With record-breaking temperatures across the South, smoke from Canadian wildfires across the North, historic flooding in the Northeast and a powerful hurricane in the Southeast, the summer of 2023 has presented a range of threats to the safety of the majority of Americans. The good news, through all of this: Geospatial intelligence has offered valuable insights to help governments and organizations protect communities.Geospatial intelligence is the collection and integration of data f ...read more

After a sweltering, record-setting summer, what do we have to look forward to? Most likely an even hotter one in 2024, meteorologists say, as the El Niño event in the Pacific peaks and warms the globe even further.As human beings, our survival will depend on our bodies’ ability to regulate our internal temperature. What Is the Normal Temperature for a Human Body?A normal body temperature generally lies somewhere between 97.7 and 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit. If our bodies lose control, very bad th ...read more

Heart in your throat. Butterflies in your stomach. Bad gut feeling. These are all phrases many people use to describe fear and anxiety. You have likely felt anxiety inside your chest or stomach, and your brain usually doesn’t hurt when you’re scared. Many cultures tie cowardice and bravery more to the heart or the guts than to the brain.But science has traditionally seen the brain as the birthplace and processing site of fear and anxiety. Then why and how do you feel these emotions in oth ...read more

It all started because a man named Arif Khan wanted a garden. In 2007, he had recently moved into a house in Portland, Ore., whose backyard was covered in asphalt. Some friends helped him tear up the impervious surface, and soon after, they won a small grant to carry out a similar project in front of a local cafe. “It was a one-off,” said Ted Labbe, co-founder of Depave, an urban greening movement. “But it was so successful that the next year we got solicited to do three projects, and th ...read more

At Vaqueria El Remanso, a small dairy farm west of San Juan, Puerto Rico, the cows are different — they have a freshly shaven, suave look. Their short hair is the result of a natural mutation known as “slick,” which Rafael López-López, who runs El Remanso, has been breeding into his cows for decades.“In hot, humid conditions, the slick cows have an advantage,” López-López said on a scorching spring morning, walking among his herd in the shade of the milking barn. The genetic mut ...read more

At times, it may seem like your dog is possessed, running to and fro, or round in quick, frenzied circles. This sudden burst of energy is actually common behavior, widely known as the zoomies, and is scientifically known as Frenetic Random Activity Periods (FRAPs).“It’s like a sudden outburst which looks like excitement where your dog runs really fast,” says Lili Chin, author of Doggie Language: A dog lover’s guide to understanding your best friend. “They might jump up and down and bar ...read more

Humanity’s ancestors nearly went extinct between 930,000 years and 813,000 years ago, when their numbers dwindled to about 1,280 breeding individuals, according to a new paper.The study blames climatic conditions during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, when encroaching glaciers and drought killed off many of the early humans’ food sources.Generations that lived through the stark 117,000-year period helped to rebuild hominid populations in Europe and Asia to a relatively stable level of about ...read more

Solar and wind power are excellent renewable sources, but they have one big problem: They’re not always available. The wind doesn’t always blow; the sun doesn’t always shine. To keep the power flowing whenever we need it requires batteries, but batteries are expensive and don’t last long. They’re also a waste problem and a hazardous one at that.Fortunately, researchers at MIT have come up with a solution. In a paper published this June, they detailed how they combined cement, water a ...read more

Anyone with a dog probably takes for granted the existence of animal dreams. Watch your pup’s legs pound the air as they yip drowsily, and it’s hard to think of an explanation other than an imaginary mail vehicle chase.To take a less commonplace example, an octopus named Costello was recently caught on camera during what appeared to be a nightmare. Apparently battling an invisible predator, the creature thrashed, shifted color and spewed a cloud of ink.Do Animals Dream?But how can we be sure ...read more

Movies are filled with bullies. In the 1980s, there was that raccoon-hat-wearing terror, Scut Farkus, in A Christmas Story, who made the narrator fear walking home from school. In the early 2000s, Regina George in Mean Girls personified the calculating bully who used verbal abuse and social isolation to harass other students. And Nelson on The Simpsons has bullied others for the last 34 years.Bullying is a common storyline because it’s common in real life. Twenty-two percent of kids ...read more