Mystery: Thousands of Dead Crabs Litter England's Beaches

 Posted on June 15, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  367 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Piles of crabs have been washing up on England beaches along the rocky Thanet Coast in recent days, a phenomenon that has puzzled scientists for the past few years. "It's been a phenomenon for probably a third year in a row," Tony Child, Thanet Coast project manager, told LiveScience. He estimated about 25,000 of the dead velvet swimming crabs (Necora puber) were in piles this year, where birds are now ferociously feeding on their carcasses. [Read More]

New Russian Tanker Makes One of the Fastest Arctic Crossings

 Posted on June 15, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  769 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

This story was updated at 3:45 pm ET on Aug. 30. A Russian ship just made one of the fastest crossings along an Arctic shipping route without the help of a chaperone icebreaker ship, in part because the ship itself functions as an icebreaker and in part because of diminished Arctic sea ice, likely as a result of climate change. On Aug. 17, the Russian tanker, the Christophe de Margerie, carried over 75,000 tons of liquified natural gas (LNG) from Norway to South Korea, according to a statement by the Northern Sea Route Administration. [Read More]

Organs on Demand? 3D Printers Could Build Hearts, Arteries

 Posted on June 15, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  781 words  |  Patria Henriques

Off-the-shelf 3D printers could one day help create living organs to aid in repairing the human body, researchers say. Scientists have developed a way to 3D print models of various anatomical structures, including hearts, brains, arteries and bones. In the future, this process could be used to create 3D-printed soft implants in which living tissue can grow to form organs. Another application for this innovative technology could be food printers, reminiscent of the replicators seen on the TV show " [Read More]

Shake Your Tail Feathers: Dinosaur Sported Modern-Looking Plume

 Posted on June 15, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  591 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

A 145-million-year-old dinosaur about the size of a wild turkey sported a plume of tail feathers that were surprisingly modern-looking and aerodynamic in shape, a new study finds. Though flight ready, the beast's tail feathers may or may not have been used for flying, said the researchers who found the exceptional specimen, a roughly 3.6-foot-long (1.1 meters) dinosaur, in 2015 in China's Liaoning Province, an area known for its incredibly well-preserved fossils of dinosaurs with feathers. [Read More]

Snakes Bite 1.5 Million People in Sub-Saharan Africa Yearly

 Posted on June 15, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  616 words  |  Trudie Dory

Snakebites are a significant public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa, yet the problem is neglected, researchers say. As many as 1.5 million people in that region are bitten by snakes each year, according to a new study that analyzed three decades worth of surveys and medical reports. Previous studies were based on less reliable methods and may have underestimated the problem, the researchers said. The majority of snakebites and deaths from these bites occur in rural areas, where access to health care services is limited, the researchers said. [Read More]

Who Discovered Mars, Anyway? A Look Back at the History of the Red Planet

 Posted on June 15, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  568 words  |  Trudie Dory

But just because we'll never be able to give that sharp-eyed human a name doesn't mean there's nothing interesting to learn about the history of observing Mars. Mars, like the other planets visible without a telescope, has caught people's eyes for its unusual movement against the background constellations. Cultures from the Maya to the Chinese, and from the Aboriginal Australians to the Greeks, left observations of its wandering path across the sky. [Read More]

After Life of Adventure, Attenborough Regrets Missed Family Time

 Posted on June 14, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  507 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Sir David Attenborough has traveled around the world and back, but despite his countless wildlife adventures and exploits in the natural world, said he does have one major regret. The "Planet Earth" narrator wishes he had spent more time with his children when they were young, he told the Radio Times, a weekly British magazine. Attenborough said he was "unbelievably lucky" to have the life he's led, but said he regrets that his work took him away from his son, Robert, and daughter, Susan. [Read More]

Dinosaurs Likely Lousy With Lice

 Posted on June 14, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  790 words  |  Trudie Dory

Dinosaurs might have been the first animals tormented by the kinds of lice that now often bedevil children, scientists now suggest. These new findings also hint that birds and mammals actually began diversifying and spreading across the world before the end of the Age of Dinosaurs that wiped out their competition. Clever bloodsuckers Lice are insects that include bloodsucking parasites. These have often developed unique ways of evading a host's defenses. [Read More]

Drone catches Arecibo Observatory's last moments

 Posted on June 14, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  443 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

The exact moment of Arecibo Observatory's final collapse — when the cables supporting its instrument platform broke — was caught on video by a drone doing a routine inspection flyby, according to a new video released by the observatory Thursday (Dec. 3).  The footage, taken just before 8 a.m. local time in Puerto Rico on Dec. 1, shows what at first appears to be a peaceful, blue-sky morning. Then, one of the main cables holding up the suspended platform over the radio dish gives way, and the entire platform swings downward, breaking apart as it twists toward the ground. [Read More]

Flowers use the smell of death to lure and imprison coffin flies

 Posted on June 14, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  650 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Scientists recently discovered a flower that lures in and imprisons coffin flies with the smell of death.  The plant uses this stinky aroma to trick the insects into pollinating its flowers. This is the first time that a flower has been found to mimic the scent of dead insects as opposed to dead vertebrates, according to the new study. Between 4% and 6% of flowering plants use a "deceptive pollination strategy" [Read More]