|  Lucky bug eluded eternal entombment in 50 million-year-old amber  | An Oregon State University scientist on Thursday described a remarkable piece of amber -fossilized tree sap - containing a mushroom, a strand of mammalian hair and the recently shed exoskeleton of an insect that got away from the oozing sticky stuff in the nick of time, escaping eternal entombment. The tiny bug looks similar to insects alive today known as walking sticks, whose stick-like appearance provides camouflage that helps keep them safe from hungry birds and other predators. "The mushroom was growing at the base of a tree," Oregon State entomologist and amber expert George Poinar said.
| Read More » First Ever? Discovery of Philistine Cemetery Draws Criticism  | A 3,000-year-old graveyard with the bones of about 200 individuals discovered in Ashkelon, Israel, is being hailed as the first (and only) Philistine cemetery ever found. If valid, the finding would reveal more about a mysterious people known as the Philistines. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Philistines came from the Aegean Sea region, along with other groups of people, during the 12th century B.C, at a time when cities and civilizations in Greece and the Middle East were collapsing.
| Read More » 'Extinct' Volcano Near Rome Rumbles to Life  | A volcano outside Rome, long thought extinct, is rumbling to life. Colli Albani is a volcanic complex of hills located 19 miles (30 kilometers) from the center of Rome. There are no historical records of eruptions from Colli Albani, so it was long thought to be extinct, according to the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
| Read More » 'Snowfox' GPS Phone Helps Parents Keep Tabs on Young Kids  | A new, screenless phone for young kids could help parents stay in touch with their children, without the adults having to worry that their kids are glued to smartphones. The new device, called Snowfox, also comes equipped with a GPS tracker, letting parents know where their kids are, while helping children learn independence by letting them roam to places where they are allowed. Snowfox's battery and low-power electronics let it operate for a week on a single charge, according to the company.
| Read More » These Ducks Aren't Lame — They Can Think Abstractly  | Ducklings can wrap their tiny brains around ideas like "same" and "different" even when they're scarcely more than 24 hours old, a new study finds. In a new study, newly hatched ducklings were shown paired objects that either matched each other in shape or color, or differed from each other. The researchers found that the ducklings were able to recognize and respond to other objects that were similarly grouped, a mere 30 minutes later.
| Read More » Fish Venom Unveiled: Toxins Evolved Many Times, Study Shows  | More than 2,000 species of fish are venomous, and a new analysis of these animals shows that the most common way they deliver their venom is through spines on their backs. The research, which analyzed the evolution of venom and its delivery mechanisms among freshwater and saltwater fish, also found that venom glands arose 18 separate times among fish. "For the first time ever, we looked at the evolution of venom across all fishes," lead author William Leo Smith, assistant curator at the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute, said in a statement.
| Read More » Zika Outbreak Could Be Over in 3 Years, Study Predicts The current Zika outbreak taking place in much of South and Central America will be largely over in three years' time, a new study predicts. "The current explosive epidemic will burn itself out due to a phenomenon called herd immunity," Neil Ferguson, a professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London's School of Public Health, said in a statement. "Because the virus is unable to infect the same person twice — thanks to the immune system generating antibodies to kill it — the epidemic reaches a stage where there are too few people left to infect for transmission to be sustained," Ferguson said. Read More » Paper in a Top Medical Journal Has Unexpected Author: Barack Obama In an unusual move for a sitting president, Barack Obama has published a scholarly paper in a scientific journal. The paper, which discusses the success and future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), was published Monday (July 11) in the prestigious medical journal JAMA. It may be the first time a sitting president has authored a complete academic article — with an abstract, findings and conclusions — that's been published in a scientific journal, at least in recent history. Read More » | |
