3.5-Billion-Year-Old Fossil Microbial Community Found

 Posted on December 3, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  550 words  |  Trudie Dory

Scientists have found fossil evidence of ancient microbial communities that lived 3.5 billion years ago. The new fossils, described in the journal Astrobiology, may be among the most ancient fossil life forms ever found. "This is one of the, or the, oldest fossils ever found. You've got a 3.5-billion-year-old ecosystem," said study co-author Robert Hazen, an earth scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. The new find reveals that a scant 1 billion years after Earth's origin, complex microbial communities that clung to sediments along the windswept seashore had already begun harvesting energy from sunlight, rather than the rocks. [Read More]

Are Healthy School Lunch Programs a Waste?

 Posted on December 3, 2022  |  5 minutes  |  978 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Are kids simply tossing out all the healthy food that's now heaped upon their lunch trays at school — foods meant to be high in nutrients and low in sugar, salt and fat, as required by law? Critics of the updated National School Lunch Program say yes, and they have lots of anecdotal evidence to back up their claim. Photographs and videos of kids dumping their veggies in the trash and giving the thumbs down have exploded on social media since the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act was passed in 2010. [Read More]

Australia's struggling marsupial: Photos of the Tasmanian devil

 Posted on December 3, 2022  |  1 minutes  |  207 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Healthy Tasmanian DevilZoo keeper and breeder Tim Faulkner holds a Tasmanian devil -- an endangered marsupial found in the wild in the Australian island-state of Tasmania. Nap Time!A tasmanian devil resting. healthy tasmanian devilTasmanian devils are in danger of dying off because of a deadly, transmissible cancer. Tasmanian Devils Being Wiped Out By Social TiesFor Tasmanian devils, the infectious cancer first shows up in and around the mouth as small lesions or lumps. [Read More]

Bad Blood? Why Transfusions from Women May Be Risky for Men

 Posted on December 3, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  788 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Getting blood from a woman who has ever been pregnant could be risky for men, a new study from the Netherlands suggests. The study, published today (Oct. 17) in the journal JAMA, found that men who received blood transfusions from previously pregnant female donors were 13 percent more likely to die during the study period, compared with men who received blood transfusions from male donors. In contrast, men who received blood transfusions from women who had never been pregnant were not at increased risk of death over the study period, compared with men who received transfusions from other men, the study found. [Read More]

Here's What the Last Common Ancestor of Apes and Humans Looked Like

 Posted on December 3, 2022  |  5 minutes  |  1047 words  |  Fernande Dalal

The most complete extinct-ape skull ever found reveals what the last common ancestor of all living apes and humans might have looked like, according to a new study. The 13-million-year-old infant skull, which its discoverers nicknamed "Alesi," was unearthed in Kenya in 2014. It likely belonged to a fruit-eating, slow-climbing primate that resembled a baby gibbon, the researchers said. Among the living primates, humans are most closely related to the apes, which include the lesser apes (gibbons) and the great apes (chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans). [Read More]

Hermaphrodite Sea Slug Mates With Throwaway Penis

 Posted on December 3, 2022  |  2 minutes  |  384 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

A bizarre, hermaphrodite sea slug may give new meaning to the word "quickie." The nudibranch uses a disposable penis to have sex more frequently, according to a new study. The animal, described today (Feb. 12) in the journal Biology Letters, is the first discovered to use an easily regenerated, disposable penis. Nudibranches are simultaneous hermaphrodites, meaning that they have penises that they use to fertilize others as well as female sex organs. [Read More]

Image Gallery: Combat Sports in Ancient Rome

 Posted on December 3, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  474 words  |  Trudie Dory

Mixed Martial ArtsA new inscription reveals that a Roman city in Turkey, Oinoanda, turned to a mixed martial art champion named Lucius Septimius Flavianus Flavillianus to recruit and deliver soldiers for the empire’s army. It is written in Greek. Champion AthleteFlavillianus was so successful that he was deified after his death, with statues being erected his memory. The inscription was carved onto the base of a statue of him. This base was discovered in 2002 in the city’s agora, a central public space. [Read More]

Many Low IQs Are Just Bad Luck

 Posted on December 3, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  532 words  |  Patria Henriques

Intellectual disability affects 1 to 3 percent of children worldwide, half of whom are born to parents of normal intelligence. Researchers have discovered that most of these cases of "sporadic intellectual disability" result from new, random mutations arising spontaneously in the children's genes, not from faulty recessive genes inherited from their parents. The researchers say their finding is one of the first steps in understanding the underlying causes of this condition (also known as mental retardation), which is marked by having an IQ below 70, and is — perhaps surprisingly — the costliest of all health problems. [Read More]

Mummy Teeth Tell of Ancient Egypt's Drought

 Posted on December 3, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  472 words  |  Trudie Dory

The link between drought and the rise and fall of Egypt's ancient cultures, including the pyramid builders, has long fascinated scientists and historians. Now, they're looking into an unexpected source to find connections: mummy teeth. A chemical analysis of teeth enamel from Egyptian mummies reveals the Nile Valley grew increasingly arid from 5,500 to 1,500 B.C., the period including the growth and flourishing of ancient Egyptian civilization. "Egyptian civilization was remarkable in its long-term stability despite a strong environmental pressure — increasing aridity — that most likely put constraints on the development of resources linked to agriculture and cattle breeding," [Read More]

Photos: 'Hat'-Wearing Ancient Slug May Explain Mollusk Family Tree

 Posted on December 3, 2022  |  2 minutes  |  345 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Mollusk FamilyThe mollusk family tree has mystified scientists for decades. The mollusk group includes a diverse group of marine and land animals, including the octopus, clam and snail. Now, a fossil discovery in Morocco suggests that all mollusks descended from a mollusk with a single shell, much like the tiny, 478-million-year-old worm with a small, hat-like shell on its head. [Read the full story on the ancient mollusk] Armored wormThis model, made out of clay, shows the 478-million-year-old armored worm. [Read More]