Exxon Valdez 25th Anniversary: 5 Facts About the Historic Spill
Posted on October 26, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 596 words
| Trudie Dory
Monday (March 24) marks the 25th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which spewed 11 million gallons (40 million liters) of crude oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound.
The disaster was the worst oil spill in U.S. history until the Deepwater Horizon spill surpassed it in terms of volume in 2011. Today, it's still possible to dig holes in beaches along the Prince William Sound and find pockets of oil left over from 1989.
[Read More]Fuzzy Baby T. Rex Is One of 4 New Stamps Featuring the Dinosaur King
Posted on October 26, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 545 words
| Patria Henriques
The reign of the fearsome dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex ended around 66 million years ago, but people still can't get enough of the toothsome theropod. And now, thanks to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) you can attach gorgeously illustrated T. rex scenes to your mail.
On Aug. 29, the USPS will debut a new set of T. rex stamps in a dedication ceremony at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) in Washington, D.
[Read More]How the Brain Resets Its Biological Clock
Posted on October 26, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 559 words
| Trudie Dory
The brain's internal clock keeps time via a synchronized network of cells that is able to reset itself, a new study reveals.
This resetting may be what enables us to change our own daily rhythms with the seasons while the clock itself remains fairly stable, the researchers report.
But this mechanism didn't evolve to deal with modern technologies, such as alarm clocks or air travel. Messing with natural daily cycles can cause jetlag, or more serious effects.
[Read More]In Images: The Oldest Fossils on Earth
Posted on October 26, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 621 words
| Fernande Dalal
Life on EarthScientists have recently unearthed fossils in Canada which are between 3.77 and 4.29 billion years old. If these fossils are truly signs of ancient life, they would be among the oldest evidence for life on Earth yet discovered. Here, an artist's depiction of what the Earth was like in one its earlier periods, the Archean.
Microbial fossilsIn 2017, analysis of microbial fossils — first unearthed in western Australia in 1982 — found them to be around 3.
[Read More]Ingrown Toenail? How to Snip It the Right Way
Posted on October 26, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 776 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Nobody likes ingrown toenails, and when you get one, your instinct may be to clip off the offending bit. But new research shows that might be exactly the wrong thing to do —it won't necessarily stop the toenail from growing in again, and the reason all comes down to physics.
In a new study, physicists Cyril Rauch and Mohammed Cherkaoui-Rbati, of the University of Nottingham in England, looked closely at the mechanical forces that act on fingernails and toenails, including the outward growth of the nail and the tension of its attachment to the nail bed.
[Read More]Mountain-sized chunk of rock hiding under Japan is channeling earthquakes
Posted on October 26, 2022
| 6 minutes
| 1194 words
| Fernande Dalal
An underground mountain-sized chunk of rock may be affecting paths of large earthquakes in southern Japan.
The dense igneous rock, known as the Kumano pluton, is lurking about 3.1 miles (5 kilometers) below the surface beneath Japan's Kii Peninsula. It sits in the crust of the continental Eurasian plate. Under this slab of continental crust, the oceanic Philippine plate is taking a dive toward the Earth's mantle, a process called subduction.
[Read More]Nefertiti Still Missing: King Tut's Tomb Shows No Hidden Chambers
Posted on October 26, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 794 words
| Fernande Dalal
Radar scans conducted by a National Geographic team have found that there are no hidden chambers in Tutankhamun's tomb, disproving a claim that the secret grave of Queen Nefertiti lurks behind the walls.
"If we had a void, we should have a strong reflection," Dean Goodman, a geophysicist at GPR-Slice software told National Geographic News(opens in new tab), which published a feature on the research. "But it just doesn't exist.
[Read More]Philippines' Mayon Volcano Shoots Out Lava Fountains, Violent Eruption Imminent
Posted on October 26, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 540 words
| Arica Deslauriers
Update: Jan. 24, 10:35 a.m. EST — Between yesterday morning and this morning (Jan. 24), the Mayon volcano has launched five intense lava fountains from the summit crater, with these events lasting from 7 minutes to an hour and 24 minutes, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS). The fountains shot up 1,640 to 2,000 feet (500 to 600 meters) above the crater and generated ash plumes that were up to 3 miles (3 to 5 kilometers) high.
[Read More]Should you ditch your gaiter as a face mask? Not so fast, scientists say.
Posted on October 26, 2022
| 5 minutes
| 1018 words
| Patria Henriques
Face masks play a critical role in helping to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, and could save tens of thousands of lives in the U.S. if everyone wore them in public, experts have said.
Yes, some face masks are more protective than others. But that doesn’t mean wearing neck gaiters — stretchy pieces of fabric that people, especially runners, pull up to cover their nose and mouth — is worse than wearing no masks at all, as some recent news articles have suggested.
[Read More]Sometimes This Comb Jelly Has An Anus. And Sometimes It Doesn't.
Posted on October 26, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 499 words
| Patria Henriques
Like a rainbow or a sunset, the anus of the warty comb jelly is a fleeting marvel.
An anus is a gateway for solid-waste removal from an animal's digestive system; in most animals, the anus is reliably found in one location all the time. But Mnemiopsis leidyi, a jellyfish relative that is also known as a warty comb jelly or sea walnut, is not "most animals."
M. leidyi's anus isn't fixed in place on its gelatinous body.
[Read More]