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Flying low, through a truss bridge, under a Union Pacific train, and even in a boxcar are just a few of the stunts a drone pilot shows off in a YouTube video while a UP mixed freight is in motion.
The video went live on Sept. 20 and has already received more than 250,000 views as of Friday morning. The recording shows a double-tracked right-of-way bridging a river near a highway. The location appears to be just south of Verdi, Nev., on former Southern Pacific tracks over ...read more
A change in seasons can mean it’s time to take the sweaters out of the back of your closet, plant your garden, or—if you’re a panda—remake your gut microbiome. Scientists have found that pandas, rather than a summer and winter wardrobe, have different sets of gut bacteria for different seasons. The rotating roster of bugs helps pandas make the most of their drab diet of bamboo, bamboo and more bamboo.
The panda menu does have seasonal variations. Pand ...read more
(Credit: Shuttershock)
You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Don’t give up.” I do, from my mom, all the time, and she’s always led by example. A new study from MIT shows she likely taught me persistence, just from my observing her.
The study reveals that kids as young as 15 months can learn persistence from adults. Of course, this also means adults setting not-so-good examples for kids could be inspiring that same behavior in them. This study is apparen ...read more
Here be drugs. (Credit: Wanna Thongpao/Shutterstock)
Obtaining information about illegal drug use isn’t a simple task. The illicit nature of the subject makes gathering information on the who and the what of drug consumption problematic. Self-reported surveys, a common tool, aren’t always accurate because people aren’t always honest about their drug use.
But reliable information on drug use is a requisite for public health officials, and to gather the kind of detailed data ne ...read more
Love is a battlefield, and in the case of the hooded grebe, that battle takes place on the dance floor. These endangered freshwater divers have a mating ritual that is not only extremely intricate, but also highly entertaining. And lucky for us, we now have it on film.
Not much is known about the hooded grebe, Podiceps gallardoi, as these aquatic birds were discovered only 43 years ago in the frigid waters of Patagonia. Though they tend to keep to themselves, footage of them is incredibly ...read more
A new paper asks why neuroscience hasn’t had more “impact on our daily lives.”
The article, Neuroscience and everyday life: facing the translation problem, comes from Dutch researchers Jolien C. Francken and Marc Slors. It’s a thought-provoking piece, but it left me feeling that the authors are expecting too much from neuroscience. I don’t think insights from neuroscience are likely to change our lives any time soon.
Francken and Slors describe a disconnect betwee ...read more
(Credit: Modern Meadow)
Leather jackets are a must-have in many wardrobes. While some adore genuine leather straight from our bovine buds, others seek alternatives to genuine leather, whether due to price or their stance on animal products. This could be their new go-to substitute: lab-grown leather.
New York-based Modern Meadow has ditched the cow in favor of growing leather in a lab. Growing materials otherwise found in nature isn’t new; we’ve seen scientists working on in vitro ...read more
Watch out dummy, there’s a drone coming at you! (Credit: Virginia Tech)
Thanks to a dummy we now have a better idea of what happens when a drone hits a person’s head.
A study by researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) one of the Federal Aviation Administration’s UAS (unmanned aircraft systems) test sites, suggests that commercial-sized drones can cause a wide range of injuries to people on the ground.
In the United States, drone fligh ...read more
