Satellite Photographs 'Black Hole' on Earth

 Posted on May 25, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  381 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

A Korean satellite has caught an eye-catching view of an island in Mexico known for a deep, rocky hole and waters so dark that they earned it the name Holbox, a name that means "black hole." The photo was taken by the Korea Multi-purpose Satellite 2, or Kompsat-2, and shows Holbox Island and its Yalahau lagoon at the northeast corner of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Holbox Island is a 26-mile-long (42-kilometers) strip of land separated from the mainland by the lagoon. [Read More]

Sponges Ruled the World After Second-Largest Mass Extinction

 Posted on May 25, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  478 words  |  Trudie Dory

Sponges may be simple creatures, but they basically ruled the world some 445 million years ago, after the Ordovician mass extinction, a new study finds. Roughly 85 percent of all species died in the Ordovician mass extinction, the first of the world's five known mass extinctions. (The other mass extinctions are the Late Devonian, End Permian, End Triassic and End Cretaceous.) However, while the Ordovician mass extinction wiped out many of these ancient creatures, one group actually prospered: sponges. [Read More]

Stormy Summer Had Everything from Deluges to Drought

 Posted on May 25, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  924 words  |  Patria Henriques

Monster snowstorms were the big news of winter. The spring brought a deadly, record-setting tornado season and epic flooding. Not to be outdone, summer saw plenty of extreme weather of its own: hurricanes, heat waves, drought and wildfires. With La Niña's return, the fall could be wild as well. Before the start of autumn this Friday (Sept. 23), here's a look back at the harsh summer that was. Hurricane [Read More]

Surprise! Life Discovered Inside Deep-Sea Rocks

 Posted on May 25, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  775 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Towering rocks at the bottom of the ocean hold a surprising secret: Life. These rocks, near natural methane seeps on the seafloor, are home to methane-munching microbes, new research finds. What's more, it appears these tiny rock-dwellers may chow down on enough methane to effect global levels of the gas, which can contribute to climate change. "We've recognized for awhile that the deep ocean is a sink for methane, but primarily it has been thought that it was only in the sediment," [Read More]

Tiny Fossil May Be World's Smallest Dinosaur

 Posted on May 25, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  436 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

A new fossil discovery could be the world's smallest known dinosaur — a feathered, birdlike creature that lived more than 100 million years ago and grew no more than 15.7 inches (40 centimeters) long. The fossil, a tiny neck bone found in the southern U.K., is a mere quarter-inch (7.1 millimeters) in length. It belongs to an adult dinosaur that lived in the Cretaceous period 145 million to 100 million years ago, reported University of Portsmouth paleozoologist Darren Naish in the August issue of the journal Cretaceous Research. [Read More]

What the Heck is Hirschsprung Disease?

 Posted on May 25, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  469 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

Dr. Marc Levitt is Surgical Director for the Center for Colorectal and Pelvic Reconstruction at Nationwide Children's Hospital. He contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. One in 5,000 babies is born with Hirschsprung disease. It is a congenital condition in which nerve cells in the colon don't develop properly so the child is born without key nerve cells — nerves responsible for pushing food through the intestines so that it can be digested and passed out of the body. [Read More]

Which U.S. Political Figures Have Been Assassinated?

 Posted on May 25, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  410 words  |  Patria Henriques

Political assassinations have been happening in the United States almost since the country was born. Including the Jan. 8 assassination of U.S. Federal Judge John Roll during a political event held at a Tucson, Ariz. during which Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) was critically injured 34 U.S. public officials in total have been assassinated since the country's inception. Here is the list: Assassinated American Politicians Solomon P. Sharp (1825) Kentucky Attorney General, Kentucky State Senator-elect Charles Bent (1847) Governor of New Mexico TerritoryJames Strang (1856) Michigan State Representative Abraham Lincoln (1865) President of the United StatesJohn P. [Read More]

Why Neurotics Haven't Died Out

 Posted on May 25, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  795 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

How many children people have can be predicted by their personality, at least in certain populations with high birth rates, a new study finds. For women, high levels of neuroticism, a personality trait meaning a tendency to feel anxious and moody, was associated with having more children. Not surprisingly, extroversion was linked to more offspring for men. The study, conducted in Senegal, is one of only a handful to address the questions: Why do human personalities differ to begin with, and how has evolution shaped these traits? [Read More]

'Fish-Eye' Contact Lens Auto-Focuses

 Posted on May 24, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  427 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Imagine wearing a pair of contact lenses that could auto-focus on objects both far and near, giving you a new pair of eyes that don't wear out with age. That goal — inspired by the light-gathering abilities of the retina of the elephant nose fish — took a step closer with a new study published today. Authors say the research could help people with an eyesight condition called presbyopia, a stiffening of the eye's lens that makes it difficult to focus on close objects. [Read More]

5-Minute Tests Predict Suicide Risk

 Posted on May 24, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  925 words  |  Trudie Dory

Two new tests developed by psychologists may one day help doctors predict who is at risk for suicidal behavior, according to two new studies. The tests aim to objectively measure suicide risk, so rather than directly asking someone if they are thinking about killing themselves, the tests are meant to gauge a person's implicit thoughts and feelings about suicide. Scores on the tests were associated with both past and future suicide attempts. [Read More]