Another day, another over-hyped sex differences neuroscience study. The headlines this time around are especially cringeworthy:
Study Finds Women’s Brains Are Far More Active Than Men’s
Women Are Using A LOT More Of Their Brains Than Men. Surprise, surprise 😏
Women really DO overthink things! Scans reveal they have ‘more active brains than men’
The paper in question was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and it comes from a group led by Dr. D ...read more
The Lina biodegradable car. (Credit: Eindhoven University)
A concept car in the Netherlands is constructed almost entirely of materials the grow in the soil.
Called “Lina,” the biodegradable car is the work of students at Eindhoven University of Technology and is composed mainly of sugar beet resin and flax. It weighs in at under 700 pounds and can reach a top speed of around 50 miles per hour. The four-seater runs on batteries and can go about 60 miles on a single charge ...read more
(Credit: Shutterstock)
Some 4,000 years ago in the Russian steppe, the relationship between man and dog was, you could say, complicated.
It seems in that time and place, as a rite of passage into manhood, teenage boys were sent to a ritual site to “transform” into dogs by eating their flesh.
This is the new interpretation, presented in an upcoming paper in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, of roasted and chopped bones from at least 64 dogs and wolves, found at the Bronze ...read more
A demonstration of the icebreaking testing taking place at the National Research Council of Canada in St. Johns, Newfoundland and Labrador. Credit: CNW Group/National Research Council Canada
Imagine your childhood bathtub playtime magnified into large model ships plowing through an ice-filled tank with a length that rivals the Statue of Liberty’s height. That 300-foot ice tank in the Canadian city of St. John’s is currently helping the U.S. Coast Guard cond ...read more
Solar eclipse. Credit: Luc Viatour (CC-BY-SA)
On August 21st, millions of people across the U.S. will have the opportunity to witness a total solar eclipse. But we won’t be the only ones taking notice—there is a good chance animals, and even some plants, will be affected by the event, too.
It is not as farfetched as you might think. Many animals and plants respond to daily changes in light and temperature. Birds sing at dawn while fireflies come out at twilight. Flowers like m ...read more
A collection of helminth eggs seen under a microscope. (Credit: By Jarun Ontakrai/Shutterstock)
In Germany, treatments for disease may entail adding a vial of parasitic worms to a meal or beverage.
The country’s food and consumer safety organization is set to weigh in on the relative merits of parasitic worms as a treatment for a range of autoimmune disorders. So called “helminthic therapies” have been slowly gaining ground in the past two decades or so, although the scientif ...read more
On Aug. 21, the dark inner part of the moon’s shadow will sweep across the United States, creating a total solar eclipse for regions in 14 states. But, you may ask, the sun is so much larger than the moon, so how does this work? While our daytime star has a diameter about 400 times larger than that of the moon, it also lies roughly 400 times farther away. This means both disks appear to be the same size, so at certain times from certain locations, the moon can completely cover the sun.
Be ...read more
There, off in the distance: It’s a mountain … it’s a hill … it’s a pingo! These mounds may appear mundane, but beneath their earthy exterior is a core of ice. Sometimes called hydrolaccoliths, pingos typically form in arctic regions, like Siberia and northern Canada. In such frigid climates, groundwater collects and freezes, amassing ice beneath the surface that eventually forces the ground up. They can reach heights of over 170 feet, and if the core melts, they c ...read more
Lava melts ice, right? It seems like a no-brainer, but it’s not quite that simple.
Benjamin Edwards, a geologist at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Penn., has explored scores of volcanoes in British Columbia, Iceland, South America and Russia. His specialty is studying what happens when flowing lava meets ice and snow.Figuring out this interaction helps Edwards and his team understand a volcano’s climate history and better estimate flooding in nearby communities when snowcapped volcan ...read more
