Lack of Sleep May Harm Men's Sperm

 Posted on September 24, 2022  |  2 minutes  |  353 words  |  Trudie Dory

Not getting enough sleep may harm men’s sperm, a new study from Denmark says. Men who slept poorly had lower sperm counts and fewer sperm that had formed correctly, compared with men who slept better. "Given the facts that approximately 20 percent of all young men may have reduced semen quality, and that sleep disturbances are common and increasing in industrialized countries, the results of this study may have important public health implications," [Read More]

Lost civilization may have existed beneath the Persian Gulf

 Posted on September 24, 2022  |  5 minutes  |  904 words  |  Patria Henriques

Veiled beneath the Persian Gulf, a once-fertile landmass may have supported some of the earliest humans outside Africa some 75,000 to 100,000 years ago, a new review of research suggests. At its peak, the floodplain now below the Gulf would have been about the size of Great Britain, and then shrank as water began to flood the area. Then, about 8,000 years ago, the land would have been swallowed up by the Indian Ocean, the review scientist said. [Read More]

Male Birds Use 'Wingman' to Win Girl

 Posted on September 24, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  478 words  |  Patria Henriques

Some birds take the “wingman” approach to scoring a mate, the ornithological equivalent of two guys sallying up to a hot girl in a bar in hopes that one will get lucky. This behavior isn’t totally selfless, however, and it turns out males of one tropical bird species receive future benefits from helping out an alpha pal. The wingman of the lance-tailed manakin (Chiroxiphia lanceolata) is more likely to elevate to center stage than feathered friends who don’t play supporting roles, said Emily DuVal of the University of California, Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, lead author of a new study on the bird courtship behavior. [Read More]

Simple Memory Test Predicts Intelligence

 Posted on September 24, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  645 words  |  Fernande Dalal

The key to intelligence may be the ability to juggle multiple thoughts or memories at one time. Researchers have found that a simple test of working memory capacity strongly predicts a person's performance on a battery of intelligence tests that measure everything from abstract problem-solving to social intelligence. Working memory is a way of temporarily storing information used for some mental task. If the results of the study hold for the population at large, " [Read More]

The Murky Truth About Leaching Plastic Bottles

 Posted on September 24, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  686 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Harvard School of Public Health researchers have found that college kids who drank from polycarbonate bottles showed a two-thirds increase of the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in their urine. This is a potentially harmful chemical already banned in Canada. On one hand, the findings aren't as scary as the headlines have implied. The two-thirds increase merely means the level of BPA in urine rose from negligible to a sliver above negligible, a level still thousands of times lower than so-called low doses tested on rats. [Read More]

What Is Déjà Vu?

 Posted on September 24, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  617 words  |  Trudie Dory

Most people have experienced it at one point or another: déjà vu, the haunting sense that you've experienced something before. French for "already seen," déjà vu has been under investigation for years by scientists, who have yet to offer a complete explanation for the phenomenon, though it's reportedly experienced by more than 70 percent of people at some point. Recent research, however, has yielded some clues into what causes déjà vu. [Read More]

Why Atticus Finch's Racist Shift in 'Watchman' Could Be an Anomaly

 Posted on September 24, 2022  |  5 minutes  |  995 words  |  Fernande Dalal

The character Atticus Finch, long revered by many as a paragon of justice, has transformed into an unapologetic racist in Harper Lee's new novel, "Go Set a Watchman" (Harper, 2015). But it's curious that Atticus endorses racism in his old age, as most people tend to become more tolerant in their later years, studies find. Atticus' reversal of attitude, discovered by his grown-up daughter, Scout, during an annual visit home, shows that Atticus, always somewhat of an eccentric, is still an anomaly. [Read More]

Zombie storms are rising from the dead thanks to climate change

 Posted on September 24, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  515 words  |  Trudie Dory

Wildfires are burning the West Coast, hurricanes are flooding the Southeast — and some of those storms are rising from the dead.  "Zombie storms," which regain strength after initially petering out, are the newest addition to the year 2020. And these undead weather anomalies are becoming more common thanks to climate change. "Because 2020, we now have Zombie Tropical Storms. Welcome back to the land of the living, Tropical Storm #Paulette," [Read More]

'Limitless' Brain Potential? Humans Already Use Most of Their Brains

 Posted on September 23, 2022  |  2 minutes  |  416 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

"They say we can only access 20 percent of our brains... well, this [drug] lets you access all of it!" That's the promise and premise behind the new thriller "Limitless," about a writer who takes an experimental drug that allows him to use 100 percent of his brain, providing him with superhuman memory, concentration, and other fantastic abilities. Many people believe we only use a small fraction of our brains. Some people even claim that they are able to use more of their brains than others, providing them with psychic powers. [Read More]

'The Falcon Thief' exposes the high-flying life of a notorious rare-bird smuggler

 Posted on September 23, 2022  |  6 minutes  |  1187 words  |  Patria Henriques

Two grinning men pose for a video camera in front of a helicopter: "We're going on a tour," one of them says and laughs. But what they were about to do was no joyride; it was both dangerous and illegal. They were attempting to steal the eggs of rare falcons from the birds' nests, on a perilously steep cliff in Nunavik territory in northern Quebec. Another clip shows one of the men, Jeffrey Lendrum, dangling from a harness, a pouch at the ready for holding stolen eggs. [Read More]