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ScienceAnimals
Dogs Are Surprisingly Stressed and Anxious, Study Finds
Nearly three out of four dogs exhibit some kind of serious behavioral problem related to anxiety, according to a survey involving nearly 14,000 pet dogs. Many of these problems varied according to breed, pointing to the need for improved owner awareness and better breeding practices. Research published today in Scientific Reports shows that 72.5 percent … Continued
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ScienceSpace
See Curiosity’s Highest-Resolution Panorama of Mars Yet
If news from Earth has got you down, maybe this update from the Red Planet will take your mind off things. NASA’s Curiosity rover mission has produced an incredible 1.8-billion-pixel image of the surface of Mars. The image above doesn’t nearly do it justice, so be sure to watch the video below. You can also … Continued
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ScienceForever Week
Cryonics, Dakota the Dog, and the Hope of Forever
As pet deathcare providers, we assist families with the euthanasia process in their own homes and with the disposition of their pet’s body once death has occurred. Most families chose traditional dispositions like burial or cremation. Less frequently, they may choose something untraditional, like taxidermy. This would be the first time we’ve ever worked with … Continued
Ace Ratcliff -
ScienceHealth
Remember This Photo
Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz took to the House floor on Wednesday to vote for the $8.3 billion coronavirus appropriations bill while wearing a gas mask. Gaetz appeared to be making fun of the crisis, even tweeting out a photo of himself in the mask. Whatever you do, remember this photo. Because it’s absolutely vital that … Continued
By Matt Novak -
ScienceAnimals
A Year After Returning to the Jungle, Alba the Albino Orangutan Is Alive and Well
Good news! Conservationists at a national park in Borneo have provided new details about Alba, the world’s only known albino orangutan, more than a year after she was released back into the wild. Not only is Alba still alive—she’s thriving. Back in February of this year, conservationists from the Borneo Orangutan Survival foundation (BOSF) released … Continued
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ScienceHealth
Scientists Create Snapshot of How the New Coronavirus Latches Onto Human Cells
As countries attempt to contain the spread of the disease COVID-19 and the accompanying virus, SARS-CoV-2, scientists have produced a high-resolution image of how the virus attacks cells. The new coronavirus shares around 80 percent of its genome with SARS-CoV, the virus behind the 2003 SARS outbreak, and it attacks the same cellular receptor, called … Continued
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ScienceHealth
‘Frankly Frightening’: Dems Slam Trump’s Coronavirus Response, Urge Filling Long-Vacant Health Posts
House Democrats on Wednesday signed a letter urging President Trump to restore two teams within the national security apparatus dedicated to global health threats, calling the administration’s response to the outbreak of the new coronavirus “dangerously inadequate” and “frankly frightening.” “In the face of such a threat, the American people need to know that there … Continued
By Dell Cameron -
ScienceHealth
Moviegoers Exposed to Toxic ‘Thirdhand Smoke’ From Clothing of Smokers, Study Finds
Simply sitting in a cinema to watch a movie can expose people to the equivalent of one to 10 cigarettes’ worth of secondhand smoke, according to a new chemical analysis. Research has already shown that cigarette smoke releases a host of chemicals that are harmful to humans. Both the smoker and people exposed to the … Continued
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ScienceArchaeology
Extinct Humans May Have Passed Down Stone Technology for Thousands of Generations
Archaeologists in Ethiopia have uncovered skull fragments and tools belonging to Homo erectus, one of the most successful hominins to have ever lived. Importantly, the newly discovered stone tools came from two different technological traditions, highlighting the diversity and flexibility of these extinct hominins. When it comes to extinct human species, Neanderthals tend to hog … Continued
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ScienceForever Week
The Ouroboros, From Antiquity to AI
The Ouroboros—which symbolizes the cyclical nature of life and death and the divine essence that lives on forever—was first recorded in the Egyptian Book of the Netherworld. Alchemists then adopted the symbol into their mystical work of physical and spiritual transformation. After chemistry supplanted its more mystical forebear, alchemy, the Ouroboros was largely forgotten. That … Continued
Sarah Durn -
ScienceAnimals
Prehistoric ‘Cat’ Skull Actually Belonged to an Ancestor of Modern Wolverines
A tiny skull mistakenly attributed to an ancient feline has been re-identified as belonging to an ancestor to modern weasels, wolverines, minks, and otters. Introducing Corumictis wolsani, the earliest known mustelid in North America, according to research published in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. Mustelids are a diverse family of carnivorous animals including weasels, … Continued
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ScienceAnimals
These Clever Parrots Can Understand Probability
Scientists studying kea, New Zealand’s alpine parrot, revealed that the famously mischievous birds could understand probabilities, an impressive mental feat. The pair of researchers put six birds through a series of trials to see how they made decisions when faced with uncertainty. When prompted to choose, the kea generally opted for scenarios where they were … Continued
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ScienceHealth
How Deadly Is COVID-19?
With over 90,000 cases of the novel coronavirus confirmed worldwide and over 3,000 reported deaths—seven of which have been in the U.S.—scientists are zeroing in on how deadly the virus is and who is most at risk. The latest research suggests the fatality rate is anywhere between 1.4 and 2.3 percent, but the true impact … Continued
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ScienceForever Week
What Would It Take to End HIV Forever?
During his State of the Union address in February, President Donald Trump reiterated a promise he had made a year earlier: By 2030, the United States would bring an end to the HIV/AIDS epidemic that first took root nearly 40 years ago. It’s the sort of sweeping assurance that seems too good to be true, … Continued
By Ed Cara -
ScienceAnimals
Paleontologists Are Skeptical About Baby Dinosaur Cells Supposedly Found in Fossil
With our deepest regrets to the Jurassic Park franchise, DNA does not preserve well, and no genetic data has ever been recovered for dinosaurs. Recent news suggesting that scientists have found dinosaur DNA certainly sounds exciting, but it’s an extraordinary claim that warrants skepticism. Fossils of baby duck-billed dinosaurs (Hypacrosaurus stebingeri) have yielded traces of … Continued
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ScienceSpace
Black Hole Photobombs Asteroid
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft set out on September 8, 2016 to study the asteroid Bennu. But last fall, one of its experiments detected something surprising: a flare from a black hole. OSIRIS-REx launched with a suite of instruments, including the Regolith X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer, or REXIS. The instrument, run by MIT and Harvard students and staff, … Continued
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SciencePhysics
Coronavirus Fears Scuttle Major Physics Conference, Leaving Hundreds of Scientists Stranded
The American Physical Society canceled its annual March Meeting in Denver, Colorado, the country’s largest physics conference that draws over 10,000 annually, citing health and safety concerns due to the coronavirus outbreak. The cancelation came less than two days before the conference’s scheduled start date of today, March 2, leaving participants to cancel travel plans … Continued
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ScienceForever Week
Libraries Could Preserve Ebooks Forever, But Greedy Publishers Won’t Let Them
There are currently 342 potential borrowers waiting for 197 digital copies of Ronan Farrow’s investigative thriller Catch and Kill at the Los Angeles Public Library. “It’ll take months for that ebook to become available,” I mutter to myself as I do my usual dance: searching the LAPL’s ebook shelves for titles on my reading list. … Continued
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ScienceForever Week
Will My Data Be Online Forever?
We’ve all pretty much reconciled ourselves to the fact that a handful of unaccountable technology executives have, with our help, generated the largest repository of personal information ever assembled, housed in vast fortified complexes around the globe and sifted continually for the benefit of corporations, federal agencies, political campaigns, etc. Less clear is the lifespan … Continued
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ScienceHealth
Research on Washington State Coronavirus Cases Suggests that Between 150 to 1,500 People Could Be Infected: Report
New research on the coronavirus cases in Washington state suggests that the virus may have been spreading through the area for about six weeks, the New York Times reported. This means that between 150 and 1,500 people could be infected with the disease, officially known as COVID-19. To arrive at that conclusion, two state researchers … Continued
By Jody Serrano