Month: October 2021
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A new mathematical equation describes bird eggs of all shapes
For years, scientists have tried to crack a mathematical mystery: Is there an equation that can perfectly describe each and every bird egg? Variable shell shapes complicated things. But it turns out the answer is simple. A formula using just four easily measured dimensions can calculate the shape of any avian egg, be it round…
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Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Measured in Depth for the First Time – Space & Physics | Weizmann Wonder Wander
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is up there with the rings of Saturn and the blue marble of Earth for solar system icon status. In a study published today in Science, Weizmann Institute of Science researchers and their collaborators on NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter report that this spot – really a giant, persistent storm –…
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Genetic study on the origins of the Tarim Basin mummies | HeritageDaily
Buried in boat coffins in an otherwise barren desert, the Tarim Basin mummies have long puzzled scientists and inspired numerous theories as to their enigmatic origins. Since the late 1990s, the discovery of hundreds of naturally mummified human remains dating from around 2,000 BC to AD 200 in the region’s Tarim Basin has attracted international…
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How to delete your Facebook account
Facebook is still popular, with around 3 billion users logging in each month, but there’s no doubt some are there for a single purpose: to delete their account. If you’ve decided you can no longer be associated with a platform that has struggled to effectively manage hate speech and misinformation, are just learning about whistleblower…
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Causes of recurrent UTIs include antibiotics
Our increased use of antibiotics is making urinary tract infections and recurrent UTIs harder to treat. Pixabay This post has been updated. It was originally published on August 23, 2017. Urinary tract infections are insanely common. Alone, they make up almost 25 percent of all infections, and more than half of women will get at…
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3D printing and AR solve dinosaur fossil mystery
In the 1960s, Australian coal miners stumbled across huge, bird-life footprints protruding from the ceiling of their subterranean work site in south-eastern Queensland. The marks, more than a foot long, belonged to a creature that trekked across swampy land around 250 million years ago. They sent paleontologists into a tizzy, who though the tracks belonged to…
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Dinosaurs who stuck together, survived together
During the early Jurassic Period, some 200 million years ago, the only large herbivores in many ecosystems were long-necked dinosaurs called sauropodomorphs. These reptiles were the forerunners of the gargantuan sauropods, the group that included Brachiosaurus and Brontosaurus. A well-populated breeding ground in southern Patagonia hints at one reason early sauropodomorphs were so successful: They…
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Map of Earth’s Asteroid and Meteor Impact Craters | HeritageDaily
Impact craters are caused when the planet is struck by solid objects travelling at high velocity, producing shock waves and the compression of material to form a circular crater. In impacts with large objects, material can be displaced and ejected to form a crater when significant volumes of excavated material from both the object and…
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Why do my muscles ache the day after a big workout?
This post has been updated. It was originally published on July 31, 2017. Ever woken up the day after a workout and wondered what you did to deserve such pain? I’m talking about muscle soreness. That pain can stem from several sources, and understanding what’s behind yours will help you best remedy it—and find ways…
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After the dinosaurs, Earth became an all-you-can-eat buffet for snakes
When it comes to snakes, the modern world offers an embarrassment of riches. There are almost 4,000 different snake species alive today, placing the group not far behind mammals in terms of diversity. The snakes are also varied in the types of food they prefer to consume: Some feast only on earthworms, while others can…