Titan: A Climate Out Of This World
Posted on January 20, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 1063 words
| Trudie Dory
This Behind the Scenes article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation.
Our knowledge of Titan has improved considerably over the last five years. Before that, Saturn's largest satellite had only been hastily approached by a handful of space probes.
In 1980, the Voyager-1 spacecraft took advantage of a flyby to take a few mysterious, yet frustrating close-ups of Titan's opaque, rusty atmosphere. Despite its color, Titan actually seemed to look a lot like the early Earth.
[Read More]TomTom Multi-Sport GPS Watch: Sports Watch Review
Posted on January 20, 2023
| 8 minutes
| 1565 words
| Arica Deslauriers
The TomTom Multi-Sport GPS Watch is a sports watch billed as a device that makes it easy for active people to track their exercise goals, progress and training. Runners, cyclists and swimmers can use the GPS-enabled device to log workouts and measure their time, distance, pace, calories burned and other useful stats. TomTom is one of the most recognizable brands in GPS products and services, but the Multi-Sport GPS Watch and its sibling, the Runner GPS Watch, are the Dutch company's first solo forays into the world of GPS watches.
[Read More]Why Cosmonauts Pee on the Bus That Picks Them Up for Launches
Posted on January 20, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 928 words
| Patria Henriques
The three-person Expedition 56/57 crew launched into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan this morning (June 6). On their way to the rocket, the crew — or at least Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev — did something odd: Reportedly, as in the past, the bus transporting them would stop, and the male crewmembers will urinate on the back-right tire of their ride.
(Apparently, female crewmembers splash urine from a cup onto the wheel.
[Read More]Anatomy of Addiction: Why It's So Hard to Quit Smoking
Posted on January 19, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 435 words
| Trudie Dory
The euphoria begins with the first drag.
Inhaling the smoke from a cigarette sends nicotine molecules zooming up into the brain within seconds. The nicotine grabs hold of receptors on brain cells, releasing a wave of dopamine and other chemicals that bring feelings of pleasure and comfort.
Brain cells sprout more nicotine receptors the more you are exposed to it that's precisely why quitting smoking is so difficult, said Megan Piper, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention.
[Read More]Antikythera Mechanism photos: See the world's first computer
Posted on January 19, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 672 words
| Trudie Dory
Sponge divers pulled the first fragments of what became known as the Antikythera Mechanism from a Roman-era shipwreck in 1901 off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera. Ever since the discovery, scientists and historians have continued to look for more artifacts from the shipwreck while also piecing together the story of what is often considered the world's first computer.
Scientists figured out years ago that the device was a bronze astronomical calculator that may have helped the ancient Greeks track the positions of the sun and the moon, the lunar phases and even cycles of Greek athletic competitions.
[Read More]Archaeologists discover palace where Aztec emperor was killed
Posted on January 19, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 472 words
| Trudie Dory
The remains of an Aztec palace where emperor Moctezuma II was held captive by the Spanish and killed in 1520 has been discovered in Mexico City.
Historical records say that the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes took Moctezuma II (also known as Moctezuma Xocoyotzin, sometimes also spelled Montezuma) hostage and held him in the palace in an attempt to force the emperor to control the Aztec population. The people quickly rebelled and laid siege to the Spaniards in the palace.
[Read More]Dangerous Growth Stopped for World's Tallest Man
Posted on January 19, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 382 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
The world's tallest living man has stopped growing; treatment to reduce his growth hormone levels is showing signs of success, according to one of the doctors who treated him.
Sultan Kosen, the 8-foot 3-inch (2.5-meter) record holder has a noncancerous tumor on his pituitary gland (located at the base of the brain) causing it to release excessive growth hormone, which caused him to grow to such a size and also threatens his life.
[Read More]Everyone Agrees: Women Are Hard to Read
Posted on January 19, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 430 words
| Arica Deslauriers
A new study backs up what men have said all along: Women are difficult to read. And the women agree.
Researchers at Indiana University showed video clips from 24 different speed dates and asked male and female participants two simple questions: “Do you think the man was interested in this woman?” and “Do you think the woman was interested in this man?” Their answers were then compared with the responses of the speed daters themselves.
[Read More]How Do You Shut Down the Internet in a Whole Country?
Posted on January 19, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 890 words
| Fernande Dalal
To silence dissidents, the Egyptian government made a move Jan. 28 that has no precedent: It turned off the Internet nationwide. How did they do it — and could the same thing happen here? According to David Clark, an MIT computer scientist whose research focuses on Internet architecture and development, a government's ability to control the Internet depends on its control of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), the private sector companies that grant Internet access to customers.
[Read More]Human Faces May Have Evolved to Take a Punch
Posted on January 19, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 844 words
| Trudie Dory
Prehistoric bare-knuckle brawling might have helped shape the human face.
A new study suggests that the bones of male human faces evolved to minimize injury caused by punches. The researchers argue that competition for women, food and other resources likely drove ancient male ancestors to exchange blows, and consequently, to develop bone structure that would help protect them.
Their analysis adds a new dimension to the ongoing debate among anthropologists about whether or not humans had a violent past, and how much that violence might have influenced evolution.
[Read More]