Radioactive Grain from Chernobyl Has Been Distilled into Vodka

 Posted on December 25, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  533 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Thrill seekers visiting the ruins of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine may soon be able to take a piece of the site's radioactive history home with them — in their livers. A team of scientists from the U.K. and Ukraine have just produced the first bottle of what they're calling Atomik vodka: artisanal spirits made from water and grain harvested in the reactor's once-forbidden exclusion zone.  Though the 1,000-square-mile (2,600 square kilometers) zone surrounding the plant was initially declared uninhabitable by humans for 24,000 years following the 1986 meltdown, the makers of Atomik assured BBC News that their product is no more radioactive than any other liquor on the market. [Read More]

Scary Cave Spider? No, They're New Beetle Species

 Posted on December 25, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  448 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Spelunkers in a Serbian cave may stumble across what appear to be spiders living on the rock walls and ceilings, but it turns out that some of these "spiders" are actually beetles, according to a new study. New research reveals two new species of these spindle-legged cave beetles while also upending the creatures' family tree. The study, based on molecular analysis of the cave beetle DNA, created a new genus, Graciliella, which contains at least four species of the beetle. [Read More]

Secret Spies, Sunken Ships: 9 Pearl Harbor Mysteries Explained

 Posted on December 25, 2022  |  10 minutes  |  2061 words  |  Patria Henriques

Pearl Harbor science(opens in new tab)Although 75 years have passed since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, many details of the event remain shrouded in mystery and debate. Even so, historical researchers and scientists have been able to shed light on at least some of the many lingering questions. Here are nine stories of secrets and science from the "date which will live in infamy." Purple/MagicA long-standing conspiracy theory suggests that U. [Read More]

Sucking Helium Could Reveal Hidden Lung Damage

 Posted on December 25, 2022  |  2 minutes  |  216 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Clowns and party-goers suck helium from balloons to make their voices squeaky, but soon, seemingly healthy smokers could inhale it to explore such conditions as emphysema and asthma. Seeing deeper Fain is the lead author on an article on the helium approach recently published in the journal Radiology. (The study was paid for by the company GE Healthcare, which makes the machine, but Fain and his colleagues are not employees or consultants for the company and had full control of the data. [Read More]

Tuna Steaks Recalled Because They May Cause This Weird Type of Food Poisoning

 Posted on December 25, 2022  |  2 minutes  |  280 words  |  Patria Henriques

Yellowfin tuna products sold in 16 U.S. states are being recalled because they have the potential to cause an odd type of food poisoning that resembles an allergic reaction. On Sept. 6, the company Alfa International Seafood issued a voluntary recall of its refrigerated, yellowfin tuna steak products, which were sold at Kroger grocery stores and several other chains owned by Kroger, according to a statement from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). [Read More]

2 Teens Die After Drinking Racing Fuel & Soda Mix

 Posted on December 24, 2022  |  2 minutes  |  419 words  |  Patria Henriques

Two teens in Tennessee died in January after drinking a mixture of racing fuel and soda at a party, which appears to have been concocted as a substitute for alcohol, according to a new report. Before the party, one of the teens took a bottle of racing fuel from the home of a family friend and mixed an unknown amount of the fuel with soda in a 2-liter bottle, according to the report. [Read More]

A Mirror Image of Our Universe May Have Existed Before the Big Bang

 Posted on December 24, 2022  |  5 minutes  |  861 words  |  Trudie Dory

Like a mountain looming over a calm lake, it seems the universe may once have had a perfect mirror image. That's the conclusion a team of Canadian scientists reached after extrapolating the laws of the universe both before and after the Big Bang. Physicists have a pretty good idea of the structure of the universe just a couple of seconds after the Big Bang, moving forward to today. In many ways, fundamental physics then worked as it does today. [Read More]

Ancient 'Super-Croc' Fossil Discovered in Museum Drawer

 Posted on December 24, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  504 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Long-forgotten remains of a giant dolphin-shaped crocodilian "super-predator" that could devour ancient beasts its size and larger have now been discovered in a museum drawer in Scotland, researchers say. The ancient newfound crocodilian is named Tyrannoneustes lythrodectikos, which in ancient Greek means "blood-biting tyrant swimmer." "Tyrannoneustes was a dolphinlike crocodile that lived 165 million years ago," said researcher Mark Young, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the University of Southampton in England. [Read More]

Big Waddling Dinosaur Discovered

 Posted on December 24, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  623 words  |  Patria Henriques

A strange, long-necked waddling dinosaur with massive arms and probably enormous claws has been discovered. It walked only on its hind legs like the carnivorous dinosaurs from which it evolved, but Suzhousaurus megatherioides, meaning "giant sloth-like reptile from Suzhou," was an herbivore, says researcher Daqing Li of the Third Geology and Mineral Resources Exploration Academy of Gansu Province in northwestern China, where the fossil specimen was found. The creature belongs to a group of dinosaurs called therizinosaurs, characterized by long necks capped by small heads, massive arms and claws, and flaring ribs and hips that made their bodies very wide. [Read More]

Giant Dinosaur Fossil Found in Sahara Desert

 Posted on December 24, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  620 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Paleontologists claim they have unearthed a new type of pterosaur and a previously unknown sauropod dinosaur in the Sahara Desert. The probable pterosaur was identified by a large fragment of beak from the giant flying reptile, and the probable sauropod, an herbivore, was represented by a long bone measuring more than a yard long, indicating an animal nearly 65 feet (20 meters) in length.  Now extinct, both would have lived almost 100 million years ago. [Read More]