|  'Ready Jet Go!' New PBS KIDS Show Brings Space Science Down to Earth  | VENICE, Calif. — PBS KIDS and PBS SoCal touted their new animated series, "Ready Jet Go!," with a first-look screening, live musical performances and a conversation about STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education here at Google's Venice office last month.
| Read More » Deadly beauty: Amber-entombed flower may have been toxic  | A newly identified and exquisitely preserved flower found entombed in amber – fossilized tree sap – may have packed quite a punch. Scientists announced on Monday the discovery of the flower that lived 20 million to 30 million years ago, named Strychnos electri, inside amber dug out of the side of a mountain in the Dominican Republic. According to the researchers, it also likely boasted toxic compounds. The scientists found two examples of the small tubular-shaped flower, measuring roughly four-tenths of an inch (10 mm), in the tan-colored amber, and were amazed at the remarkable state of preservation, among the best of any fossil flower. "These amber pieces are like time capsules, a frozen moment of life that we can now relive and study," Rutgers University botanist Lena Struwe said.
| Read More » Shark Attacks at a Record High in 2015  | Last year was the worst year on record for unprovoked shark attacks, with the predatory fish biting 98 people, according to a new analysis by the International Shark Attack File. The next highest year for shark attacks was 2000, in which 88 people faced unprovoked bites by sharks.
| Read More » Trilobites Were Stone-Cold Killers  | Trilobites were savvy killers who hunted down their prey and used their many legs to wrestle them into submission, newly discovered fossils suggest. A statistical analysis of these burrows and their intersections shows that they cross one another more than expected, a sign that the trilobites were deliberately hunting down their wormy prey. In a subset of those cases, the trilobites seemed to sidle up to the burrows in parallel, perhaps so they could latch onto the worms lengthwise with their row of legs.
| Read More » Cheaper, greener, route to bioplastic By Jim Drury Polylactic acid (PLA) plastic is an increasingly common, environmentally friendly, alternative to conventional petrochemical-based mass plastics. The pre-product is subsequently broken down into building blocks for PLA. Read More » | |
