In recent years, the Great Lakes have been subject to some wild rumors, including the claim that a mysterious force, the supposed Great Lakes Triangle, was responsible for ships vanishing. Scientists countered that most shipwrecks actually occurred outside of the fictional triangle and were accounted for in a database.Such spooktacular stories may soon be put to rest. In 2019, the U.S. began a seafloor mapping initiative that included the Great Lakes. The project should be able to take note of s ...read more

With so many elusive creatures occupying the forgotten corners of Earth, scientists are always knee-deep in mysteries that form the fabric of the animal kingdom. A big part of the puzzle is understanding how certain animals have developed distinct characteristics from ancestors that lived hundreds of millennia ago; for one group of animals, Ecdysozoa, the debate surrounding the ancient evolution of their nervous systems is now settled thanks to a new study published in Science Advances. What Ar ...read more

There aren’t many comets that are visible to observers without binoculars or telescopes. But one may be coming, and coming soon. Dubbed the "New Years Comet" for its imminent arrival, Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) is currently traveling closer and closer to the center of our Solar System, and is set to come closest on Monday, January 13, 2025. The comet will theoretically be brightest to observers on and around that date, with the best chances of catching it being in the Southern Hemisphere. A South ...read more

Paleontologists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have uncovered Ahvaytum bahndooiveche, in modern-day Wyoming. This find is monumental, as it could indicate that dinosaurs inhabited the northern hemisphere millions of years earlier than previously thought, according to the findings published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. "We have, with these fossils, the oldest equatorial dinosaur in the world — it's also North America's oldest dinosaur," said Dave Lovelace, a rese ...read more

The curved teeth of the saber-tooth tiger represents an evolutionary paradox. Gaining its trademark curved fangs made it functionally optimal for piercing the flesh of its prey. But that level of evolutionary specialization may have also contributed to the big cat's demise about 10,000 years ago, according to a new study published in Current Biology. “Our study helps us better understand how extreme adaptations evolve – not just in saber-toothed predators but across nature,” Tahlia Pollock ...read more

Chimps are amazingly adaptable. Unlike other nonhuman primates, they live in a variety of habitats and have developed different behaviors to thrive in them. A recent study now shows that chimps also adjust genetically to environmentally specific challenges. Perhaps most notably, forest chimps have shown changes in the same genes known to help fight malaria in humans, according to a study in the journal Science. The study has implications for both chimp conservation and human health. “The fact ...read more

A dementia diagnosis for a loved one is something that causes great anxiety in families, and those feelings are often compounded by decisions surrounding nursing home care. A new study addresses life expectancy after a dementia diagnosis and establishes estimates on when those who are diagnosed are usually admitted to a nursing home.The study, recently published in the medical journal The BMJ, acts as a systematic review of previous studies on survival from dementia diagnosis and nursing home ad ...read more

The headline in the L.A. Times says it all: 5 dead, more than 1,100 structures destroyed as firestorm besieges L.A. County By the time you are reading this, the devastation will almost certainly be worse.Since the Palisades Fire exploded on Tuesday, Jan. 7, other blazes have blown up, including the Eaton Fire near Pasadena, and the Hurst Fire around Sylmar. As I'm writing this on Wednesday evening, Jan. 8, more than 27,000 acres are burning, according to California's Department of Forestry and F ...read more

Sometimes it’s good not to wash the dishes. Food preparation tools recovered from an Israel archeological excavation that started in 1989 have pushed back evidence of ancient hominid plant processing by about 400,000 years — all because they weren’t cleaned. Starch residue on flat basalt anvils and small, round pounding rocks also add grist to the argument that the Paleo Diet included heavy portions of plants, rather than the meat-dominant version many people have now adopted as a weight-l ...read more

Getting enough sleep is crucial to your physical and mental well-being. Yet, lack of sleep is something many of us experience. New findings published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine state that 1 in 7 adults have difficulty falling asleep, while 1 in 6 adults have trouble staying asleep. There can be several reasons for this, according to the Harvard Medical School. These include poor diet and lack of exercise, along with sleep disorders such as sleep apnea. However, one major iss ...read more