Lasers: The New Snow Measuring Tool

 Posted on November 11, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  438 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Although you may be accustomed to hearing your local meteorologist rattling off inches and other numbers in daily winter weather reports, finding out how much snow has accumulated on the ground is a tricky business, and one that still relies on some fairly primitive technology: essentially, a yardstick. Yet determining precisely how much of the white stuff has piled up on the ground is key information for emergency planners, according to the National Science Foundation (NSF). [Read More]

Photos: Rare Inscription from King David's Time

 Posted on November 11, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  628 words  |  Trudie Dory

A rare inscription on a ceramic jar dates back to the time of King David, in the 10th century B.C., according to archaeologists with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). The inscription, found on a 3,000-year-old ceramic jar, reads "Eshba'al Ben Bada'" and is only the fourth inscription unearthed to date from the time of King David. [Read full story about the rare inscription] Ancient Canaanite The letters in the inscription are written in ancient Canaanite script. [Read More]

Scientists Create Tiniest Blood Vessels

 Posted on November 11, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  585 words  |  Trudie Dory

A gooey concoction of a biopolymer and two types of cells that, when finished, could pass as Dracula's potluck Jell-O mold might someday let surgeons replace the body's smallest blood vessels. Tiny blood vessels extend the reach of veins and arteries, delivering oxygen to most of the body's tissues. When these smaller vessels fail, the tissues they support fail with them. Such damage is typical in advanced diabetes, for example, and is the reason diabetics sometimes must have limbs amputated. [Read More]

Scientists Find Scurvy in Mouth of Long-Dead, Failed Crusader King

 Posted on November 11, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  557 words  |  Fernande Dalal

One of the last crusader kings had scurvy when he died, a new forensic analysis finds — contradicting old narratives that he died of plague or dysentery. The new find comes from an old jawbone that was buried in Notre Dame Cathedral. It was said to belong to Louis IX, a king of France who died besieging Tunis during the Eighth Crusade in 1270 and was later canonized as St. Louis. [Read More]

Stress May Affect Heart Attack Recovery

 Posted on November 11, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  683 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Stress may play an important role in a person's ability to recover from a heart attack, a new study suggests. Researchers at Yale University found that younger and middle-age men and women who had more mental stress in their lives tended to have worse recovery one month after a heart attack than those under less stress. The data also showed that the women in the study experienced greater mental stress than the men, and the researchers said this difference might partially explain why women generally recover worse than men after heart attacks. [Read More]

Ward Off Disease-Carrying Skeeters with... Chocolate Fragrance?

 Posted on November 11, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  550 words  |  Fernande Dalal

You can slather on the DEET and light citronella candles this summer, but you still divulge your location to hungry mosquitos just by breathing. Like a smoke signal, mosquitoes can track a potential meal yards away by smelling the carbon dioxide we exhale in each breath.  But now, researchers say they are close to developing fragrances that attract and stun mosquitoes' carbon dioxide sensors. "Some of them smell minty, some smell fruity, and some smell like caramelized chocolate," [Read More]

Winter Wonderland: Images of Stunning Snowy Landscapes

 Posted on November 11, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  430 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Winter Wonderland From Australia to Antarctica, we've rounded up breathtaking images of snow-filled landscapes from around the world. The above winter scene of a rosy sunset's rays over the snow was captured in Finland. Snow-Covered Forest A forest in Ukraine overlooks the Carpathian Mountains, the second-longest mountain range in Europe after the Scandinavian Mountains. The mountains stretch across Central and Eastern Europe, and are known as the Central Carpathians in Ukraine. [Read More]

'Stone Animal' Lake Seen from Space in All Its Crimson Glory

 Posted on November 10, 2022  |  2 minutes  |  370 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

One of the world's weirdest lakes stands out in scarlet in new NASA images. Lake Natron in northern Tanzania is an incredibly alkaline body of water. Its pH is as high as 10.5 — not quite as caustic as ammonia, but similar to the laxative Milk of Magnesia. The reason for this bizarre chemistry is the volcanic geology surrounding Lake Natron. The minerals and salts produced by volcanic processes — particularly sodium carbonate — push Lake Natron's water far above water's typical pH of around 7, which is neutral on the 0 to 14 pH scale. [Read More]

Ancient Romans Used Molten Iron to Repair Streets Before Vesuvius Erupted

 Posted on November 10, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  562 words  |  Trudie Dory

Ancient workers used molten iron to repair Pompeii's streets before the historic and devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, a team of archaeologists has discovered. The discovery reveals a previously unknown method of ancient Roman street repair and represents "the first large-scale attestation of the Roman use of molten iron," wrote researchers Eric Poehler, a classics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst; Juliana van Roggen, an independent researcher; and Benjamin Crowther, a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin, in a paper recently published in the American Journal of Archaeology. [Read More]

Female Lemurs Benefit From Multiple Mates, Study Suggests

 Posted on November 10, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  598 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

While it may not be as socially acceptable among humans, a female choosing to take multiple mates is a common phenomenon in the animal kingdom. But why the practice of polyandry (a female having more than one male mate at a time) is so prominent is still a mystery in most species. Most theories predict that taking multiple mates would be risky for a female without adding benefits. However, new research finds that in gray mouse lemurs, a type of small primate from Madagascar, healthy females seek out multiple mates in the few hours of one night they are receptive to mating every year. [Read More]