Two 'warrior women' from ancient Mongolia may have helped inspire the Ballad of Mulan

 Posted on November 30, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  828 words  |  Trudie Dory

Archaeologists in Mongolia have found the remains of two ancient women warriors, whose skeletal remains indicate that they were well practiced in archery and horseback riding. These two women lived during the Xianbei period (A.D. 147 to 552), a period of political fragmentation and unrest that gave rise to the Ballad of Mulan, the researchers said. Perhaps these women were so athletic because during the Xianbei period, "it may have been that women were needed to defend home and country alongside the men," [Read More]

Why Do So Many Cultures Have a Version of Bigfoot?

 Posted on November 30, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  487 words  |  Patria Henriques

More than a quarter of Americans believe in Bigfoot, a recent poll found. They claim this legendary bipedal ape, a "long lost relative" of humans, evades detection in remote woodland areas. Although it may seem strange to think a 7-foot-tall land mammal could go unnoticed for so long, the notion is actually widespread. Along with that sizeable minority of Americans, an Angus Reid Public Opinion poll found that 21 percent of Canadians also believe in an undiscovered hairy humanoid, which they prefer to call Sasquatch. [Read More]

World-renowned climate scientist dies in ice accident in Greenland

 Posted on November 30, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  488 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Konrad Steffen, a world-renowned climate scientist, died  at the age of 68 on Saturday (Aug. 8) in an accident in Greenland. Steffen, the Director of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, researched climate change for more than  40 years, focusing on its impacts on the Arctic and Antarctic, according to a statement. His decades-long research in Greenland, specifically, confirmed that climate change is causing Greenland's ice sheet to melt with increasing speed, according to The New York Times. [Read More]

'Shaggy' Tyrannosaur Now World's Biggest Feathered Beast

 Posted on November 29, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  511 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

A newly discovered titanic tyrannosaur is the biggest feathered dinosaur yet, reaching up to 30 feet (9 meters) long and weighing more than 3,000 pounds. While smaller than Tyrannosaurus rex, the new species, named Yutyrannus huali — meaning "beautiful feathered tyrant" — is still 40 times the weight of the largest feathered dinosaur known previously, Beipiaosaurus, which was described in 1999. "Yutyrannus dramatically increases the size range of dinosaurs for which we have definite evidence of feathers," [Read More]

300,000-Year-Old Caveman 'Campfire' Found in Israel

 Posted on November 29, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  591 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

A newly discovered hearth full of ash and charred bone in a cave in modern-day Israel hints that early humans sat around fires as early as 300,000 years ago — before Homo sapiens arose in Africa. In and around the hearth, archaeologists say they also found bits of stone tools that were likely used for butchering and cutting animals. The finds could shed light on a turning point in the development of culture " [Read More]

Ancient Native Americans' Living Descendants Revealed

 Posted on November 29, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  666 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Ancient people who lived in in Northern America about 5,000 years ago have living descendants today, new research suggests. Researchers reached that conclusion after comparing DNA from both fossil remains found on the northern coast of British Columbia, Canada, and from living people who belong to several First Nations tribes in the area. The new results, published today (July 3) in the journal PLOS ONE, are consistent with nearby archaeological evidence suggesting a fairly continuous occupation of the region for the last 5,000 years. [Read More]

Are Cheap Green Laser Pointers Dangerous?

 Posted on November 29, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  508 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Green laser pointers have become a popular consumer item, delivering light that's brighter to the eye than red lasers, but stories have circulated on the web about the potential hazards of inexpensive models. A team led by physicist Charles Clark at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently put some numbers to the problem. In one case, the group found that a green laser pointer emitted almost twice its rated power level of light – but at invisible and potentially dangerous infrared wavelengths rather than green. [Read More]

Astronomers claimed galaxy was 98% dark matter. They were wrong.

 Posted on November 29, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  851 words  |  Trudie Dory

Back in 2016, researchers claimed to have found a galaxy made almost completely of dark matter and almost no stars. Now, on closer examination, that claim has fallen apart. The galaxy, Dragonfly 44 (DF44), belongs to a class of mysterious objects known as ultra-diffuse galaxies or UDGs. Researchers have debated since the 1980s whether these vast, dim objects have a low mass, like dwarf galaxies smeared across huge reaches of space, or more like heavy, Milky Way-style galaxies that seem dim for two reasons: because they have almost no stars, and because a huge fraction of their mass is dark matter found in the outer fringes of the galaxy, in so-called  dark matter haloes that emit no light. [Read More]

Complex Life Emerged from Sea Earlier Than Thought

 Posted on November 29, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  525 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Life on Earth began in the oceans, but new fossils are showing that complex algae-like organisms left these salty seas earlier than thought, about 1 billion years ago, and spent more time evolving on land. "Most of the time we assume that life originated in the oceans, that the primary divisions and the events of evolution took place there," study researcher Paul Strother, of Boston College, said. "The fact we are finding this complexity and diversity means that the eukaryotes probably had some history of evolution in the freshwater. [Read More]

Could the novel coronavirus one day become a common cold?

 Posted on November 29, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  672 words  |  Trudie Dory

One day, the pandemic will end. Scientists don't know how that finale will play out but a new model offers a teaser: The deadly SARS-CoV-2 may not totally disappear but instead become a commonly circulating cold virus that just causes some mild sniffles. This model, published Jan. 12 in the journal Science, is based on analyses of other coronaviruses, the majority of which cause only mild symptoms in humans. There are six known coronaviruses that infect humans; four are coronaviruses that are " [Read More]