Why Do Dogs Love Water But Cats Hate It?
Posted on November 15, 2022
| 2 minutes
| 351 words
| Trudie Dory
Throw Fido in a lake and he'll take to it like, well, a duck to water, but Fluffy the cat will balk at the prospect, right?
Sort of.
While most dogs do enjoy swimming and most cats don't, it isn't a hard and fast rule that divides the species.
"Not all cats hate the water and not all dogs love it, but generally speaking, the domestic cat doesn't seem to like to swim,"
[Read More]World's thinnest electronic device is 2 atoms thick
Posted on November 15, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 646 words
| Trudie Dory
Scientists have developed the world’s thinnest piece of technology, a tiny device only two atoms thick that can be used to store electronic information.
The device consists of two layers, one made up of boron and the other of nitrogen, arranged in a repeating hexagonal structure. By taking advantage of a strange quantum mechanical effect called quantum tunneling, electrons from the boron and nitrogen atoms are able to zip across the gap between the two layers, changing the state of the device and allowing it to encode digital information.
[Read More]Wuhan lab workers were sick in November 2019, intelligence suggests
Posted on November 15, 2022
| 5 minutes
| 893 words
| Fernande Dalal
A newly public U.S. intelligence report is raising new questions about the idea that the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, escaped from a lab.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the report states that three employees of the Wuhan Institute of Virology sought hospital care in November 2019, approximately when SARS-CoV-2 is thought to have started circulating in the Chinese city. The Institute works with coronaviruses found in animal populations.
However, it's unclear how sick the researchers were or what their symptoms were.
[Read More]Ancient Roman Infanticide Didn't Spare Either Sex, DNA Suggests
Posted on November 14, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 767 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
A new look at a cache of baby bones discovered in Britain is altering assumptions about why ancient Romans committed infanticide.
Infant girls were apparently not killed more often than baby boys, researchers report in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science.
"Very often, societies have preferred male offspring, so when they practice infanticide, it tends to be the male babies that are kept, and the female babies that are killed,"
[Read More]BPA-Free But Still Dangerous? Replacement Chemicals Linked to Childhood Obesity
Posted on November 14, 2022
| 5 minutes
| 916 words
| Patria Henriques
Worries over bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical commonly found in plastics, have led to a surge in BPA-free products. But now, a new study suggests that the chemicals replacing BPA may also be cause for concern.
The study found that, among U.S. children, exposure to two common chemicals used in place of BPA — called bisphenol S (BPS) and bisphenol F (BPF) — is linked with an increased risk of obesity. Both BPS and BPF are similar in structure to BPA and can be found in some types of plastic, canned goods and other products.
[Read More]Brainy Birds: Pigeons Can Understand Distance and Time
Posted on November 14, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 540 words
| Fernande Dalal
Pigeons are such a common sight on city sidewalks around the world that most people don't spare them a second glance. But these urban birds aren't just experts at adapting to metropolitan life — they're also capable of grasping abstract concepts such as space and time, according to a new study.
Researchers recently discovered that pigeons can recognize how much space an object takes up, and how long it is visible, a task that humans accomplish using the brain region known as the cortex.
[Read More]Déjà Vu All Over Again: This Man Relived Every New Moment
Posted on November 14, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 718 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Trapped in a time loop: That's how one man felt because of his recurring déjà vu episodes. Unlike the vague, fleeting sensation most people experience in déjà vu, his episodes were persistent and long.
The 23-year-old British man started to have "frightening" episodes of déjà vu shortly after starting college, said the researchers who detailed his unusual case in a new report. For minutes, and sometimes even longer, he would feel that he had already experienced all of those moments.
[Read More]How 'Jeweled' Beetles Get Their Shine
Posted on November 14, 2022
| 2 minutes
| 403 words
| Arica Deslauriers
The metallic green sheen of the jeweled beetle glitters only when certain types of light hit tiny structures on the shell of the insect. Otherwise, the green hue disappears, a new study finds.
While pigments account for the colors of flowers, leaves and other structures in nature, some organisms get their bright hues from the way light interacts with the microscopic structure of their skin, feathers or shells — for example, iridescent butterflies and certain sea creatures.
[Read More]How One Odd Duck Says 'No' to Sex
Posted on November 14, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 581 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
When it comes to sex, some female ducks have taken "no" to a new level. They have evolved vaginas with clockwise spirals that keep out the oppositely spiraled penises of undesirable males, scientists have discovered.
When the female wishes to say "yes," she has some tricks that make it easier for her preferred mate to slip his corkscrew-shaped penis easily inside and achieve fertilization.
"In species where forced copulation is common, males have evolved longer penises, but females have coevolved convoluted vaginas with dead-end cul-de-sacs and spirals in the opposite direction of the male penis,"
[Read More]Jacques Cousteau's Granddaughter: Ocean Exploration Is 'This Generation's Space Race'
Posted on November 14, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 430 words
| Trudie Dory
MIAMI - For the first time, five members of the Cousteau family appeared together last night (Oct. 19) here at the Society of Environmental Journalists 21st annual conference.
Jean-Michel, the oldest son of Jacques Cousteau , the world famous oceanographer, and four Cousteau grandchildren Fabien, Celine, Philippe Jr. and Alexandra Cousteau gathered together onstage to talk about the Cousteau legacy, which lives on in the quest to unravel the ocean's mysteries and inspire others to protect the treasures of the deep.
[Read More]