You probably know them, even if you don’t love them. They pop up on social media and in text messages — how else would you share your Wordle score without giving away the solution? — and have even infiltrated advertisements and work emails. In 2015, the Oxford Dictionary chose one as its “word” of the year.We’re talking, of course, about emojis. The colorful pictographs are superb substitutes for those things that are sometimes lost in text-based communication: emotions, body langu ...read more

A new paper proposes that the universe's first stars were about as different from twinkling, sunlike stars as you can get. These "dark stars," it argues, were fueled by huge globs of annihilating dark matter and seeded the galaxies we see today.Strange as they are, such stellar bodies explain one of the newer mysteries in astronomy.In December 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope identified three ancient galaxies as part of its JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES). These distant, deep ...read more

This article was originally published on Nexus Media News.Duke Riley started out making maritime crafts, like sailor’s valentines and scrimshaws, entirely out of shells, bones and other natural materials that washed ashore on the beaches of Cape Cod, Massachusetts and greater New York. Then, on a walk in 2017, he picked up what he thought was a piece of bone. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was a plastic brush used for scrubbing boats. The moment marked a turning point in his practi ...read more

Ancient Egyptian painters produced some of the most recognizable art of ancient times. Yet, even for their exactitude and memorable iconography, they sometimes made an oops and had to paint a do-over, according to a new study that scanned ancient paintings using X-ray imaging.The paper by researchers from France, Belgium, Egypt and the U.S. aimed a macro X-ray fluorescence imaging (XRF) machine at two paintings to analyze revisions made to them and what they mean. Read More: The Mummification Pr ...read more

Dogs may be known as man’s best friend, but they can also form close bonds with members of their own species – and even grieve the death of their canine companions.A 2022 study of 426 pet dogs found that following the death of a household dog, the surviving dog often exhibited behavior changes. Increased “attention seeking” topped the list, as well as lethargy, fearfulness, decreased appetite and more vocalization. “Do dogs grieve the passing of another dog? Some do, but not all of th ...read more

Antihistamines like diphenhydramine — the active ingredient in Benadryl, Tylenol PM and many cold medicines — are prescribed and sold over the counter to combat allergic reactions, dry up congestion and aid sleep. While these drugs are useful, they also leave users feeling confused, sleepy and dizzy. This much is apparent from the inside sticker on a bottle of Benadryl tablets, which warns that “drowsiness may occur” and to “be careful when driving a motor vehicle.” However, another, ...read more

When dogs give birth, they call it whelping. For horses, the term is foaling and for cows it’s calving. But when a cat gets pregnant, veterinarians and breeders use the term queening to refer to the process of feline birth. Of course they do: An expectant cat — the queen herself — wouldn’t have it any other way.But how long does the queen reign? How long are cats pregnant? How can you tell if your cat is pregnant — and for that matter, how can you tell how far along they are? Here’s ...read more

When meeting potential partners, some of us are more aloof or act uninterested.Charles Darwin noted this idea of playing hard-to-get in regards to mating back in 1871, which some have interpreted as coyness. This term, as defined by the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, refers to “the fact of being shy or of pretending to be shy and innocent, especially about love or sex, and sometimes in order to make people more interested in you.”Sound familiar? Research has actually documented this behavior ...read more

A new fossil discovery bolsters an idea first proposed in 2005: Early mammals that lived during the Cretaceous Period were not just shrinking violets, little shrews hiding in the shadows of dinosaurs. As the new thinking goes, some of the mammals were predators themselves that attacked and ate small dinosaurs and their young.The new fossil from China shows a small, badger-like predator, a Repenomamus robustus, on top of a Psittacosaurus, a beaked herbivorous dinosaur about the size of a large do ...read more

When a parent smacks a child’s hand or swats their butt, they may think they’ve merely “spanked” their child. So it might be surprising to learn that scholars actually refer to these spanks as “corporal punishment.”Parents might also find it unsettling to learn that some scholars have described spanking as most children’s “first experience of being the victim of a deliberate physical attack.”Scientists are trying to understand more about childhood spanking and how it affects ...read more