What If All of America's Toilets Were Flushed Simultaneously?
Posted on December 2, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 770 words
| Patria Henriques
In this weekly series, Life's Little Mysteries provides expert answers to challenging questions.
Imagine if all 350 million toilets in the United States were flushed at the same time. Granted, doing this would require exceptional coordination, and the helping hands of a few million foreigners. But what if we could pull it off? Would flushing in concert explode all the pipelines, cripple the water supply, flood the streets with sewage, and, in short, destroy civilization as we know it?
[Read More]3 Skeletons Found in Connecticut Basement Might Be from Revolutionary War Soldiers
Posted on December 1, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 701 words
| Patria Henriques
Archaeologists have discovered what may be the remains of soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary War. But it's a mystery whose side they were on; they could have been Yankees, British or even colonists who sided with the king, known as Loyalists.
Archaeologists are now planning to spend months, if not years, studying the skeletal remains to learn more about these three individuals, including, if possible, where their loyalties lay.
[Read More]Ancient Aramaic Incantation Describes 'Devourer' that Brings 'Fire' to Victims
Posted on December 1, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 646 words
| Patria Henriques
A 2,800-year-old incantation, written in Aramaic, describes the capture of a creature called the "devourer" said to be able to produce "fire."
Discovered in August 2017 within a small building, possibly a shrine, at the site of Zincirli (called "Sam'al" in ancient times), in Turkey, the incantation is inscribed on a stone cosmetic container. Written by a man who practiced magic who is called "Rahim son of Shadadan," the incantation "
[Read More]Beach Erosion Threatens Star-Studded Malibu
Posted on December 1, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 442 words
| Trudie Dory
Few places on Earth evoke the seaside glamour of Malibu, Calif., home to Hollywood stars and their multimillion-dollar beach homes.
But Mother Nature is apparently no fan of movies, and a big swath of exclusive Broad Beach in Malibu has eroded away due to severe winter storms and rising sea levels.
As a result, waves now threaten the foundations of showplace homes where Dustin Hoffman, Steven Spielberg, Goldie Hawn, Pierce Brosnan and other A-list celebrities live.
[Read More]Big Bird: Fossils of World's Tallest Penguin Discovered
Posted on December 1, 2022
| 2 minutes
| 323 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
New Zealand was once home to the tallest penguin species ever known — a lanky bird that stood as high as 4.2 feet (1.3 meters).
The penguin, dubbed Kairuku grebneffi, lived about 27 million years ago in a penguin paradise. More of New Zealand was underwater at the time, with only today's mountaintops emerging from the sea. That made for excellent coastal nesting for a number of penguin species.
[Read More]Could Eating More Seafood Help Couples Conceive?
Posted on December 1, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 672 words
| Trudie Dory
Couples may have an easier time conceiving if both the man and the woman eat seafood more frequently, a new study suggests.
In the study, the researchers found that couples who included more seafood in their diets had sex more often, and tended to get pregnant faster, than couples who ate less seafood.
However, the study only noted an association among seafood intake, sexual activity and fertility; it didn't prove cause and effect.
[Read More]Elephant Contraception? How a Vaccine is Replacing Sharpshooters (Op-Ed)
Posted on December 1, 2022
| 5 minutes
| 1037 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Karen Lange is senior content creator at the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). She contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
For 15 years, researcher Audrey Delsink has observed the elephants in South Africa’s Greater Private Makalali Game Reserve. As she's watched them, recording the effects of a contraceptive vaccine called PZP, she's seen something that's beyond the scope of her research: evidence of awareness.
[Read More]Migraine Pain Relief May Come with Mild Brain Shock
Posted on December 1, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 537 words
| Trudie Dory
Migraine headaches are among the nastiest of chronic pains, often debilitating, and scientists and doctors are frequently befuddled in trying to deal with them. A potential new treatment for migraines could come thanks to a new method of brain stimulation in the form of mild electrical shocks. Recently, a team of researchers that includes Dr. Marom Bikson, associate professor of biomedical engineering in CCNY’s Grove School of Engineering, has shown that a brain stimulation technology can prevent migraine attacks from occurring.
[Read More]Secrets to the Biggest Frog Jumps Ever Revealed
Posted on December 1, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 658 words
| Trudie Dory
When Mark Twain authored "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" in 1865, he probably didn't expect the short story would be the spark that would result in scientists realizing that their experiments vastly underestimate how far a bullfrog can leap, thus calling into question an entire body of research on muscle physiology.
Probably.
A new study of bullfrogs at a frog-jumping competition inspired by Twain's words has now revealed, however, that scientists had no idea what the bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) can do.
[Read More]Third Cat in Wyoming Diagnosed with Plague: Here's Why You Shouldn't Panic
Posted on December 1, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 427 words
| Arica Deslauriers
A house cat in Wyoming was recently diagnosed with bubonic plague; it is now the third feline in the state found to have contracted the deadly disease in the past six months.
While the word "plague" conjures images of epidemics wiping out medieval communities in their entirety, the bacterial infection actually occurs naturally in wild rodents (and their fleas) in the western U.S. and rarely affects people, according to local health officials.
[Read More]