Chimps Master First Step in Controlling Fire

 Posted on November 3, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  653 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Chimps remain cool under fire, possessing a near human ability to predict how wildfires spread and react accordingly. This newfound capability of chimpanzees to understand flames might shed light on when and how our distant ancestors first learned to control fire, scientists now suggest. Primatologist Jill Pruetz at Iowa State University in Ames was observing savanna chimpanzees in Senegal in 2006 as people were setting wildfires, an annual tradition that clears land and aids hunting. [Read More]

DNA Found in Drinking Water Could Aid Germs

 Posted on November 3, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  506 words  |  Fernande Dalal

DNA that helps make germs resistant to medicines may increasingly be appearing as a pollutant in the water. This DNA was found "even in treated drinking water," researcher Amy Pruden, an environmental engineer at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, told LiveScience. The spread of this DNA could exacerbate the already growing problem of drug resistance among potentially infectious microbes. Diseases once considered eradicated, such as tuberculosis, are making alarming comebacks. [Read More]

From Reactive Robots to Sentient Machines: The 4 Types of AI

 Posted on November 3, 2022  |  7 minutes  |  1419 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

The common, and recurring, view of the latest breakthroughs in artificial intelligence research is that sentient and intelligent machines are just on the horizon. Machines understand verbal commands, distinguish pictures, drive cars and play games better than we do. How much longer can it be before they walk among us? The new White House report on artificial intelligence takes an appropriately skeptical view of that dream. It says the next 20 years likely won't see machines " [Read More]

Here's Why Drinkers Should Hit the Gym

 Posted on November 3, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  738 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

If alcohol is a part of your weekly routine, you should make sure to find time to hit the gym: A new study from the United Kingdom suggests that regular exercise can help balance out the harmful effects of alcohol. People in the study who drank alcohol — but also exercised on a regular basis — were less likely to die from any cause during the study period, compared with those who drank but didn't exercise. [Read More]

Human Intelligence Secrets Revealed by Chimp Brains

 Posted on November 3, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  528 words  |  Patria Henriques

Despite sharing 98 percent of our DNA with chimpanzees, humans have much bigger brains and are, as a species, much more intelligent. Now a new study sheds light on why: Unlike chimps, humans undergo a massive explosion in white matter growth, or the connections between brain cells, in the first two years of life. The new results, published today (Dec. 18) in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, partly explain why humans are so much brainier than our nearest living relatives. [Read More]

Lunch on the Wing: Mantises Snack on Birds (Photos)

 Posted on November 3, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  582 words  |  Patria Henriques

Death at the feederStagmomantis limbata, also known as the Arizona bordered mantis, eating an Allen’s hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin) in San Juan Capistrano, California. This mantis species is native to North America, but the study found that 55 percent of birds that fell victim to mantis attacks in North America were caught by invasive mantis species. [Read full story about the bird-eating mantises] Source: Martin Nyffeler, Michael R. Maxwell, J. V. [Read More]

Ocean Depths are Shark-Free

 Posted on November 3, 2022  |  2 minutes  |  351 words  |  Patria Henriques

With shark numbers dwindling, scientists have long hoped they would find previously unknown populations of them and perhaps even new species in the deepest parts of the oceans. A new study concludes the sharks aren't down there. Sharks do not colonize below 1.86 miles, scientists said today. Calculations therefore suggest the oceans are 70 percent shark-free. "Sharks are apparently confined to around 30 percent of the world's oceans, and all populations are therefore within reach of human fisheries, near the surface and at the edges of deep water, around islands, seamounts and the continents," [Read More]

Photos: Ancient Sea Monster Was One of Largest Arthropods

 Posted on November 3, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  612 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

A remarkably well-preserved fossil of a 480-million-year-old sea monster is helping researchers understand the evolution of arthropods. The creature, an anomalocaridid, has not one but two sets of legs on each of its body segments, showing that it's an ancestor of modern-day arthropods, which include arachnids, insects and crustaceans. [Read the full story on the ancient anomalocaridid found in modern-day Morocco] Filter feeder Here's an illustration of the anomalocaridid (Aegirocassis benmoulae), a giant filter feeder that ate plankton and lived in the Early Ordovician period about 480 million years ago. [Read More]

Synthetic Marijuana: The High Cost of a Cheap Drug

 Posted on November 3, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  799 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Synthetic marijuana is cheap, readily available at convenience stores nationwide, and is leaving a trail of dead and severely injured teenagers in its wake, making it one of the most alarming new drugs available anywhere, according to medical experts and drug enforcement officials. Emily Bauer, a high-school sophomore from Cypress, Texas, reportedly had violent outbursts, urinated on herself, and showed psychotic behaviors, after smoking some synthetic marijuana last December, according to CNN. [Read More]

THC vs. CBD: Which Marijuana Compound Is More Beneficial?

 Posted on November 3, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  808 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

The marijuana compound CBD, or cannabinol, is surging in popularity in the wellness community, for its alleged health benefits, without the high normally associated with pot. But a new study suggests that marijuana’s main active ingredient, THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) — the one that gives users a high — may be more responsible for the plant's therapeutic effects. The researchers looked at data from more than 3,000 people who had tried marijuana to relieve medical symptoms. [Read More]