Titanic's iconic telegraph 'voice' may be recovered. But some say the salvager is a 'greedy treasure hunter.'
Posted on September 18, 2022
| 5 minutes
| 1051 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
A wireless telegraph machine, sometimes called the "voice of the Titanic" for its role in sending out distress messages on the fateful night in 1912 when the RMS Titanic cruise liner hit an iceberg, could be recovered from the shipwreck lying at the bottom of the North Atlantic.
But not everyone is on board with this plan: One of the scientists behind the recovery plan says he is shocked by the "
[Read More]We may finally be able to test one of Stephen Hawking's most far-out ideas
Posted on September 18, 2022
| 5 minutes
| 926 words
| Fernande Dalal
We may soon be able to test one of Stephen Hawking's most controversial theories, new research suggests.
In the 1970s, Hawking proposed that dark matter, the invisible substance that makes up most matter in the cosmos, may be made of black holes formed in the earliest moments of the Big Bang.
Now, three astronomers have developed a theory that explains not only the existence of dark matter, but also the appearance of the largest black holes in the universe.
[Read More]Why Is Hurricane Sandy So Big?
Posted on September 18, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 502 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
By tomorrow night (Oct. 29) or Tuesday, winds and clouds from Hurricane Sandy could stretch across the eastern third of the United States, according to weather predictions from the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Sandy currently has hurricane-force winds extending up to 175 miles (280 kilometers) from its center, and tropical storm-force winds out to 520 miles (835 km), according to the NHC. That's second only to 2001's Olga in terms of the size of wind field of a storm.
[Read More]'Whale Cams' Capture Massive Mammals' Mysterious Daily Habits
Posted on September 17, 2022
| 2 minutes
| 386 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Whales' social lives have largely remained a mystery to scientists, until now.
Researchers have gained a whale's-eye view of the marine mammals' lives in Antarctica, thanks to a research project that placed noninvasive digital tags — containing sensors and a camera — on minke and humpback whales.
The data and footage collected reveal the animals' feeding habits and social behaviors, and show how whales use their blowholes to clear sea ice so they can breathe.
[Read More]Basking Sharks Declared a 'Species of Concern'
Posted on September 17, 2022
| 2 minutes
| 379 words
| Patria Henriques
A population of basking sharks in the Pacific Ocean have been declared a "species of concern" by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Fisheries Service due to steep declines in its population numbers.
The basking shark population has been dwindling despite a decrease in fishing in the past few decades, the agency said in an announcement on Wednesday.
Basking sharks are filter feeders, meaning they eat by straining food particles from water.
[Read More]Does Anyone Really Think the Moon Landing Was Faked?
Posted on September 17, 2022
| 5 minutes
| 905 words
| Fernande Dalal
Bill Kaysing was a former US Navy officer who worked as a technical writer for one of the rocket manufacturers for NASA's Apollo moon missions. He claimed that he had inside knowledge of a government conspiracy to fake the moon landings, and many conspiracy theories about the Apollo moon landings which persist to this day can be traced back to his 1976 book, We Never Went to the Moon: America's Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle.
[Read More]Gospel of Jesus's Wife Likely a Fake, Bizarre Backstory Suggests
Posted on September 17, 2022
| 8 minutes
| 1604 words
| Arica Deslauriers
A papyrus holding text that suggests Jesus Christ was married and whose authenticity has been a matter of intense debate since it was unveiled in 2012 is almost certainly a fake.
Karen King, the Harvard professor who discovered the Gospel of Jesus's Wife and has defended its authenticity, has now conceded that the papyrus is likely a forgery and that its owner lied to her about the provenance and his own background.
[Read More]How Flying Fish Took Flight? Fossils May Tell Us
Posted on September 17, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 702 words
| Arica Deslauriers
An extinct flying fish may shed light on how gliding evolved in such animals, researchers say.
Modern flying fish are famous for leaping from the water to glide in the air using long, winglike fins, presumably to escape aquatic predators. Much remains unknown about how modern flying fish developed their gliding abilities, since there is little in the way of missing-link fossils to illuminate how these fish evolved flight.
[Read More]How Onion Peels Landed One Farmer in the Hospital
Posted on September 17, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 760 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Workers may like to complain that their job is making them sick, but for one man in Japan, that turned out to be the case: The 62-year-old, who worked as an onion farmer, developed a rare allergic reaction from repeated exposure to moldy onion peels, according to a new report of the man's case.
The mold growing on the onion peels turned out to be Aspergillus niger, a common type of mold that can grow on fruits and vegetables.
[Read More]How Safe Is Splenda? Group Urges Caution for Artificial Sweetener
Posted on September 17, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 428 words
| Trudie Dory
The artificial sweetener sucralose (sold under the brand name Splenda) could potentially pose health risks, so it needs to be better understood before the sweetener should be assumed to be safe, one advocacy organization says.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit watchdog group, said today that it was downgrading its safety rating of sucralose from "safe" to "caution," meaning that the additive "may pose a risk and needs to be better tested.
[Read More]