Doctors and the public incorrectly diagnose countless suspicious red bumps and rashes as spider bites every year.Of these, much of the blame falls on the brown recluse, a somewhat drab, venomous spider native to parts of the U.S. Yet, brown recluse bites are actually quite rare, says Rick Vetter, a retired professor of entomology at the University of California Riverside. These misdiagnoses not only unfairly demonize spiders minding their own business, but they can also distract from other seri ...read more
The Trinity Nuclear Test on 16 July 1945 is a key incident in the blockbuster Oppenheimer movie and in the history of humankind. Many scientists think it marks the beginning of the Anthropocene, a new geological era characterized by humanity’s influence on the Earth. That’s because Trinity’s radioactive fallout will forever appear in the geological record, creating a unique signature of human activity that can be precisely dated. But there’s a problem. In 1945, radioactive monitoring te ...read more
The sci-fi landscape is littered with wormholes. From Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Rick and Morty to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, these theoretical constructs allow characters to zip between distant points in the universe as easy as stepping through a doorway. An Einstein-Rosen bridge is the simplest kind of wormhole. And while it can, in theory, allow you to meet a new friend from a distant part of the universe, there are some important reasons why it won’t let you tr ...read more
It hurts to know that someone you care about on the other end of a text, phone call or email has gotten your message and chosen not to reply. Whether it's a potential romantic partner, a friend or a family member, when relationships become uneven, it cuts at our very core. Being "ghosted" isn't anything new, but it's made worse in a world of instant messaging, online dating and social media. Experts say this can impact our mental health in ways we might not even realize.What Does It Mean To Be ...read more
If you've ever experienced the slobbery kisses of your furry friend or been baffled by your pup licking the carpet incessantly, you may have wondered what the meaning is behind a dog’s licks. Dogs have their own ways of interacting with the world, and licking is a multitool in their behavioral toolkit. While generally a normal dog behavior, licking can also indicate underlying health problems in your canine companion. Licking Starts at BirthFrom the time they’re born, puppies receive countle ...read more
Although Lewy body dementia is one of the most common forms of dementia, it’s not exactly a household term, and many people are unfamiliar with it. In the past, many clinicians have also not known much about it or how it’s distinct from other dementia types.One advocate described how he researched dementia after his wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 1999. He told her physicians he believed his wife had Lewy body dementia and worried her treatment plan might be harmful. Her c ...read more
Arguably, one of the defining features of humanity is our curiosity. We’ve built microscopes to peek into the world of the very small, and we’ve built telescopes to see the world of the very large.And though the natural world is often the subject of our curiosity, so are other people — and even ourselves. When someone tells you they have a secret, for example, you can’t help but wonder what they might be concealing.But is our propensity for curiosity really that unique? Isn’t curiosity ...read more
The most significant paleological discovery to hit Maryland in 100 years – the uncovering of a historic "bone bed" – was announced earlier this month.But getting to the bottom of the fossil collection and documenting it all took researchers about 10 years.Discovering the FossilsIn 2013, an employee at Dinosaur Park – a small fossil preserve in Laurel, Maryland – first spotted something blue-green buried in the ground. The former riverbed and mining site had a long history of fossil finds ...read more
English, like the vast majority of languages, is spatially egocentric. We speak of bending over backward, walking forward, turning left and right — whenever we describe space, we do so with relation to ourselves.Grammatically, we take for granted our own centrality. But not all languages operate this way.If you were to ask the way to the supermarket in Hopevale, Australia, the Aboriginal residents wouldn’t dream of offering a confusing series of “lefts” and “rights.” In their native ...read more
Sabretooth cats, known for their elongated and sharp teeth resembling a canine, were found across the planet from the Eocene to the Pleistocene Epoch, between 56 million years to 11,700 years ago. And now, paleontologists discovered two new species of sabretooth cat after re-analyzing a collection of fossils in Langebaanweg, South Africa.The collection is the largest global assortment of Pliocene fossils containing various late Cainozoic fossil vertebrates and invertebrates. They are housed at t ...read more
