec. 9) in the journal PLOS ONE, outline the eggs-ceptional process that produced seven healthy puppies — five with two beagle parents and two with a cocker spaniel father and a beagle mother — born by scheduled caesarian section to a host female dog.
[Read More]Meet the Adorable Olympic Mascots, Soohorang and Bandabi
Posted on January 20, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 741 words
| Arica Deslauriers
Olympic participants are generally muscular and fit, physically primed by years of training to perform on the international stage. However, two notable exceptions this year are rotund, squishy and a little clumsy, and they won't be winning any medals for their athletic prowess.
Nevertheless, they serve as iconic emblems of the Winter Games and of the culture and folklore of the Olympics' host country, South Korea. They are the official Olympic mascots — a white tiger named Soohorang, representing the 2018 Winter Games, and an Asiatic black bear named Bandabi, serving as the mascot for the 2018 Paralympics.
[Read More]Nevermind the Apocalypse: Earliest Mayan Calendar Found
Posted on January 20, 2023
| 6 minutes
| 1103 words
| Fernande Dalal
The oldest-known version of the ancient Maya calendar has been discovered adorning a lavishly painted wall in the ruins of a city deep in the Guatemalan rainforest.
The hieroglyphs, painted in black and red, along with a colorful mural of a king and his mysterious attendants, seem to have been a sort of handy reference chart for court scribes in A.D. 800 — the astronomers and mathematicians of their day.
[Read More]