In Photos: A Tarantula-Eat-Snake World

 Posted on December 2, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  461 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Spider versus SnakeA tarantula (Grammostola quirogai) chows down on an Almaden ground snake (Erythrolamprus almadensis) in southern Brazil. Though captive tarantulas have been known to prey on snakes, this is the first time researchers have ever seen a tarantula eating a snake in the wild, researchers reported in December 2016 in the journal Herpetology Notes. [Read more about the tarantula preying on a snake.] Placid habitatThe grassy, rocky hills of Serra do Caverá, near the federal conservation area Área de Proteção Ambiental do Ibirapuitã in southern Brazil. [Read More]

Meet the Guy Who Fake-Dissected a T. Rex

 Posted on December 2, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  702 words  |  Trudie Dory

All kids dream of owning their own pet dinosaur. But dissecting one? Dream or not, the National Geographic Channel is set to make dinosaur dissection a reality — or at least as close to reality as possible. With the help of a special-effects shop and gallons of dyed corn-syrup "blood," three paleontologists and a veterinary surgeon got the chance to go inside a life-size, anatomically realistic Tyrannosaurus rex for a new TV special airing Sunday, June 7 at 9 p. [Read More]

Orgasm-Seeking Women Find Little Help From Science

 Posted on December 2, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  735 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

For one out of four women, orgasm during sex is an elusive goal. According to a new report, medical science isn't doing enough to ensure these women find satisfaction between the sheets. The paper, published online ahead of print in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, reviews 101 studies on female orgasm disorder, a condition in which women have difficulty reaching climax or can't orgasm at all. Despite the fact that inability to orgasm is the second most common female sexual complaint after lack of desire, and orgasm is one of the top 50 reasons we have sex, treatments for the disorder are inadequate, the authors conclude. [Read More]

Scientists discover lost range of 'supermountains' three times longer than the Himalayas

 Posted on December 2, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  811 words  |  Patria Henriques

Twice in our planet's history, colossal mountain ranges that towered as tall as the Himalayas and stretched thousands of miles farther reared their craggy heads out of the Earth, splitting ancient supercontinents in two. Geologists call them the "supermountains." "There's nothing like these two supermountains today," Ziyi Zhu, a postdoctoral student at The Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra and lead author of a new study on the mountain majesties, said in a statement(opens in new tab). [Read More]

Skip the Snake Pills: Rattlesnake Medicine Linked to Salmonella

 Posted on December 2, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  604 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Rattlesnake pills — capsules containing dried and powdered rattlesnake flesh — have been linked to a recent Salmonella infection, according to a new report. The pills, which are widely marketed in Mexico as a remedy for a range of ailments, including HIV and cancer, sickened a person in Kansas who had taken the capsules the week before becoming ill, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported yesterday (Dec. 19) in a statement. [Read More]

Strange State of Matter Found in Chicken's Eye

 Posted on December 2, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  458 words  |  Trudie Dory

Never before seen in biology, a state of matter called "disordered hyperuniformity" has been discovered in the eye of a chicken. This arrangement of particles appears disorganized over small distances but has a hidden order that allows material to behave like both a crystal and a liquid. The discovery came as researchers were studying cones, tiny light-sensitive cells that allow for the perception of color, in the eyes of chickens. [The 9 Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in Physics] [Read More]

Virgin Galactic launches Richard Branson to space in 1st fully crewed flight of VSS Unity

 Posted on December 2, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  849 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Early this morning (July 11), billionaire Richard Branson and three other passengers briefly went to space for the first fully crewed spaceflight of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo spaceplane.  At 8:40 a.m. local time (10:40 a.m. EDT; 1440 GMT), the crew of Virgin Galactic's Unity 22 test flight mission took off from the company's Spaceport America facility in New Mexico and flew just above the boundary of space, where the four passengers and two pilots experienced about four minutes of weightlessness. [Read More]

Volcano Behind Atlantis Legend Re-Awakens

 Posted on December 2, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  602 words  |  Fernande Dalal

The volcano that may have given rise to the legend of Atlantis has awakened, researchers say. The cataclysmic eruptions at the Greek isle of Santorini about 3,600 years ago that spewed forth about 9.5 to 14.3 cubic miles (40 to 60 cubic kilometers) of lava devastated the ancient seafaring Minoan civilization, potentially inspiring the legend of the lost city of Atlantis. From the air, the resulting caldera, or volcanic crater, appears as a small cluster within the larger collection of Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. [Read More]

Warty pig is oldest animal cave art on record

 Posted on December 2, 2022  |  6 minutes  |  1244 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

The oldest-known animal drawing in the world is a 45,500-year-old depiction of a hairy, warty pig on a cave wall in Indonesia, a new study finds. The mulberry colored painting, drawn with the red mineral ochre, shows the profile of what is likely a Sulawesi warty pig (Sus celebensis), a wild stubby-legged beast with facial warts that can weigh up to nearly 190 pounds (85 kilograms). These pigs "are still found there today, although in ever-dwindling numbers," [Read More]

What happened before the Big Bang?

 Posted on December 2, 2022  |  6 minutes  |  1113 words  |  Fernande Dalal

In the beginning, there was an infinitely dense, tiny ball of matter. Then, it all went bang, giving rise to the atoms, molecules, stars and galaxies we see today. Or at least, that's what we've been told by physicists for the past several decades.  But new theoretical physics research has recently revealed a possible window into the very early universe, showing that it may not be "very early" after all. Instead it may be just the latest iteration of a bang-bounce cycle that has been going on for … well, at least once, and possibly forever. [Read More]