New Technique Opens Window Into Brain Research

 Posted on June 5, 2023  |  6 minutes  |  1200 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

This Behind the Scenes article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation. Before graduate student Ed Boyden clicked the button that sent blue light pulsing across a dish of cultured brain cells in the wee hours of August 4, 2004, he knew that he would learn something, no matter what happened next. If the cultured brain cells continued to go about their business, undisturbed by the light, he would know that something hadn't gone as planned and he would pack up and head home for the night. [Read More]

Possible Tsunami Debris Washes Up In California

 Posted on June 5, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  216 words  |  Fernande Dalal

A possible piece of tsunami debris from the 2011 Japan earthquake was discovered Sunday night (April 7) on a Northern California beach. The skiff has several numbers and Japanese writing hiding under the massive pile of tubular gooseneck barnacles encrusting the top and sides. It washed ashore about a mile north of Crescent City, where 12 people died in a 1964 tsunami caused by an earthquake in Alaska. The boat is not radioactive, according to a Facebook post by the Redwood Coast Tsunami Work Group at Humboldt State University. [Read More]

Rare Amber-Entombed Lizards Preserved in Amazing Detail

 Posted on June 5, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  853 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Amber-imprisoned lizards from Southeast Asia that date back 99 million years ago make up the oldest assemblage of tropical lizards ever found in amber, according to a new study. The tiny, trapped fossils, found in Myanmar, represent an unparalleled sampling of species diversity for tropical lizards from the Cretaceous era, which lasted from 145.5 million years ago to about 65.5 million years ago. The fossils are astonishingly well-preserved, the researchers said, including specimens with intact skin, visible skin pigment and soft tissues — and in one case, a lolling tongue. [Read More]

Why Wall Street Barely Reacted to Osama bin Laden's Death

 Posted on June 5, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  666 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

While President Barack Obama's announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden set off impromptu celebrations around the country, Wall Street took the news in stride, perhaps signaling its acceptance that the war on terror is far from over. The Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq grew by only 0.4 percent, 0.5 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively, soon after opening on Monday. The value of the dollar rose against that of the euro and the yen, but fell against the pound. [Read More]

10 Easy Ways to Help Wildlife, Every Day (Photos)

 Posted on June 4, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  824 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

The WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) contributed these images to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. While Earth Day usually comes and goes with calls to recycle and save energy, it's also a reminder that there is much you can do to protect the countless animals that share the planet with us. The WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) — a conservation organization that also runs the Bronx Zoo, New York Aquarium and other facilities — contributed these 10 wildlife images along with tips on how you can help these animals every day of the year. [Read More]

30 'Homeless' Binary Stars Spotted Drifting in the Void Outside Any Known Galaxy

 Posted on June 4, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  453 words  |  Fernande Dalal

When two stars love each other (and are sufficiently massive and sufficiently close in space), they might start going steady. Astronomers call these stellar partners binary star systems, because the smitten suns do everything together. They orbit around each other, pool their gases together and sometimes even come back from the dead together. It's a beautiful thing — but it's not always good times. Sometimes, one member of a binary duo can be punished for its partner's toxic behavior. [Read More]

Americans Increasingly Super-Sizing Their Churches

 Posted on June 4, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  474 words  |  Trudie Dory

DENVER — More and more Americans are spending their Sundays at megachurches, enormous churches with congregations numbering in the thousands. Despite the size of these churches, members don't get lost in the crowd, new research finds. In fact, a new study of 12 representative megachurches spread across the country finds that the size of these churches is a major part of their appeal. Members report that the experience of worshiping with thousands is intoxicating, the researchers find. [Read More]

Assemble! 'Voltron'-Like Robots Can Elect Their Own Leader

 Posted on June 4, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  753 words  |  Patria Henriques

With a nod to the "Voltron" Defender of the Universe" — the animated show in which five lion-shaped robots link up to form a giant machine that fights evil — a team of scientists has created robots that work together and decide which one will lead them. Typically, if a robot's "brain" (or central processor) gets damaged or destroyed, the machine must take a trip to the great robot repair shop in the sky (or technician's bench). [Read More]

Evolution of a Predator: How Big Cats Became Carnivores

 Posted on June 4, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  514 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

The biggest and perhaps most fearsome of the world's big cats, the tiger shares 95.6 percent of its DNA with humans' cute and furry companions, domestic cats. That's one of the findings from the newly sequenced genomes of tigers, snow leopards and lions. The new research showed that big cats have genetic mutations that enabled them to be carnivores. The team also identified mutations that allow snow leopards to thrive at high altitudes. [Read More]

Global Warming: Official Report Shows Climate Change is Human-Caused (Infographic)

 Posted on June 4, 2023  |  1 minutes  |  147 words  |  Trudie Dory

Released in May, 2014, the 840-page U.S. National Climate Assessment report was created by a team of 300 experts, led by a 60-person advisory committee. The report found that evidence of human-induced climate change is strong. Consistent with changes in climate trends, summers are getting hotter and extended periods of excessive heat last longer than in living human memory. Rain is heavier, and allergies are worse than before. All the indicators expected to increase in a warming world are found to be increasing. [Read More]