Alien Life Could Be Hiding Out on Far Fewer Planets Than We Thought

 Posted on May 17, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  655 words  |  Trudie Dory

Where is complex alien life hanging out in the universe? Likely not on planets stewing in toxic gases, according to a new study that dramatically reduces the number of worlds where scientists will have the best luck finding ET. In the past, researchers defined the "habitable zone" based on the distance between the planet and its star; planets that, like Earth, orbit at just the right distance to accommodate temperatures in which liquid water could exist on the planetary surface would be considered " [Read More]

Archaeologists Dig Up Mass Grave of Soldiers Crushed by Napoleon's Troops

 Posted on May 17, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  861 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

DEUTSCH-WAGRAM, Austria —Just under the topsoil of the farm fields in this small town northeast of Vienna, there are traces of one of the biggest battles of the Napoleonic Wars. According to some estimates, 55,000 soldiers died when Napoleon Bonaparte's troops clashed with the Austrian army during the Battle of Wagram between July 5 and 6, 1809. Many of them were buried directly on the plain, and for the first time, archaeologists are systematically excavating the battlefield. [Read More]

Aurora Photos: Northern Lights Dazzle in Night-Sky Images

 Posted on May 17, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  395 words  |  Trudie Dory

Aurora go BraghThis 2008 image, taken in Antarctica, capture's Earth's atmosphere in a St. Paddy's Day mood. Aurora australis, the southern lights, are caused by solar wind passing through the upper atmosphere. The southern lights are seen less often than aurora borealis, the northern lights, because few people brave Antarctica's dark, freezing winters. In the summer, when research scientists descend on the continent, almost-constant daylight overpowers the atmospheric display. [Read More]

Charming Chick Photos: Antarctica's Baby Penguins

 Posted on May 17, 2023  |  1 minutes  |  209 words  |  Trudie Dory

Amazing emperor penguinsA recent visit to a remote emperor penguin colony on East Antarctica's Princess Ragnhild Coast found 15,000 penguins living in four groups, including thousands of cute, fuzzy chicks. The expedition leaders watched penguin parents deliver regurgitated meals to their demanding young, as the entire group slowly waddled toward the open sea 6 miles (10 kilometers) away. Penguin paradeA parade of penguins heads for the sea, to hunt for fish, squid and other marine creatures. [Read More]

Conjoined Twin Girls Successfully Separated

 Posted on May 17, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  517 words  |  Patria Henriques

Conjoined twin girls who shared much of their lower body were successfully separated after a surgery that took 17 hours, their doctors said. The 2-year-old girls, Erika and Eva Sandoval, were born joined from the lower chest downwards, and shared a liver, a bladder and a leg, according to a statement from Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford in Palo Alto, California, where the surgery was performed. They each had their own heart, lungs and stomach, but had some connections within their digestive system, the statement said. [Read More]

Crumbled Tombstones Lead to New View of 1906 Earthquake

 Posted on May 17, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  975 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

The great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was the deadliest in U.S. history. A new map of the event, based in part on crumbled tombstones, shows in detail the extent of ground rumbling and provides lessons for future events. On the morning of April 18, 1906, an earthquake of approximate magnitude 7.8 erupted, with an epicenter near the where the Golden Gate Bridge would later be built. It was felt 400 miles away in Los Angeles and in Winnemucca, Nevada. [Read More]

Ghostly Faces and Invisible Verse Found in Medieval Text

 Posted on May 17, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  803 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Ghostly faces and lines of verse previously invisible to the naked eye have been uncovered in the oldest surviving medieval manuscript written entirely in Welsh. "The Black Book of Carmarthen," dating to 1250, contains texts from the ninth through 12th centuries, including some of the earliest references to Arthur and Merlin. "It's easy to think we know all we can know about a manuscript like the 'Black Book,' but to see these ghosts from the past brought back to life in front of our eyes has been incredibly exciting," [Read More]

Illegal Drugs Are Cheaper, Stronger than Ever

 Posted on May 17, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  532 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Cocaine, heroin and marijuana have become cheaper and stronger over the past two decades, despite increases in drug seizures by authorities fighting the global illegal drug market, a new study found. The researchers looked at seven international drug surveillance databases to examine how the purity and price of illegal drugs changed between 1990 and 2009. In the United States, the average purity of heroin, cocaine and marijuana increased by 60, 11, and 160 percent respectively, between 1990 and 2007, while the prices of these drugs, adjusted for inflation and purity, fell about 80 percent. [Read More]

In Photos: The Life of a Gelada Baboon

 Posted on May 17, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  222 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Always EatingFor a brief second, a young gelada female interrupts her foraging to stare into the camera. These Ethiopian monkeys have to eat throughout the day to obtain enough nutrients from their primary food source, alpine grass. Fighting For a GalTwo adult male geladas get into a loud fight over access to females. In the treacherous terrain of the Simien Mountains National Park these fights can sometimes be deadly. [Read More]

Lasers Measure Earth's Rotation and Wobble

 Posted on May 17, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  596 words  |  Trudie Dory

The Earth spins around once every 24 hours on its axis, creating the continuous cycle of day and night. But this rotation isn't as straightforward as it sounds: Forces large and small cause the Earth to wobble as it spins. This wobbling can pose a problem for navigation systems like GPS. Scientists working with lasers and mirrors are refining a new system to track the Earth's rotation and its kinks. [Read More]