Defiant message discovered in Cuban Missile Crisis bunker

 Posted on June 2, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  572 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Sixty years ago during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a defiant individual — likely a Cuban soldier — wrote a message in a system of bunkers and trenches on the Cuban coast declaring that surrender was not in the cards, new research finds. Archaeologists discovered the graffiti while documenting the remains of these bunkers and trenches, which Cuba prepared in case the United States invaded the island during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis — a 13-day standoff that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. [Read More]

Drones Could Grow to $11 Billion Industry by 2024

 Posted on June 2, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  679 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Love them or hate them, drones are here to stay — at least for the foreseeable future. A new report detailing the growth of the drone industry finds that over the next 10 years, the amount of money spent annually on drones and their accompanying technologies will likely double worldwide. An estimated $6.4 billion is currently being spent each year on developing drone technology around the world, according to a report published earlier this month by the Teal Group Corp. [Read More]

Expedition Explores World's Deepest Hydrothermal Vents

 Posted on June 2, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  432 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Researchers are exploring the deepest known set of hydrothermal vents in the world, at a site in the Caribbean nearly 5 kilometers (3 miles) beneath the ocean surface. They've discovered a new vent there that is deeper than any previously known, said Andrew Thaler, a researcher on the expedition. The group explores the area using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) named Isis, which just completed its first dive yesterday (Feb. [Read More]

Extreme Global Warming May Have Caused Largest Extinction Ever

 Posted on June 2, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  813 words  |  Patria Henriques

Feverishly hot ocean surface waters potentially reaching more than 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) may have helped cause the greatest mass extinction in Earth's history, researchers say. "We may have found the hottest time the world has ever had," researcher Paul Wignall, a geologist at the University of Leeds in England, told LiveScience. The mass extinction at the end of the Permian Era about 250 million years ago was the greatest die-off in Earth's history. [Read More]

For MS Patients, Wii Game Strengthens Brain

 Posted on June 2, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  688 words  |  Patria Henriques

People with multiple sclerosis (MS) may benefit from working on their balance with an interactive video game system, a small study suggests. Researchers in Italy found that men and women with mild-to-moderate MS symptoms who exercised at home for 12 weeks with a Nintendo Wii balance board system showed more positive-changes in areas of the brain responsible for balance and movement than people with MS who received no balance training. [Read More]

Here's How Many US Cancer Cases Are Tied to Unhealthy Diets

 Posted on June 2, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  468 words  |  Trudie Dory

More than 80,000 cancer cases diagnosed each year in the U.S. may be tied to an unhealthy diet, according to a new study. The study researchers used a mathematical model to estimate the number of U.S. cancer cases tied to suboptimal intake of seven dietary components known to be related to cancer risk. These included diets low in whole grains, dairy, fruits and vegetables; and diets high in processed meats, red meats and sugar-sweetened beverages. [Read More]

Kinky Wolf Spiders Engage in Ménage à Trois to Avoid Cannibalism

 Posted on June 2, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  509 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

One autumn night while searching for spiders in his backyard, Matthew Persons came across something unexpected: a wolf spider ménage à trois. Persons took note of the 24-legged threesome, but didn't think much of it. Then, on another night, he found a second three-spider union. And then another. "By the third time I saw it, it's like, 'I've got to take detailed study of this,'" said Persons, a professor of biology and ecology at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. [Read More]

Nonhuman 'Hands' Found in Prehistoric Rock Art

 Posted on June 2, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  1033 words  |  Patria Henriques

The roughly 8,000-year-old "hands" painted on a rock wall in the Sahara Desert aren't human at all, as researchers originally thought, but are actually stencils of the "hands" or forefeet, of the desert monitor lizard, a new study finds. These tiny lizard hands are intermingled with paintings of human adult hands, which ancient rock artists stenciled around using red, yellow, orange and brown pigments, the researchers said. It's unclear why these ancient people used both human and lizard hands as stencils, but the finding may provide clues about the mysterious people who lived in the Sahara about 8,000 years ago, the researchers said. [Read More]

Rhine Fossils Push River's Age Back 5 Million Years

 Posted on June 2, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  282 words  |  Trudie Dory

Fossilized antlers, teeth and wood dug up near Europe's storied Rhine River indicate the  waterway is 5 million years older than many scientists had thought, according to new research. The Rhine originates in the Swiss Alps and flows more than 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) northward; it empties into the North Sea along the Netherlands' coast. There's been an ongoing debate in the scientific community about just how old the river is, according to Madelaine Böhme, a researcher at the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoecology at the University of Tübingen in Germany. [Read More]

So Tiny! Miniature Frog Species Are Among World's Smallest (Photos)

 Posted on June 2, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  280 words  |  Trudie Dory

Tiny frogSeven new frog species from India's Western Ghats, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, were recently described in a new study. This pint-sized individual measures 0.54 inches (13.6 millimeters). Perched on a fingertipThe tiny frog Vijayan's Night Frog (Nyctibatrachus pulivijayani) lives in the Agasthyamala Hills in the Western Ghats, a mountain range that runs parallel to India's western coast. A rupee for your thoughtsAnother tiny frog, Robinmoore's Night Frog (Nyctibatrachus robinmoorei) perches on a 0. [Read More]