Strange Weather Helped Fuel Australia's 'Black Saturday' Fires

 Posted on July 11, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  628 words  |  Patria Henriques

Feb. 7, 2009, was a very bad day in the Australian province of Victoria. For about four weeks, there had been no rain, and a stifling heat wave kept getting worse. The week before, temperatures surpassed 109 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) for three days in a row, the only time this has ever happened, said University of Melbourne researcher Todd Lane.   The Forest Fire Danger Index, an empirical measure of fire risk, reached its highest-ever value of 170, which is by far the highest it's ever been; previously, it was thought a value of 100 represented the worst conditions possible, Lane told OurAmazingPlanet. [Read More]

The Most Interesting Thing Shot into Space This Week Wasn't a Tesla

 Posted on July 11, 2023  |  6 minutes  |  1147 words  |  Trudie Dory

There was a second payload on board the SpaceX Falcon Heavy that launched Tuesday (Feb. 6), and (unlike the Tesla Roadster) it's built to last 14 billion years. SpaceX confirmed during its pre-launch livestream that the gadget, called an Arch, is tucked away somewhere inside the red Tesla Roadster now floating through space. It's a simple-looking object: a clear, thick disk of quartz crystal, about an inch across, with lettering across its face. [Read More]

The World's Smallest Motor

 Posted on July 11, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  544 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Scientists recently unveiled the tiniest electric motor ever built. You could stuff hundreds of them into the period at the end of this sentence. One day a similar engine might power a tiny mechanical doctor that would travel through your body in the ultimate house call. The motor works by shuffling atoms between two molten metal droplets in a carbon nanotube [watch it run]. One droplet is even smaller than the other. [Read More]

What Can an Autopsy on Otto Warmbier Reveal?

 Posted on July 11, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  782 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Update on June 20 at 10:15 p.m. ET:  Otto Warmbier's family has declined an autopsy, CNN has reported. The Hamilton County Coronor's Office in Ohio received and examined Warmbier's body, but honored the family's request to not perform an autopsy, according to CNN. Instead, the investigators performed an "external examination."  Live Science published this article (below), earlier today: An autopsy on Otto Warmbier, the 22-year-old American student who was imprisoned in North Korea in 2016 and died yesterday (June 19) in Cincinnati, will be conducted to further investigate his death, according to news reports. [Read More]

Wine + Penny = Problem Solved! Chemistry Hack Saves Old Wine

 Posted on July 11, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  403 words  |  Patria Henriques

Good news, wine lovers: You can revive a stale bottle of your favorite vintage with a simple chemistry experiment. More good news: It'll only cost you a penny. A new video from the American Chemical Society (ACS) explains how to do this supercheap, wine-saving "life hack" at home. Simply pour a glass of spoiled wine (you'll know it's spoiled if it has a funky, sulfuric smell, akin to burnt rubber or rotten eggs) and drop in a clean copper penny. [Read More]

Woman's Rare Case of 'Seasonal OCD' Cured

 Posted on July 11, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  557 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

A rare case of "seasonal" obsessive-compulsive disorder in a woman in highlights the complexity of this mental health condition, researchers say. The woman's OCD symptoms appeared every year when winter began, and then ended as the seasons shifted toward summer. After living with the condition for a decade, the woman was treated at a clinic and recovered, the case report said. Psychiatrists "do believe that there is a tie between times of the year and the exacerbation of illness," [Read More]

'Secret' Labyrinth of Tunnels Under Rome Mapped

 Posted on July 10, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  691 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Deep under the streets and buildings of Rome is a maze of tunnels and quarries that dates back to the very beginning of this ancient city. Now, geologists are venturing beneath Rome to map these underground passageways, hoping to prevent modern structures from crumbling into the voids below. In 2011, there were 44 incidents of streets or portions of structures collapsing into the quarries, a number that rose to 77 in 2012 and 83 to date in 2013. [Read More]

Bizarre Creature Found in 200-Million-Year-Old Cocoon

 Posted on July 10, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  627 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

About 200 million years ago, a leech released a slimy mucous cocoon that unwittingly encased and trapped a bizarre animal with a springy tail, preserving it until researchers discovered the teardrop-shaped creature in Antarctica recently. The cocoon looks like those produced by living leeches, such as the medicinal leech Hirudo medicinalis. Encased inside was a bell animal that looked similar to species in the genus Vorticella; its body extends 25 microns (about the width of some human hairs) with a tightly coiled stalk about twice that long. [Read More]

Chimp Genetic History Stranger Than Humans'

 Posted on July 10, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  525 words  |  Patria Henriques

The most comprehensive catalog of great-ape genome diversity to date offers insight into primate evolution, revealing chimpanzees have a much more complex genetic history than humans. In a new study, researchers sequenced a total of 79 great apes, including chimpanzees, bonobos, eastern and western gorillas, orangutans and humans, as well as seven ape subspecies. The animals were wild- and captive-born individuals from populations in Africa and Southeast Asia. Much attention has been focused on studying the diversity among human genomes, said study researcher Tomas Marques-Bonet, a geneticist at the Institut de Biologia Evolutiva in Spain. [Read More]

Conservative or Liberal? Workspace Reveals All

 Posted on July 10, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  676 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Your office or bedroom holds telltale signs of whether you are a conservative or a liberal, finds a new study. While political conservatives tend to keep a tidy, organized office, political liberals favor colorful, more stylish but cluttered spaces. A person may hide their political ideology from others, including from pollsters, but the researchers were delighted to learn that a peek into subjects' living quarters or even workspaces could give that away. [Read More]