Physicists Just Measured One of the Four Fundamental Forces of Nature. Now They're Bummed.

 Posted on May 27, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  647 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Chalk up another win for the Standard Model, the remarkably successful theory that describes how all the known fundamental particles interact. Physicists have made the most precise measurement yet of how strongly the weak force — one of nature's four fundamental forces — acts on the proton. The results, published today (May 9) in the journal Nature(opens in new tab), are just what the Standard Model predicted, dealing yet another blow to physicists' efforts to find kinks in the theory and discover new physics that could explain what dark matter and dark energy are. [Read More]

Rare Coins Bear Scars of Ancient Jewish Rebellion

 Posted on May 27, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  585 words  |  Trudie Dory

A Late Second Temple Period Jewish settlement with a trove of rare bronze coins inside one of its houses has been discovered in Israel. The 114 bronze coins, which were found inside a ceramic money box and hidden in the corner of a room, date to the fourth year of the Great Revolt of the Jews against the Romans — an uprising that destroyed the Temple on Tisha B'Av about 2,000 years ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) reported today (Aug. [Read More]

The Power of Positive Thinking: Truth or Myth?

 Posted on May 27, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  956 words  |  Trudie Dory

You might call Maarten van der Weijden the anti-Lance Armstrong. Last week, the Dutch Olympic long-distance swimming champion and cancer survivor told the British newspaper The Telegraph that he didn't want to be compared to the American cycling star. "Armstrong says that positive thinking and doing a lot of sports can save you. I don't agree," said van der Weijden. "I even think it's dangerous because it implies that if you are not a positive thinker all the time you lose . [Read More]

Toward Immortality: The Social Burden of Longer Lives

 Posted on May 27, 2023  |  7 minutes  |  1405 words  |  Trudie Dory

Adam and Eve lost it, alchemists tried to brew it and, if you believe the legends, Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon was searching for it when he discovered Florida. To live forever while preserving health and retaining the semblance and vigor of youth is one of humanity's oldest and most elusive goals. Now, after countless false starts and disappointments, some scientists say we could finally be close to achieving lifetimes that are, if not endless, at least several decades longer. [Read More]

Virus variant found in S. Africa may resist antibodies

 Posted on May 27, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  803 words  |  Patria Henriques

Antibodies against the novel coronavirus may not work as well against a new variant of the virus identified in South Africa, early data suggest. Scientists recently raised concerns that the variant, known as 501.V2, may be resistant to COVID-19 vaccines, Live Science previously reported. Experts noted that the variant has accumulated a significant number of mutations in its spike protein, a pointed structure that sticks off the virus's surface and binds to human cells to trigger infection. [Read More]

Woman Has Highest BPA Levels Ever Reported

 Posted on May 27, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  717 words  |  Trudie Dory

A woman living in Cincinnati, Ohio, has broken a record of sorts: She has the highest-ever documented levels of a chemical called bisphenol A (BPA) in her body, researchers announced on Wednesday (May 11). BPA is found in some plastics, the lining of canned foods, dental sealants and other everyday items. Doctors think the woman accrued these high levels simply through her diet, which is high in canned foods and foods reheated in a microwave in plastic containers. [Read More]

'Mind-Blowing' Sex Can Wipe Memory Clean

 Posted on May 26, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  796 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

A 54-year-old woman showed up in the emergency room at Georgetown University Hospital with her husband, unable to remember the past 24 hours. Her newer memories were hazy, too. One thing she did recall: Her amnesia had started right after having sex with her husband just an hour before. While sex can be forgettable or mind-blowing, for some people, it can quite literally be both at the same time. The woman, whose case was reported in the September issue of The Journal of Emergency Medicine, was experiencing transient global amnesia, a rare condition in which memory suddenly, temporarily, disappears. [Read More]

Chimps Understand and Mourn Death, Research Suggests

 Posted on May 26, 2023  |  8 minutes  |  1675 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Chimpanzees may gather in hushed quiet to watch a fellow ape in her dying moments, and chimp mothers in the wild may carry their infants' mummified remains for weeks, according to new research on how humanity's closest living relatives deal with the deaths of those closest to them. Insights into how chimpanzees respond to the death of one of their own are rare. One such instance came with the final hours of Pansy, a chimp more than 50 years old who lived in a Scottish safari park. [Read More]

Code of Mysterious Secret Society Cracked Centuries Later

 Posted on May 26, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  795 words  |  Fernande Dalal

A mysterious encrypted manuscript of a secret society, meticulously written in abstract symbols and Roman letters, has finally been deciphered more than three centuries after it was first handwritten, scientists now reveal. The enciphered message, or cryptogram, revealed the rituals and political aims of an enigmatic 18th-century German fellowship, the "Oculist Order," revealing the society had a fascination with eye surgery, though it seems members of the society were not eye doctors. [Read More]

E-Cig Risk: Teens Who Vape More Likely to Start Smoking Tobacco

 Posted on May 26, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  645 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Teens who "vape" in high school are at increased risk for using tobacco cigarettes in the future, a new study found. The study discovered that teens who use electronic cigarettes, a practice also referred to as vaping, in the 12th grade were four times more likely to start smoking tobacco cigarettes within the next year, compared with teens who didn't vape in the 12th grade. The findings "contribute to the growing body of evidence supporting vaping as a 'one-way bridge' to cigarette smoking among youth," [Read More]