Asthma: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment

 Posted on September 6, 2022  |  6 minutes  |  1077 words  |  Patria Henriques

Asthma is a chronic condition in which the airways that carry air to the lungs are inflamed and narrowed. Inflamed airways are very sensitive, and they tend to react to things in the environment called triggers, such as substances that are inhaled. When the airways react, they swell and narrow even more, and also produce extra mucus, all of which make it harder for air to flow to the lungs. The muscles around the airways also tighten, which further restricts air flow. [Read More]

Bullies on Bullying: Why We Do It

 Posted on September 6, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  674 words  |  Trudie Dory

Kids can be cruel, for many reasons and most often on a fleeting basis. But bullies are tenacious in their brutal acts, and scientists have not had much luck figuring out why. A new study sought answers in a way no other study has, by asking bullies why they do it. Bullies with the most hostility reported picking on kids because those kids were not good at sports. The most frequent bullying involved picking on students they perceived to be gay or lesbian, a result that agrees with another recent study on bullying. [Read More]

Krokodil, Molly and More: 5 Wretched New Street Drugs

 Posted on September 6, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  685 words  |  Fernande Dalal

When it comes to altered states of consciousness, humans are nothing if not inventive. A number of new synthetic drugs, opiate painkillers and other substances have emerged recently as increasingly popular among partygoers and drug addicts. And some of these substances are alarming health experts and law enforcement officials. Here's a look at five of the most potent of these street drugs. Krokodil Few street drugs have as wretched a reputation as desomorphine, a cheap derivative of codeine that's mixed with gasoline, oil, alcohol or paint thinner. [Read More]

Mantis Shrimp's Attack Claw Inspires Tough New Material Design

 Posted on September 6, 2022  |  2 minutes  |  299 words  |  Patria Henriques

The weapon with which mantis shrimp attack their prey, including mollusks and crabs, is no ordinary appendage. This clublike claw accelerates faster than a .22-calliber bullet, delivers an impact more than 1,000 times the shrimp’s own body weight, and stays intact even after thousands of blows. Researchers think studying the structure of the club could inspire biology-mimicking materials to make stronger airplanes, cars, body armor and football helmets. In fact, researchers found in recent tests that a shrimp-inspired material design proved tougher and more impact-resistant than a standard material structure used in the aerospace industry. [Read More]

Microsoft Co-Founder Finds the WWII 'Ship That Saved Australia'

 Posted on September 6, 2022  |  2 minutes  |  414 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Lying on the floor of the Coral Sea some 500 miles (800 kilometers) off the eastern coast of Australia, the wreckage from the USS Lexington, a U.S. aircraft carrier used in World War II, appears frozen in time, covered in the detritus of the sea. An expedition aboard the research vessel Petrel — funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's company, Vulcan Inc. — discovered the huge wreck about 2 miles (3,000 meters) below the sea surface. [Read More]

Missing 'Island' Floating In Earth's Atmosphere

 Posted on September 6, 2022  |  2 minutes  |  275 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

A floating "island" is at large somewhere in the Earth's atmosphere. The 23-foot-wide, helium-filled model of a desert island was constructed by two artists for a festival in Cambridgeshire, England. Tethered by ropes, it hovered above a lake on the grounds of the Secret Garden Party festival until the wee hours of July 24, when vandals let it loose. Reminiscent of the airborne island of Laputa in "Gulliver's Travels," it floated away. [Read More]

New Source Found For Cold, Deep Antarctic Currents

 Posted on September 6, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  686 words  |  Trudie Dory

With help from seals, scientists have discovered a new source for the coldest, deepest water in the ocean. Instruments glued to seals' heads tracked Antarctic Bottom Water flowing down deep canyons off Cape Darnley in East Antarctica. The spot was an unexpected font of the bottom water — cold, dense, salty water — because it lacks the broad underwater shelf of the unique current's three known sources. These shallow shelves stick out from the continent's edge. [Read More]

Photos: Top-Secret, Cold War-Era Military Base in Greenland

 Posted on September 6, 2022  |  1 minutes  |  203 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Under the iceIn 1959, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a base, called Camp Century, in the Greenland Ice Sheet. The site was constructed under more than 26 feet (8 meters) of ice to provide protection and camouflage. New research shows that the melting ice sheet, caused by a warming climate, could release the camp's toxic waste into the environment. This photo shows the northeast portal to Camp Century during construction in 1959. [Read More]

Rare September Tornado Hits Near Pittsburgh, Pa.

 Posted on September 6, 2022  |  4 minutes  |  784 words  |  Patria Henriques

This article was provided by AccuWeather.com. A tornado touched down in Eighty Four, Pa., on Thursday around 4 p.m. The tornado did minimal damage; however, there was no tornado warning out for the area. The National Weather Service in Pittsburgh gave a detailed explanation of why the storm that produced the tornado did not meet the criteria for a warning: "A surface low pressure system was moving across the upper Ohio Valley towards the Pittsburgh area associated with showers. [Read More]

Sheep Ain't Baa-aad at Recognizing Faces (But Humans Are Better)

 Posted on September 6, 2022  |  2 minutes  |  398 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Facial recognition specialists from Australia recently revisited the 2017 study. They admitted that the experiments provided "a compelling demonstration" that sheep could differentiate between human faces, but they challenged the authors' conclusion that sheep could recognize faces as well as humans and other primates can. As experts in human facial recognition, the Australian researchers reported serious reservations about sheep performing this un-ewe-sual ability on equal footing with Homo sapiens. [The 12 Weirdest Animal Discoveries] [Read More]