How Do Smoke Detectors Work?

 Posted on December 16, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  466 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

In the United States, a person dies in a fire or from a fire related injury every two hours. According to National Fire Protection Association data, most people who survived house fires were able to do so because the building was fitted with working smoke detectors. According to a related NFPA study, close to 1,000 lives could be saved each year if all home owners would use and properly maintain smoke detectors. [Read More]

Is Dark Matter Made Up of Mini Black Holes from the Big Bang?

 Posted on December 16, 2022  |  5 minutes  |  925 words  |  Trudie Dory

Dark matter, the mysterious extra mass in the universe that emits no light yet exerts a gravitational pull, may actually be made up of primordial black holes that originated with the Big Bang. And these mini black holes can thank the Higgs boson for their birth — at least according to a new theory. This theory, described March 23 in the journal Physical Review Letters, posits that these primeval black holes were created from instabilities in the field that gives rise to the Higgs boson, the mysterious " [Read More]

Japan Quake Aftershock Tally Exceeds 5,000

 Posted on December 16, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  515 words  |  Trudie Dory

Editor's note: The USGS has now confirmed that the earthquake in question had a magnitude of 6.4.  An earthquake that ruptured this week off the coast of Japan was one of the largest recent aftershocks to affect an area that, more than a year after one of the most powerful earthquakes on record, is still experiencing a steady stream of seismic jolts. So far, 5,229 aftershocks have rattled the tectonic boundary that ruptured off the coast of Japan's Tohoku region in March 2011. [Read More]

Lifesaving Beats: Songs Can Help with CPR Training

 Posted on December 16, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  785 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

CHICAGO — The familiar tune of the Bee Gees song "Stayin' Alive" has been used for medical training for quite a few years now: It has the right beat — not to mention, the perfect title — for providing CPR's chest compressions at the right pace to revive a patient. The 1977 hit song has a rhythm of 103 beats per minute (bpm), which is close to the recommended rate of at least 100 chest compressions per 60 seconds that should be delivered during CPR. [Read More]

Mediterranean Sea Getting Saltier, Hotter

 Posted on December 16, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  540 words  |  Fernande Dalal

The Western Mediterranean Sea is heating up and getting saltier, a new study finds. Each year the temperature of the deep layer of the Western Mediterranean increases by 0.0036 degrees Fahrenheit (0.002 degrees Celsius), and its salt levels increase by 0.001 units of salinity, researchers monitoring the sea found. The change is consistent with the expected effects of global warming. These changes may sound like small beans, but they have been building up at a faster pace since the 1990s, the study, detailed in the April 1 edition of the Journal of Geophysical Research, suggests. [Read More]

Mysterious Etchings in Peruvian Desert Prove to Be Foreign Birds. What Did They Mean to the Pre-Incans?

 Posted on December 16, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  578 words  |  Patria Henriques

The sprawling Nazca Lines have long been cloaked in mystery. The enormous geoglyphs number in the thousands and portray everything from animals and plants to seemingly mythical beasts and geometric patterns. Now, researchers have found some of Peru's massive creations depict non-native birds. Among the 16 massive bird carvings in the Nazca desert of southern Peru are a hermit (a forest species) and a pelican (a coastal denizen), according to new research published yesterday (June 19) in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. [Read More]

New Spin on Erectile Dysfunction Drugs: Spider Toxin

 Posted on December 16, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  450 words  |  Trudie Dory

A toxin synthesized from the venom of a spider may offer an alternative to today's erectile dysfunction drugs, a new study suggests. The toxin, unpoetically named PnTx2-6, comes from the bite of the Brazilian wandering spider (Phoneutria nigriventer). In humans, a bite from a wandering spider is very painful. What's more, male victims may find themselves with priapism, or unrelenting and painful erection. It was this symptom, turning up in emergency rooms after spider bites in Brazil, that first alerted researchers to the potential of PnTx2-6 as an erectile dysfunction (ED) drug. [Read More]

Volcanoes Spit Out 4.5-Billion-Year-Old Pieces of Earth

 Posted on December 16, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  560 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Materials from Earth's mantle that were created within the first 50 million years of the solar system's birth have been discovered. In fact, the material — found within volcanic rock on Canada's Baffin Island and in a region near the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific — is about 4.5 billion years old, researchers said in a new study. "The fact that these materials have survived through 4.5 billion years of dynamic Earth activity tells us something about the nature and limits of motion in Earth's interior, the source of flood [volcanic] basalt events and eventually about the processes that formed the Earth," [Read More]

Why a Seal Smacked Kayaker in the Face with an Octopus

 Posted on December 16, 2022  |  2 minutes  |  421 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

See moreTalk about a slap in the face. A new video captures the moment that a seal or sea lion flung a dead octopus into the face of a kayaker in New Zealand. The video was posted on Instagram by 22-year-old filmmaker Taiyo Masuda. It shows his friend and fellow GoPro camera content promoter Kyle "te Kiwi" Mulinder experiencing the unexpected octopus assault during an ocean kayak trip. The bewhiskered marine mammal may have been sporting with the human interlopers, but it's also quite likely that the octopus slam was an attempt to tenderize the meat for consumption. [Read More]

400 Mysterious Ancient Stone Structures Discovered in Saudi Arabia

 Posted on December 15, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  599 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Almost 400 mysterious stone structures dating back thousands of years have been discovered in Saudi Arabia, with a few of these wall-like formations draping across old lava domes, archaeologists report. Many of the stone walls, which archaeologists call "gates" because they resemble field gates from above, were found in clusters in a region in west-central Saudi Arabia called Harrat Khaybar. The archaeologists involved in the research aren't sure of the purpose, or even the exact age, of these gates. [Read More]