Most of California's Big Earthquakes Are Preceded by Ghostly 'Foreshocks' Weeks in Advance
Posted on December 7, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 800 words
| Fernande Dalal
How do earthquakes begin? It's an ancient question — and while scientists have ruled out the vengeful gods blamed over the past few millennia, agreeing that tremors are more a matter of grinding plate tectonics than of Poseidon's wrath, many facets of this seismic puzzle remain murky.
One ongoing mystery is the phenomenon of foreshocks, small, sometimes imperceptible tremors that can precede larger quakes in the same area by several days or weeks.
[Read More]Photos: Kangaroos Use Tails to Walk
Posted on December 7, 2022
| 2 minutes
| 412 words
| Fernande Dalal
Kangaroo newsKangaroos walk using all four limbs and their tails more often than they hop on their hind legs, and new research published July 1, 2014 in the journal Biology Letters finds that their tails actually act as a fifth leg. Here, an illustration of the kangaroo's fore limb, hind limb and tail bones. [Read More: Kangaroos Use Tails as Extra Legs]TKTK
Comparing inside and outRed kangaroos (Macropus rufus) like this one are the largest of the kangaroos and the largest living marsupials, with males reaching 4.
[Read More]Plate Tectonics Becoming Clearer With Computers
Posted on December 7, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 523 words
| Patria Henriques
Computers may now be better than ever at revealing how the giant plates of rock that we live on will drift, crash and dive against each other to shape Earth throughout its history, scientists say.
The findings of a new study on a plate tectonics model could help better understand the factors driving earthquakes, the formation of mountains and the rifting of continents, the researchers said.
Computer models that simulate the motions of the tectonic plates that make up Earth's crust are continually becoming more powerful.
[Read More]Save $300-plus on Hydrow rowing machine bundles
Posted on December 7, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 626 words
| Fernande Dalal
One of the most advanced rowing machines on the market, the Hydrow is on sale. If you're interested in getting in shape this spring or want to up your game, this might be a good time to buy, as the company is selling rowing machine packages for up to $400 off (opens in new tab)Thursday and Friday (March 17 and 18).
You can bring a powerful fitness machine into your home for less with Hydrow's sales, which are not quite as low as they were over Black Friday, but still a solid savings.
[Read More]Size Matters to Spiders: Smaller Males Have Advantages
Posted on December 7, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 649 words
| Patria Henriques
Male spiders can be tens of times smaller and weigh one hundredth of what their female counterparts weigh, and new research shows that these size differences may be in part due to a spider behavior called bridging.
Bridging is a means of transportation for spiders living in the trees and other vegetation of forests and meadows. In bridging, a spider casts a strand of its silk into the wind, and the silk is carried aloft to a neighboring plant.
[Read More]Smart Shades: High-Tech Windows Can Turn Dark in Just 1 Minute
Posted on December 7, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 578 words
| Arica Deslauriers
The smart windows, developed by engineers at Stanford University and described in a study published online Aug. 9 in the journal Joule, rely on a completely different principle compared to existing alternatives known as dynamic windows. The new approach uses a polymer gel containing metal ions applied on top of a transparent electrode. When voltage is applied, the metal ions plate the electrodes, blocking all wavelengths of light. After the opposite voltage is applied, the windows switch back to being transparent.
[Read More]Texas Mayor Said Killed by Rare Donkey Attack
Posted on December 7, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 447 words
| Patria Henriques
The mayor of a South Texas town appears to have been attacked and killed by a 500-pound donkey, according to the Associated Press.
The body of William “Bill” Bohlke, the 65-year-old mayor of Hollywood Park, was found on Monday night (Aug. 27) by sheriffs and relatives who went looking for him after he failed to return home from tending to his cattle ranch.
Atascosa County Chief Deputy David Soward told the San Antonio Express-News the search party’s findings on the ranch made it clear a combative male donkey had been responsible for the mayor's death.
[Read More]The Faults That Ruptured in Twin California Quakes Are Very, Very Weird, Geologists Say.
Posted on December 7, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 717 words
| Trudie Dory
On July Fourth, the most powerful earthquake to hit Southern California in nearly 20 years struck a remote part of the Mojave Desert. A day later, an even larger temblor rocked the same area.
Though earthquakes beget earthquakes, there's generally thought to be just a 5% chance that one quake will be followed by an even more powerful one, according to geoscientists. But that wasn't the only unusual feature of this earthquake duo in SoCal.
[Read More]The mysterious connection between the coronavirus and the heart
Posted on December 7, 2022
| 7 minutes
| 1299 words
| Arica Deslauriers
The novel coronavirus(opens in new tab) mainly attacks the lungs. But doctors have been increasingly reporting cases of another battlefield raging within the body: the heart.
More than 1 in 5 patients develop heart damage as a result of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, one small study published March 27 in the journal JAMA Cardiology suggested. While some of these patients have a history of heart conditions, others do not. So what's going on?
[Read More]What's Behind Toddler's Extremely Rare Water Allergy?
Posted on December 7, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 461 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
We can't live without water, but for one toddler in Minnesota, contact with plain old H2O can be dangerous — she has an extremely rare allergy that causes her to break out in hives and rashes anytime she touches water, according to news reports.
The 18-month-old, Ivy Angerman, was recently diagnosed with aquagenic urticaria, or an allergy to water, according to local news station Fox 9. Her doctors say she may be the youngest person ever diagnosed with the condition, which more often appears around the age of puberty.
[Read More]