Large mound in Russia reveals 2,500-year-old skeletons of elite nomadic tribesmen...and a horse head

 Posted on June 19, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  313 words  |  Fernande Dalal

A farmer in Russia has uncovered the remains of three elite members of a nomadic tribe from 2,500 years ago. A horse's skull and harness were found buried alongside one of the individuals. Three 2,500-year-old burials of elite members of a group known as the Sarmatians have been discovered within a kurgan (a large mound) in a village called Nikolskoye located northwest of the Caspian Sea in Russia. The three skeletons were discovered inside the remains of wooden coffins within the kurgan. [Read More]

Math for the Real World

 Posted on June 19, 2023  |  12 minutes  |  2344 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

This ScienceLives article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation. Fred Roberts is a professor of mathematics at Rutgers University and director of a center that employs data analysis to address homeland security threats. He is also director emeritus and senior advisor of an internationally renowned mathematical sciences research center established in 1989 to solve complex problems in information science and communication technology. Roberts' major research interests are in mathematical models in the social, behavioral, biological, environmental and epidemiological sciences, and in problems of communications, transportation and security. [Read More]

Math Uncovers Max Moves to Solve Big Rubik's Cubes

 Posted on June 19, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  479 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

The brain twister that is the Rubik's cube has not only befuddled many people that have tried to solve it, but it has also stumped mathematicians. Earlier this year, researchers deciphered the classic Rubik's cube, which has nine squares per side (three per edge of the cube) and six different colors, calculating that from any of the 43 quintillion possible orientations, the cube could be solved in fewer than 20 moves. [Read More]

Some Antioxidants Linked with Shorter Life

 Posted on June 19, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  619 words  |  Trudie Dory

People who take antioxidant supplements don't live any longer than those who don't, and some antioxidants may even cut life short, a new review suggests. Danish researchers report that people in studies who took three antioxidants — beta carotene, vitamin E and high doses of vitamin A — tended to have an increased risk of death. "This study confirms what we already know — that antioxidant supplements are not effective in saving lives or making people healthier," [Read More]

This Frozen Russian Island Is the World's Biggest Jigsaw Puzzle

 Posted on June 19, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  285 words  |  Patria Henriques

Chilling between the Arctic Ocean and Siberia's frigid northern seas, the cluster of rocks known as the New Siberian Islands is so cold and remote that they were once believed to be made entirely of woolly mammoth bones. (They're not, but there are still plenty of mammoth fossils to be found.) Viewed on foot, the islands are a near-uninhabited canvas of tundra covered in snow roughly three-quarters of the year. But seen from the sky, as in an epic satellite image posted by NASA Earth Observatory on Dec. [Read More]

Worlds Apart: A Cautionary Tale of Two Coral Atolls

 Posted on June 19, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  646 words  |  Trudie Dory

Sporting snorkels and wetsuits, a team of researchers plunged into the waters off two isolated coral islands in the Pacific Ocean to take stock of the marine life. The coral islands — known as atolls – are separated from each other by only few hundred miles, but they are worlds apart in terms of the impact they feel from humans, the researchers say. An atoll is an island consisting of a circular coral reef surrounding a lagoon. [Read More]

A New 'Brown Tide' Could Make Florida's Dangerous Red Tide Worse

 Posted on June 18, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  299 words  |  Fernande Dalal

The beaches of southwest Florida are once again graveyards for marine life, thanks to a deadly "red tide" algal bloom floating just beneath the surface of the water offshore. The algae bloom has gone on way longer than usual, since November 2017. And it looks like things are going to get worse before they get better, as a separate bloom — this one called a "brown tide" — appears to be on track to intermingle with the ride tide and feed it, according to news reports. [Read More]

Choose Nature's Champs: Earth-Themed March Madness Tourneys

 Posted on June 18, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  686 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

March Madness is coming, and if you care more about solar flares than foul shots or would sooner bet on a real cardinal than the Louisville Cardinals, then you have some alternative brackets to take part in this month. Bird-lover bracket "March Madness is happening just when all the birds are starting to return from Central and South America, and it's a really exciting time for a bird watcher," said Hugh Powell, a science editor at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, N. [Read More]

Conservatives Happier Than Liberals

 Posted on June 18, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  377 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Individuals with conservative ideologies are happier than liberal-leaners, and new research pinpoints the reason: Conservatives rationalize social and economic inequalities. Regardless of marital status, income or church attendance, right-wing individuals reported greater life satisfaction and well-being than left-wingers, the new study found. Conservatives also scored highest on measures of rationalization, which gauge a person's tendency to justify, or explain away, inequalities. The rationalization measure included statements such as: "It is not really that big a problem if some people have more of a chance in life than others," [Read More]

Earth Faces an Increased Risk of Being Hit by an Asteroid, Astronomers Warn

 Posted on June 18, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  616 words  |  Patria Henriques

Earth may be threatened by a newly discovered branch of a stream of meteoroids, increasing the risk that the planet will be struck by a meteoroid or asteroid.   A team of astronomers from the Czech Academy of Sciences announced the findings on Tuesday after studying the Taurid meteoroid stream. The stream produces a meteor shower that usually has a long period of activity in October and November and produces a low number of meteors. [Read More]