Consumers’ love for avocados in the United States seems to know no bounds. From 2001 through 2020, consumption of this fruit laden with healthy fats tripled nationwide, rising to over 8 pounds per person yearly.On average, 90% of those avocados are grown in the southwest Mexican state of Michoacán. As with other foods that have become trendy, such as acai berries, or widely used, such as palm oil, intensive avocado production is causing significant environmental damage.My research on 20th-cen ...read more

Paleoanthropologist Briana Pobiner wasn't expecting an ancient revelation during a routine examination of a Paleolithic shin bone in 2017. She observed clean, carved cuts on a human tibia that mirrored processed animal food remains, hinting that a human may have butchered and consumed the bone. And this wasn't a one-off find. Across the English Channel, evidence from the Magdalenian culture echoed Pobiner's find. Here, a staggering 42 percent of prehistoric human bones bore human teeth marks wit ...read more

When a star is born or dies, or when any other very energetic phenomenon occurs in the universe, it emits X-rays, which are high-energy light particles that aren’t visible to the naked eye. These X-rays are the same kind that doctors useto take pictures of broken bones inside the body. But instead of looking at the shadows produced by the bones stopping X-rays inside of a person, astronomers detect X-rays flying through space to get images of events such as black holes and supernovae.Images an ...read more

There's a baby girl gestating in the womb of the equatorial Pacific Ocean, and if she's born without complication, she'll make a big impression all around the world. I'm speaking of the La Niña climate phenomenon. And according to the latest forecast, she stands a 69 percent chance of being born between July and September, pushing aside the almost dead 2023-2024 El Niño. (A new forecast is coming soon.) You can see her developing along the equator in the screenshot above, and in this video: [ ...read more

Bat populations in Colorado may be headed for a decline that could cause ecological disruptions across the state.Two bats discovered in Boulder County in late February 2024 were confirmed to have white-nose syndrome, a deadly fungal disease. Additional bats in Larimer County also tested positive for white-nose syndrome early this spring.The first North American bats with white fungus on their faces, ears and wings were discovered in 2006 in caves where they hibernated near Albany, New York. The ...read more

A leading theory for why primates have bigger brains than other mammals has been debunked. The “fruit-diet theory” contended that foraging ability and intelligence go hand in hand in a sort of fruit-foraging feedback loop. Essentially, it posited that animals with larger brains can find fruit easily, then eating that fruit fuels brain growth, which, in turn boosts foraging ability. But, a study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B that compared larger-brained primates fruit foraging with sm ...read more

Phobos and Deimos are potato-shaped, heavily pock-marked rocks that are gravitationally bound to Mars. They are also two of the strangest moons in the Solar System.For a start, they are tiny compared to their host—Phobos is just 20 kilometers across. They are much less dense than Mars and heavily cratered, suggesting a colorful past. They also have some peculiar features, such as the grooves on the surface of Phobos that stretch for over a kilometer. The puzzle for astronomers is to determine ...read more

More than 53,000 Americans are projected to die from colorectal cancer this year. Although colorectal cancer is the second-most common cause of cancer deaths in the United States, it can be cured if caught early. Detecting a tumor as soon as possible can help you get treatment as soon as possible, giving you the best chance for survival.In my work as a gastroenterologist, I treat patients from every background and walk of life. Uniting them are a growing number of insurance barriers threatening ...read more

When you think of psychedelic drugs like psilocybin or lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), you might imagine an array of mind-boggling visuals. Yet psychoactive substances can be good for more than just a tremendous trip. For thousands of years, they’ve been used to treat psychological disorders and promote well-being. In fact, when taken in small doses, experts say they can even produce comparable effects to antidepressants. Called microdosing, this idea is nothing new, but it’s taken off i ...read more

An EF-4 tornado carved a path of destruction through Greenfield, Iowa, on May 21, 2024. With peak winds of 185 miles per hour, the twister's rampage through the little town is visible in this image captured by the Sentinel 2 satellite on May 25. (Credit: Modified Copernicus Sentinel data processed by Tom Yulsman)It has been quite a spring for twisters in the United States. So far this year, the preliminary tally from the Storm Prediction Center has reached 1,035 tornadoes, with 872 of them occur ...read more