Did Cold Weather Cause the Salem Witch Trials?
Posted on October 14, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 489 words
| Trudie Dory
Historical records indicate that, worldwide, witch hunts occur more often during cold periods, possibly because people look for scapegoats to blame for crop failures and general economic hardship. Fitting the pattern, scholars argue that cold weather may have spurred the infamous Salem witch trials in 1692.
The theory, first laid out by the economist Emily Oster in her senior thesis at Harvard University eight years ago, holds that the most active era of witchcraft trials in Europe coincided with a 400- year period of lower-than-average temperature known to climatologists as the "
[Read More]Dinosaur Era Had 5 Times Today's CO2
Posted on October 14, 2022
| 5 minutes
| 886 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Dinosaurs that roamed the Earth 250 million years ago knew a world with five times more carbon dioxide than is present on Earth today, researchers say, and new techniques for estimating the amount of carbon dioxide on prehistoric Earth may help scientists predict how Earth's climate may change in the future.
The findings are detailed in a recent paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
[Read More]Gold 'lotus flower' pendant from Queen Nefertiti's time discovered in Cyprus
Posted on October 14, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 796 words
| Arica Deslauriers
A precious-gem-studded "lotus flower" pendant similar to one worn by ancient Egypt's Queen Nefertiti has been unearthed in a set of tombs in Cyprus. The pendant is one of hundreds of opulent grave goods from around the Mediterranean region that have been uncovered at the site, including gemstones, ceramics and jewelry.
Archaeologists from the New Swedish Cyprus Expedition first unearthed the two Bronze Age tombs, both underground chambers, in the ancient city of Hala Sultan Tekke in 2018.
[Read More]Gulls' Love of Baby Seal Poop Leads to Gouged Butts
Posted on October 14, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 680 words
| Fernande Dalal
For gulls in Chilean Patagonia, seal pup poop laced with parasitic hookworms is a tasty treat. But the eager birds are snapping up their meals just a little too near to the pups, to the detriment of the seals' tender rear ends, scientists discovered.
During routine exams of the South American fur seal pups (Arctocephalus australis) living on Guafo Island, researchers were puzzled by unusual wounds they found in the young animals' perineal area — around the anus.
[Read More]Interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua could still be alien technology, new study hints
Posted on October 14, 2022
| 7 minutes
| 1323 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
'Oumuamua — a mysterious, interstellar object that crashed through our solar system two years ago — might in fact be alien technology. That’s because an alternative, non-alien explanation might be fatally flawed, as a new study argues.
But most scientists think the idea that we spotted alien technology in our solar system is a long shot.
In 2018, our solar system ran into an object lost in interstellar space. The object, dubbed 'Oumuamua, seemed to be long and thin — cigar-shaped — and tumbling end over end.
[Read More]Oops! US Doctors Screw Up Surprisingly Often: Study
Posted on October 14, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 580 words
| Patria Henriques
Doctors make careless and dangerous errors, like leaving a scalpel in someone's body after surgery, surprisingly often, a new study finds.
The analysis, published Dec. 19 in the journal Surgery, used malpractice records to find instances in which surgeons operated on the wrong patient or part of the body, or left objects inside the patient after surgery.
Compared to other medical errors, the rate of such of such mistakes in the United States is very low.
[Read More]Some of Earth's 1st Big Animals Were Shape-Shifters
Posted on October 14, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 521 words
| Patria Henriques
Some of Earth's first large animals were shape-shifters, new research suggests.
The bizarre creatures looked more like fern fronds than anything recognizable as an animal. They appeared in the oceans suddenly more than 571 million years ago — about a billion years after the first single-celled eukaryotes (organisms with membrane-bound nuclei) emerged, but 30 million years before a huge diversification of life on Earth, called the Cambrian explosion, occurred. Why these large animals evolved suddenly at that particular time has been a mystery, Jennifer Hoyal Cuthill and Simon Morris of the University of Cambridge said today (July 10) in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.
[Read More]Stephen Hawking Thinks These 3 Things Could Destroy Humanity
Posted on October 14, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 703 words
| Fernande Dalal
Stephen Hawking may be most famous for his work on black holes and gravitational singularities, but the world-renowned physicist has also become known for his outspoken ideas about things that could destroy human civilization.
Hawking suffers from a motor neuron disease similar to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, which left him paralyzed and unable to speak without a voice synthesizer. But that hasn't stopped the University of Cambridge professor from making proclamations about the wide range of dangers humanity faces — including ourselves.
[Read More]Venomous Brown Recluse Spider Crawls into Woman's Ear
Posted on October 14, 2022
| 2 minutes
| 346 words
| Patria Henriques
Brown recluse spiders, a venomous variety native to the South and Midwest, earn their name for their tendency to tuck themselves in hidden nooks and crannies. Still, when Susie Torres of Kansas City, Missouri, took herself to the doctor's office for a "swishing sound" that wouldn't go away, she didn't expect that one of these eight legged creatures had made itself at home in her ear.
But when a nurse peered inside Torres' ear, that was exactly what the health provider found.
[Read More]Vikings created a massive boat in this volcanic cave to ward off the apocalypse
Posted on October 14, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 566 words
| Trudie Dory
Archaeologists have discovered the remains of rare artifacts from the Middle East in an Icelandic cave that the Vikings associated with Ragnarök, an end-times event in which the gods would be killed and the world engulfed in flames.
The cave is located by a volcano that erupted almost 1,100 years ago. At the time of that eruption, the Vikings had recently colonized Iceland. "The impacts of this eruption must have been unsettling, posing existential challenges for Iceland's newly arrived settlers,"
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