The largest known flood in geological time took anywhere from 2 years to 16 years to fill up the Mediterranean Sea. While it didn’t fill up the area fast, the water was powerful and hit some areas at speeds of 67 miles per hour — unleashing a wall of destruction that dug out canyons, shaped future islands and wiped out more than 95 percent of known marine species at the time.“What makes this event extraordinary is it is the largest flood that we know that ever happened in Earth’s history ...read more
The crisis of fentanyl and other opioids is far from over in the U.S., and a new study stresses that point, finding that the illicit use of these substances is much more prevalent than prior studies suggest. Published today in JAMA Health Forum, the research reveals that 7.5 percent of adults in the U.S. had used illicitly manufactured fentanyl at some point between June 2023 and June 2024 — a percentage that is more than 20 times higher than past reported rates. According to the study authors ...read more
Vultures are often seen as unsightly outcasts in the animal kingdom, yet their dirty work is needed to keep ecosystems healthy. New research has shown that without these underappreciated scavengers, diseases would run rampant throughout the natural world.A study recently published in Ecology and Evolution explains how declining vulture populations could have a devastating impact on the environment. Vultures have already begun to vanish across Europe, Asia, and Africa; now, concerns are also risi ...read more
When the Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland began to erupt in 2021, experts banded together to create defensive barriers with dirt to protect civilians in the surrounding areas. Crews from the Icelandic Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management worked around the clock to build barriers to curtail the lava flow. A field study, led by Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Professor Fjola Gudrun Sigtryggsdottir, analyzed how effective these prevention methods were and ...read more
Golf courses are meticulously maintained with a variety of chemicals, including pesticides. But living too close to finely groomed greens and fairways could increase one’s risk of developing Parkinson’s disease (PD) by up to 126 percent, according to a study in JAMA Network Open.The article’s authors stress that the research doesn’t establish a strict cause-and-effect relationship between golf course proximity and neurodegenerative disease. They wrote that a “complex interaction” bet ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine