Will Canine Distemper Wipe Out Rare Tigers?

 Posted on July 8, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  453 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Tiger populations around the world are under siege from habitat destruction and poaching, but a deadly new threat now has conservationists worried: canine distemper virus, or CDV. The easily spread disease was once confined to dogs, but in recent decades, the virus has mutated to a form that can infect other mammals, such as seals, raccoons, hyenas and big cats, John Lewis, director of Wildlife Vets International, told the BBC. [Read More]

Are Earth's magnetic poles about to swap places? Strange anomaly gives clues.

 Posted on July 7, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  914 words  |  Patria Henriques

Deep inside the Earth, liquid iron is flowing and generating the Earth's magnetic field, which protects our atmosphere and satellites against harmful radiation from the sun. This field changes over time, and also behaves differently in different parts of the world. The field can even change polarity completely, with the magnetic north and south poles switching places. This is called a reversal and last happened 780,000 years ago. Between South America and southern Africa, there is an enigmatic magnetic region called the South Atlantic Anomaly, where the field is a lot weaker than we would expect. [Read More]

Bird-Eating Spiders: 3 Massive, Furry Tarantulas Discovered

 Posted on July 7, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  561 words  |  Fernande Dalal

Three new species of massive, furry "birdeater" spiders have been discovered, with dozens more stricken from the grouping. In a new paper published in the open-access journal ZooKeys, researchers cleaned house on the genus Avicularia, a group of hairy tarantula spiders that was, in the words of lead study author Caroline Sayuri Fukushima, "a huge mess." Fukushima, a researcher at the Instituto Butantan in São Paulo, Brazil, and her colleagues sorted out the genus, which was first described in 1818. [Read More]

Can the Pain Medication Ketamine Also Relieve Depression?

 Posted on July 7, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  777 words  |  Patria Henriques

Ketamine, a drug that is used primarily as an anesthetic and pain reliever, may show some promise as a potential treatment for depression, a new study suggests. Ketamine is not an approved treatment for depression, but the researchers at the University of California, San Diego used a novel approach to study whether the drug exhibits an antidepressant effect: They looked at symptoms of depression reported by people who had been given ketamine as a treatment for chronic pain, and compared them with depression symptoms in people who were given other pain medications, according to the findings published yesterday (May 3) in the journal Scientific Reports. [Read More]

Gallery: Life of the Costa Rica Margin Hydrothermal Seep

 Posted on July 7, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  214 words  |  Trudie Dory

Beauty of a Tube WormLamellibrachia barhami, a species of tubeworm that lives at both hydrothermal vents and methane seeps. This ‘foundation’ species forms giant bushes and massive meadows at Jaco Scar on the Costa Rica Margin. Tube Worm BushMussels and tube worms cluster together in enormous bushes around the Costa Rica margin 'hydrothermal seep.' Researchers estimate that more than 14,000 tube worms make up this enormous bush. Meadows of Tube WormsAt the methane-rich hydrothermal site, tube worms dominate the landscape. [Read More]

Greatest Mysteries: What Makes a Scientist?

 Posted on July 7, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  704 words  |  Patria Henriques

Editor's Note: We asked several scientists from various fields what they thought were the greatest mysteries today, and then we added a few that were on our minds, too. This article is the first of 15 in LiveScience's "Greatest Mysteries" series to run each weekday. The scientist's job is to figure out how the world works, to "torture" Nature to reveal her secrets, as the 17th century philosopher Francis Bacon described it. [Read More]

Hiking with Kids: 7 Tips for Getting Outside this Summer

 Posted on July 7, 2023  |  10 minutes  |  2094 words  |  Fernande Dalal

It's a battle many parents know well: getting their kids off the iPad and into the great outdoors during summer break. The solution, according to researchers and outdoor advocates? Take a hike — even one close to home. Getting the most out of the outdoors doesn't require a weeklong backpacking trip. And for many families, this summer will be the perfect time to launch an outdoor adventure: The White House's Every Kid in a Park initiative is offering every family of a fourth-grader free access to national parks, forests and wildlife refuges this year. [Read More]

How Long You Sleep May Be in Your Genes

 Posted on July 7, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  581 words  |  Arica Deslauriers

The amount of time people spend sleeping is linked with two regions of their DNA, a new study suggests. In the study, researchers examined data from more than 47,000 people of European ancestry who were participating in ongoing studies in Europe, the United States and Australia, and nearly 5,000 African-Americans. The researchers compared people's genetic information with how long they reported sleeping on an average night. The results revealed two regions of DNA that might be related to how long a person usually sleeps. [Read More]

Kids' Lack of Sleep a Century-Old Problem, Study Finds

 Posted on July 7, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  702 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Parents the world over have been worrying about whether their children get enough sleep for more than a century, a new study shows.  The study also found that, even as recommendations about how much sleep kids need have changed since the late 1800s, studies have shown that kids get less sleep than recommended. "We were surprised that over the last century, the actual amount of sleep that children are getting was consistently about 37 minutes less than what was recommended for them," [Read More]

Lego's NASA Apollo Saturn V Is 20% Off for Cyber Monday

 Posted on July 7, 2023  |  3 minutes  |  571 words  |  Trudie Dory

NASA's Apollo 11 moon landing celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, and Lego set the stage with this epic Saturn V moon rocket set, which is on sale now for 30% off via the Lego online store.  TheLego Ideas NASA Apollo Saturn V set is on sale for $95.99,(opens in new tab) down from its normal $119.99. The 1969-piece includes a towering Saturn V moon rocket that stands more than 39 inches (100 cm) tall and can be displayed upright or horizontal on an included stand. [Read More]