Are you looking for gift ideas for that curious person in your life...or yourself?Check out these tools for birdwatchers, skygazers, and weather enthusiasts. They relate to projects on SciStarter that help advance research.These are gifts that keep on giving!Credit: Hachette PublishingWant to get your friends and family hooked on citizen science? The Field Guide to Citizen Science, co-authored by SciStarter founder Darlene Cavalier, is an accessible introduction. It contains tips on getting star ...read more
It’s estimated that 10 million Americans — and many more worldwide — suffer from a condition known as lymphedema — a swelling of various parts of the body caused by fluid blockage in the lymphatic system.Like many health conditions, lymphedema and lymphatic blockage are the targets of various consumer products that claim to provide relief and improvement in symptoms. Devices that range from pumps to vibration plates can be bought and used by anyone, but do these products actually work? A ...read more
Parents of angsty teens have almost certainly heard this line at least once: I didn’t ask to be born.For fish embryos, communication about their impending birth appears quite the opposite. A report in Science details how fish-in-the-making play an active role in determining their delivery.A Fish Embryo Decides When to HatchSuch timing is crucial to baby fish — indeed, to all egg-laying species. Controlling one’s own hatch ensures that the embryo emerges as a newborn, fully developed and re ...read more
Everyday physical activity, like going for a short walk or playing with the kids, may provide short-term benefits for cognitive health, equivalent to reversing four years of cognitive aging. That was a key finding for my colleagues and me in our new study, which was published in the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine.Prior to enrollment into a study of diet and dementia risk, we asked a diverse sample of 204 middle-aged adults to check in five times per day for a period of nine days via a sma ...read more
As the H5N1 avian flu virus continues to spread in poultry flocks and dairy cattle, consumers may worry about whether the U.S. milk supply is safe to drink. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the answer is yes, as long as the milk is pasteurized.In late November 2024, however, California regulators recalled two batches of raw, unpasteurized milk from a Fresno dairy farm after bird flu virus was detected in the milk. The dairy subsequently recalled all of its raw milk and cream p ...read more
Child development specialists often evaluate a patient’s ability to complete tasks involving multiple steps. It turns out, many chimpanzees would pass these tests with flying colors, according to a report in the journal PeerJ.“We find objective evidence that wild chimpanzees break down technical tasks into manageable subtasks, and address these subtasks one-by-one, similarly to humans,” says Elliot Howard-Spink, an author of the study. He performed the research while at Oxford, but now is ...read more
Among all space mysteries, the creation of the universe’s grandest galaxies is among the most mystifying, but new research has brought astronomers one step closer to deciphering this phenomenon. A study published in Nature details the process that spawned immense galaxies, which could help unravel the evolution of the universe since the beginning of time. Exploring the Origins of Elliptical GalaxiesThe study — a collaboration between the University of Southampton, China’s Purple Mountain ...read more
The NASA project NEOWISE, which has given astronomers a detailed view of near-Earth objects – some of which could strike the Earth – ended its mission and burned on reentering the atmosphere after over a decade.On a clear night, the sky is full of bright objects – from stars, large planets, and galaxies to tiny asteroids flying near Earth. These asteroids are commonly known as near-Earth objects, and they come in a wide variety of sizes. Some are tens of kilometers across or larger, while ...read more
About 100 million years ago, a sparrow-sized microraptorian (a long-lost cousin of modern birds) sped across the landscape of modern-day South Korea, leaving behind a mysterious set of footprints with surprisingly long strides. Now, paleontologists suggest that the species used a unique type of aerial motion: flap-running. Published in a study in the journal PNAS in October, the findings may improve our understanding of the origins of flight.“It had only two toes on each foot, and that’s wha ...read more
Every galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its center, much like every egg has a yolk. But sometimes, hens lay eggs with two yolks. In a similar way, astrophysicists like uswho study supermassive black holes expect to find binary systems – two supermassive black holes orbiting each other – at the hearts of some galaxies.Black holes are regions of space where gravity is so strong that not even light can escape from their vicinity. They form when the core of a massive star collapses on itse ...read more
