What If a Giant Asteroid Had Not Wiped Out the Dinosaurs?

 Posted on September 15, 2022  |  2 minutes  |  341 words  |  Patria Henriques

During the new DC Comics Universe series "Flashpoint," in which a time-traveling supervillain alters the past to warp the present, Life's Little Mysteries presents a 10-part series that examines what would happen if a major event in the history of the universe had gone just slightly different. Part 2: What if ... a giant asteroid had not killed off the dinosaurs? Other factors were involved in dinosaurs' extinction, but the resounding death knell was the impact of a 6-mile-wide asteroid in present-day Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula 65 million years ago, creating what is known as the 110-mile-wide, 6-mile-deep Chicxulub crater. [Read More]

'Beautiful Nightmare' Crab Sported Lobster Shell, Shrimp Mouth and Soccer Ball Eyes

 Posted on September 14, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  506 words  |  Fernande Dalal

An ancient crab that lived during the dinosaur age was so strange, paleontologists are calling it the platypus of the crab world. This newly discovered critter — named Callichimaera perplexa, which means "perplexing beautiful chimera" — had a hodgepodge of body parts. That name references the mythical chimera from Greek mythology, which had a lion's head, a goat's body and a snake's tail. But unlike the mythological version, this bizarre chimera actually existed: It had the mouth of a shrimp, the claws of a modern frog crab, the shell of a lobster and the paddle-like appendages of a sea scorpion, the researchers found. [Read More]

Baby's Cells Mix and Mingle with Pregnant Mom's

 Posted on September 14, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  534 words  |  Fernande Dalal

During pregnancy, and even decades later, a baby's influence on mom runs deep — cell deep. While the fetus develops inside the womb, its cells mix and mingle with the mother's after traveling through the placenta, and can stay there for years. In a new study, researchers discovered cells from the placenta and the fetus inside a pregnant mouse's lungs. They were even able to tell that some of the cells were immune cells, while others looked like undefined connective tissue. [Read More]

Brain-computer interface helps patient with locked-in syndrome communicate

 Posted on September 14, 2022  |  5 minutes  |  983 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

For the first time, a patient in a completely locked-in state due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) was able to communicate verbally using a brain-computer interface, according to a new study.  This technology allowed the patient, a 37-year old man with ALS, to communicate by forming words and phrases, despite not having any voluntary muscle control. The system involved implanting a device with microelectrodes into the patient's brain, and using a custom computer software to help translate his brain signals. [Read More]

Do DIY Teeth Whitening Methods Really Work?

 Posted on September 14, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  662 words  |  Trudie Dory

Brushing your teeth with a strawberry and baking-soda mixture  — which "The Dr. Oz Show" and YouTube videos have touted as a natural, cheap, easy, do-it-yourself way to brighten teeth — does not actually whiten teeth, and may even weaken them, new research shows. In the past, lemons had also been advocated as tooth-whitening agents. However, researchers very soon discovered that the high concentration of citric acid in lemons made their juice acidic enough to potentially erode teeth. [Read More]

First Image of a Memory Being Made

 Posted on September 14, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  458 words  |  Trudie Dory

For the first time, an image of a memory being made at the cellular level has been captured by scientists. The image shows that proteins are created at connections between brain cells when a long-term memory is formed. Neuroscientists had suspected as much, but hadn't been able to see it happening until now. The experiment also revealed some surprising aspects of memory formation, which remains a somewhat mysterious process. Kelsey Martin, a biochemist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues investigated memory formation in neurons from the sea slug Aplysia californica, a good model for brain cells in other organisms, including humans. [Read More]

For Ants, a Kiss Is Not Just a Kiss…It's Communication

 Posted on September 14, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  687 words  |  Patria Henriques

Talk about intimate communication. Researchers have found that ants pass along chemical signals with their nest mates by sharing saliva. The oral fluid of the Florida carpenter ant (Camponotus floridanus) contains chemicals that might help homogenize the scent of ants in the colony and even impact the growth of their larvae, researchers reported in a study published Nov. 29 in the journal eLife. Previously, ants were thought to engage in the saliva-swapping, or " [Read More]

How Sharks Survive Frigid Water

 Posted on September 14, 2022  |  2 minutes  |  326 words  |  Patria Henriques

Salmon sharks spend much of their lives in ice-cold waters in the North Pacific. How do they stand it? New research points to a special protein that may help them survive the frigid conditions. Researchers attached satellite tags to 48 female salmon sharks in Prince William Sound, Alaska, to track their movements over three years. They also examined the sharks’ physiology to uncover how they endure winter waters dipping to 36 degrees Fahrenheit. [Read More]

Inside Look: Gallery of Animal Guts in Action

 Posted on September 14, 2022  |  1 minutes  |  203 words  |  Patria Henriques

Fasting PythonsFasting Burmese pythons were scanned before and at two, 16, 24, 40, 48, 72 and 132 hours after ingestion of one rat. The succession of images revealed a gradual disappearance of the body of the rat, accompanied by an overall expansion of the snake's intestine, shrinking of the gallbladder, and a 25-percent increase in heart volume. Python Eating Three RatsIn one experiment, scientists fed a python three rats and watched as the snacks descended through the snake's gut and vanished. [Read More]

Kids' fossilized handprints may be some of the world's oldest art

 Posted on September 14, 2022  |  6 minutes  |  1258 words  |  Fernande Dalal

About 200,000 years ago, ice age children squished their hands and feet into sticky mud thousands of feet above sea level on the Tibetan Plateau. These impressions, now preserved in limestone, provide some of the earliest evidence of human ancestors inhabiting the area and may represent the oldest art of their kind ever discovered.  In a new report, published Sept. 10 in the journal Science Bulletin, the study authors argue that the hand and footprints should be considered " [Read More]