Primeval Underwater Forest Discovered in Gulf of Mexico
Posted on June 25, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 691 words
| Fernande Dalal
Scuba divers have discovered a primeval underwater forest off the coast of Alabama.
The Bald Cypress forest was buried under ocean sediments, protected in an oxygen-free environment for more than 50,000 years, but was likely uncovered by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said Ben Raines, one of the first divers to explore the underwater forest and the executive director of the nonprofit Weeks Bay Foundation, which researches estuaries.
The forest contains trees so well-preserved that when they are cut, they still smell like fresh Cypress sap, Raines said.
[Read More]Sex After Menopause: There's Still Life in the Libido
Posted on June 25, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 739 words
| Arica Deslauriers
Women who are in early menopause are just as interested in sex as women who are just a bit younger, and derive as much pleasure from it, suggests a new study from France.
Researchers found that about one-third of the women in the study said sexuality was essential for their "personal equilibrium," though 60 percent admitted they would eventually lose interest in sex. There were no significant differences between women in menopause and those in their 40s and 50s who had not yet experienced the change, the researchers said.
[Read More]Stem Cell Discoveries Snag Nobel Prize in Medicine
Posted on June 25, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 383 words
| Trudie Dory
Two scientists who discovered the developmental clock could be turned back in mature cells, transforming them into immature cells with the ability to become any tissue in the body — pluripotent stem cells — are being honored with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
The Nobel Prize honoring Sir John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka was announced today (Oct. 8) by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Th duo's work revealed what scientists had thought impossible.
[Read More]Strange Sky Spiral May Come from Secretive SpaceX Zuma Launch
Posted on June 25, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 390 words
| Trudie Dory
See moreA pair of spectacular images of an ethereal spiral in the night sky may show the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket after it launched a secret satellite for the U.S. government on Sunday night (Jan. 7).
The photos, posted on Twitter, show a brilliant spiral that appeared in the night sky shortly after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the Zuma satellite on a mystery mission for the U.
[Read More]This Photo of Earth Reminds Us How Small We Are
Posted on June 25, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 393 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Here's a new perspective on your home planet, helpfully provided by a NASA asteroid-sampling probe.
Earth and the moon are two bright dots floating in an immense black void in the new view, which was captured by the space agency's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on Jan. 17 from a distance of 39.5 million miles (63.6 million kilometers).
Well, it's not actually a void; you can see some other stuff in the photo as well, if you look hard enough.
[Read More]Why Did Gold Become the Best Element for Money?
Posted on June 25, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 311 words
| Trudie Dory
Why did gold become the standard for money? Why not copper or platinum or argon? A chemical engineer explains.
An element must meet four qualities to stand alone as a premium currency, Sanat Kumar, the chair of the chemical engineering department at Columbia University told NPR. First, it can't be a gas — gases simply are not practical for currency exchange. That knocks out a bunch of contenders from the right side of the periodic table, including the Noble gases, which would meet the other three qualifications.
[Read More]110 ancient Egyptian tombs, including baby burials, found along Nile
Posted on June 24, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 435 words
| Patria Henriques
Archaeologists have unearthed 110 ancient Egyptian tombs, many holding the remains of humans, including two babies inside pots, along the Nile Delta, the Egyptian antiquities ministry announced Tuesday (April 27).
The tombs were excavated at a site called Koum el-Khulgan, which is located about 93 miles (150 kilometers) northeast of Cairo. Of those tombs, 73 date back to between 5,500 and 5,000 years ago, a time when Egypt was in the process of unifying.
[Read More]Brain Encodes, Controls Responses to Fear: Study
Posted on June 24, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 414 words
| Arica Deslauriers
Fear is a universal emotion. We've all gotten a real or irrational jolt from the sight of a hairy spider or something much more dire. But what happens in the brain during a fright has remained mysterious. New research, however, has begun to explain how this part of our brain works.
As a basic survival mechanism, fear helps to keep us safe from danger. We react with a "fight or flight"
[Read More]Dirty Rats: NYC Rodents Carry Host of Diseases
Posted on June 24, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 465 words
| Patria Henriques
The rats that dart between trash cans and crawl across subway tracks in New York may harbor some alarming diseases, according to a new study.
Rats in Manhattan are reservoirs for a suite of germs, including E. coli and Salmonella, the research found. Some of the critters were even carrying Seoul hantavirus, which can cause Ebola-like hemorrhagic fever and kidney failure in humans and has never before been documented in New York.
[Read More]Helium-huffing alligators and reluctant hitmen win big at the Ig Nobel awards
Posted on June 24, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 1000 words
| Trudie Dory
What do alligators on helium have in common with frozen poop knives, hitmen who won't do their jobs and earthworms that vibrate at high frequencies? These peculiar topics all inspired research that earned a unique science accolade: a 2020 Ig Nobel Prize.
The Ig Nobel Prize ceremony is an annual event to honor weird science in a diverse range of disciplines. The awards are organized by the magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR) and co-sponsored by the Harvard-Radcliffe Society of Physics Students and the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association, and it's definitely an evening to remember.
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