It's hard to keep up with the latest fads and wellness crazes. But a new online trend —mewing — is sweeping social media and attracting a lot of attention. More than just a new slang term, "mewing" describes a quick-fix method for facial reconstruction, meant to make an individual's jawline look tighter and more sculpted, among other benefits. The phenomenon has surged on social media platforms like TikTok, where influencers post how-to videos that attract hundreds of millions of views. Yet ...read more

Light sensitive pixels and the cameras they make possible have transformed modern life. Cameras are pervasive. Smartphones often have several, streets, shops and businesses — even our homes--bristle with them. Humans have become used to the idea that they are constantly recorded by these devices every time they leave their house and often while they are within it. But the ubiquity of cameras has limits and one of them is eye tracking. The ability to track the position and angle of the eyeball ...read more

On March 10, Godzilla Minus One won an Oscar for visual effects. The titan reptile has demolished Tokyo and other major cities worldwide several times in movies and has inspired generations of filmmakers and paleontologists—so much so that there are fossils named in homage to Godzilla. The fictional radioactive reptile is also the subject of fun discussion among paleontologists on what type of dinosaur it would fall under.Although Godzilla is a product and a metaphor for the atomic bombings of ...read more

If you suffer from chronic sinusitis — a condition that affects more than 10 percent of the U.S. population — a stuffy nose and postnasal drip may be the least of your worries. Research has uncovered a link between chronic sinusitis and cognitive deficits — or, as most people who have this problem call it, “brain fog.”What Is Brain Fog? Brain fog is not a clinical term but a colloquial one, explains Aria Jafari, a surgeon and an assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology� ...read more

Do you actually know which ingredients are in dietary supplements? Studies show that everything from bacteria and drugs, both prescription and unapproved, to heavy metals like lead can be found in supplements. Some products, like CBD, suffer from “underdosing,” in which the active ingredient measured in the supplement is less than what the label claims.Makers of supplements do not have to submit their product for approval or for quality control, and regulators that hamstring the Federal Drug ...read more

A group of little-studied deep-sea-dwelling orcas sometimes rams prey and catapults sea lions, according to a report in PLOS ONE.Those observations by scientists from the University of British Columbia Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries (IOF) are notable because deep-water-grazing orcas may represent a new subcategory of killer whales, according to another study in Aquatic Mammals. Orca categories — called ecotypes — include residents, transients, and offshores. The “deep-water-transie ...read more

You can tell a lot about a civilization from the way it built its boats.An analysis of five canoes constructed over 7,000 years ago, found at the bottom of Lake Bracciono near Rome, highlights techniques that indicate a well-organized society with specialists. Some details also hint that residents of the Neolithic lakeshore village of La Marmotta possessed navigation skills, according to a report in PLOS ONE.Niccolò Mazzucco, an archaeologist from the University of Pisa, studied the boats. “T ...read more

The pygmy right whale looks like a miniature version of a baleen whale, hence the name “pygmy.” It’s the smallest of the filter-feeding whales, weighing in at just under 1,000 pounds. Rarely observed and shy by nature, it’s found in the temperate waters of the Southern Hemisphere.The pygmy has long been called a right whale because people thought that it looked like one, but many researchers have long disputed this notion because of a number of differences. For example, the pygmy right w ...read more

Author Tom Vanderbilt politely congratulated his opponent after losing to him during a chess tournament. The victor was an eight-year-old boy who sipped chocolate milk from a little box with a straw during the round. Vanderbilt, then approaching age 50, humbly updated the tournament director with the results. Learning chess was one of the experiences Vanderbilt chronicled in his book Beginners: The Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning (he also learned juggling, singing, and surfing) ...read more

Earlier this year, a team of scientists made a splash when they revealed a remarkable new find — a complete skeleton of a 16-foot-long aquatic reptile, dubbed a "Chinese dragon" due to its serpentine appearance and exceptionally long neck. The species, Dinocephalosaurus orientalis, swam the seas during the Triassic period, and the fossil itself dates back 240 million years. The fossil has fascinated — and baffled — scientists and the public alike. But previous fossil discoveries, as well a ...read more