More Than a View: Windows Double as Solar Panels
Posted on September 17, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 677 words
| Trudie Dory
A tech startup on a mission to make modern commercial and housing estates energy neutral has outfitted the headquarters of a Dutch bank with the world's first commercial, fully transparent solar-power-generating windows.
The windows have solar cells installed in the edges at a specific angle that allows the incoming solar light to be efficiently transformed into electricity.
"Large commercial estates consume a lot of energy," said Ferdinand Grapperhaus, co-founder and CEO of the startup, called Physee.
[Read More]No, men don't learn toxic masculinity from their fathers
Posted on September 17, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 728 words
| Arica Deslauriers
For toxic masculinity, "like father, like son," is only part of the story.
New research suggests a different story: A man's lack of friends may predict whether he will embrace toxic masculinity, while the presence or absence of a male role model early in life doesn't play a role.
So-called toxic — or hegemonic — masculinity refers to a set of beliefs and negative social behaviors that are aligned with "
[Read More]Photos: The Amazing Pyramids of Teotihuacan
Posted on September 17, 2022
| 7 minutes
| 1323 words
| Trudie Dory
Thriving metropolisTeotihuacan (pronounced te-o-tee-waka-n) is believed by archeologists to be the first major city of the Americas. It was located in the northeastern region of the Valley of Mexico, some 35 miles (56 kilometers) from modern Mexico City. It existed from about 100 B.C. to A.D. 550. At its prime, Teotihuacan was about 14 square miles, (36 square km), in size and was home to a variety of native people from many different regions, including the Maya, Mixtec and Zapotec.
[Read More]Pirate attacks linked to destructive fishing
Posted on September 17, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 662 words
| Trudie Dory
Pirates attack more often in waters where illegal and destructive techniques are being used to catch fish, a new study finds.
Destructive fishing practices carried out by industrial fleets and illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing can wreck local ecosystems and reduce the catches of small-scale fishers. As a result, fishers may turn to piracy to make money and scare such fleets away from their waters.
“The loss of income means that they need to find something else to do,” study first author Raj Desai, a professor of international development at Georgetown University in Washington, D.
[Read More]Prehistoric Cemetery Reveals Man and Fox Were Pals
Posted on September 17, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 761 words
| Patria Henriques
Before dog was man's best friend, we might have kept foxes as pets, even bringing them with us into our graves, scientists now say.
This discovery, made in a prehistoric cemetery in the Middle East, could shed light on the nature and timing of newly developing relationships between people and beasts before animals were first domesticated. It also hints that key aspects of ancient practices surrounding death might have originated earlier than before thought.
[Read More]Sea's Slowest Sharks Snack on Sleeping Seals
Posted on September 17, 2022
| 3 minutes
| 461 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
The Greenland sleeper shark has just been tagged the slowest fish in the sea relative to its size, according to a new study that also found the sharks have a sneaky way to still nab live prey — they attack sleeping seals.
The results may explain how these sluggish sharks (Somniosus microcephalus), also called sleeper sharks for their slowness, manage a diet that includes seals. Reports have shown this slowpoke of the Arctic and North Atlantic consumes ringed seals (Pusa hispida), harbor seals (Phoca vitulina), hooded seals (Cystophora cristata) and bearded seals (Erignathus barbatus).
[Read More]These delta variant mutations may explain its scary power
Posted on September 17, 2022
| 10 minutes
| 2069 words
| Fernande Dalal
Ever since the delta variant of the coronavirus exploded in India in the first half of 2021 and now around the world, researchers have been trying to understand what makes this particular SARS-CoV-2 strain so transmissible.
Now, they're narrowing down the reasons to a few important mutations on the spike protein that seem to help the virus get into cells quicker than ever. One such mutation, called P681R, may make a crucial step in this process go faster.
[Read More]What Is Chickenpox? Causes, Symptoms & Treatment
Posted on September 17, 2022
| 5 minutes
| 999 words
| Patria Henriques
Chickenpox is a contagious disease characterized by many itchy, red bumps all over the body. Children younger than age 15 are most likely to get it, but older children and adults can become infected as well. Chickenpox (sometimes spelled chicken pox) is highly contagious and can be spread by contact with the affected areas, or by an infected person sneezing or coughing on an uninfected, unvaccinated person.
Before the chickenpox vaccine was introduced in the United States in 1995, about 4 million people got the disease every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
[Read More]World's Highest-Pitched Primate Calls Out Like a Bat
Posted on September 17, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 804 words
| Trudie Dory
A huge-eyed little primate of the Philippines can communicate in pure ultrasound — issuing calls so high-pitched that human ears can't detect them.
Study researcher Marissa Ramsier noted the ironic discovery in an animal that has always been considered a quiet night creature. "It turns out that it's not silent. It's actually screaming and we had no idea," said Ramsier, an evolutionary biologist at Humboldt State University in California.
The shrillest noise a human can hear has a frequency of about 20 kilohertz.
[Read More]Are Humans Reversing Cat Domestication?
Posted on September 16, 2022
| 4 minutes
| 817 words
| Arica Deslauriers
When your cat sees a stranger, does he come and snuggle close or hiss and run away?
Whether a feline friend is a lap cat or a claws-out kitty is largely affected by their socialization as young kittens. But at least part of cats' friendliness may be in their genes. And the widespread practice of spaying or neutering cats before they are adopted may be inadvertently selecting for aloof cats, by ensuring the friendliest animals don't reproduce, one researcher says.
[Read More]