Weird Sea Mollusk Sports Hundreds of Eyes Made of Armor
Posted on September 20, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 670 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
A marine mollusk built like a tiny tank can see with eyes made of the same material as its armor.
Acanthopleura granulata is a chiton, a pill bug of the sea. This animal has a shell made of overlapping plates, which allows it to roll up in defense if a predator manages to pry it from the tidal-zone rock it calls home. Researchers have long known that chitons have soft tissue embedded in their flexible suits of armor, and that some of this soft tissue is sensitive to light.
[Read More]'Joe the Pigeon' gets reprieve from death, after leg band found to be fake
Posted on September 19, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 558 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Australia's avian celebrity Joe the Pigeon is getting a new lease on life after authorities determined he is not a biosecurity threat.
Joe's story started last month when a man in Melbourne found the seemingly emaciated pigeon wearing a leg band in his backyard. According to Australia's 9News, the man, Kevin Chelli-Bird, fed the bird some dried biscuits and started researching the pigeon's leg band. According to the band, the pigeon was a racing bird, registered to an owner in Montgomery, Alabama.
[Read More]Apple Watch 6 review
Posted on September 19, 2022
| 12 minutes
| 2345 words
| Trudie Dory
The Apple Watch 6, launched in 2020, was something of an iterative step from Apple, but it brought with it some key upgrades to make it more usable and accessible. Plus, with the addition of the new WatchOS 8 platform, it offers some great new features that make it a compelling buy.
Now the Apple Watch 7 has emerged onto the market, the Apple Watch 6 is being discontinued but you'll see that, if you can find it for a cheaper price, it's very much worth considering as your new Apple Watch.
[Read More]Can Your Pet Go Blind from the Solar Eclipse?
Posted on September 19, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 622 words
| Trudie Dory
If you have plans to watch the total solar eclipse that will cross the United States on Aug. 21, you likely have a long checklist of things to do. For example, you'll want to buy special protective eyewear and plan a way to beat traffic as hordes of people travel toward the path of totality.
But should that checklist include securing protective glasses for your pets?
Animals will probably be fine, as they don't tend to look directly at the sun.
[Read More]Device Turns Air Pollution Into Printing Ink
Posted on September 19, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 512 words
| Arica Deslauriers
An MIT spinoff company in India is proposing a novel solution to air pollution problems in Asia — turning vehicle exhaust into ink.
It involves attaching a device, called a Kaalink, to the business end of a standard automobile exhaust pipe. The Kaalink filters and captures unburned carbon emitted by incomplete engine combustion. The technical details of the process are secret, but officials at Gravinky Labs, a spinoff company from MIT Media Lab, said the process is largely mechanical and relatively straightforward.
[Read More]Facts About Sunscreen and Sun Protection
Posted on September 19, 2022
| 5 minutes
| 876 words
| Patria Henriques
Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), but it is also the most preventable because sun exposure is a major factor in its growth. The best line of defense against skin cancer is sunscreen and skin protection.
What is sunscreen?Sunscreen is basically a barrier that protects the skin from absorbing ultraviolet (UV) rays. There are two kinds of UV rays that can affect the skin.
[Read More]Fall Back? Why Daylight Saving Time Is So Confusing
Posted on September 19, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 793 words
| Patria Henriques
On Sunday, Nov. 1, it's time to wind back the clocks. Or is that forward? Wait, are we losing an hour, or gaining one?
This biannual changing of the clocks is frustrating to many people. Even the name itself is confusing: It's daylight saving time — not, as many people say, daylight savings time.
Part of the frustration is biological. Changing the clocks messes up sleep — a factor that some studies say harms people's health.
[Read More]Giant 'Lava Lamp' Inside Earth May Cause Magnetic Poles to Flip
Posted on September 19, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 725 words
| Arica Deslauriers
If you could travel back in time 41,000 years to the last ice age, your compass would point south instead of north. That's because for a period of a few hundred years, the Earth's magnetic field was reversed. These reversals have happpened repeatedly over the planet's history, sometimes lasting hundreds of thousands of years. We know this from the way it affects the formation of magnetic minerals, that we can now study on the Earth's surface.
[Read More]Have There Always Been Continents?
Posted on September 19, 2022
| 2 minutes
| 363 words
| Arica Deslauriers
They didn't always look the way they do today, but yes, there have always been continents on Earth.
The familiar configuration of the seven official continents spread out over Earth today has undergone many permutations during the planet's 4.5 billion year history.
Many scientists figure Earth began as one huge continent — dry as a bone. Water was delivered in comets, the thinking goes, and then the oceans developed.
Plate tectonics has continually shifted the position of landmasses; while some were rifted apart, creating new landmasses, others collided to create tall mountain ranges, such as the Himalayas, and combine landmasses.
[Read More]Inspire your kids with these Melissa & Doug educational toy deals for curious minds
Posted on September 19, 2022
| 2 minutes
| 412 words
| Fernande Dalal
Melissa & Doug has become a household name for parents looking for high-quality (and often educational) toys to entertain and delight little ones of all ages.
Whether it’s toys that help with toddler development or inspire kids to take control of their daily schedules, the brand offers a wide range of toys and games – and many of them are now on sale at Amazon.
The popular Melissa & Doug Latches Board, which features a series of colorful doors that feature a variety of door locks to promote motor skill development, is down to £13.
[Read More]