Science

Bizarre-Looking Colossus Whale May Have Been Heaviest Animal Ever (Sorry, Blue Whales): “I’ve never seen anything like it,” says a paleontologist not involved in the discovery of a 40-million-year-old fossilized whale
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bizarre-looking-colossus-whale-may-have-been-heaviest-animal-ever-sorry-blue-whales/

#science #biology #zoology #ecology #animals #whales

It's a hot day at a Santa Monica beach, and the children splashing each other aren't the only youngsters in the water. Somewhere not far from the shore swims a group of five or more juvenile white sharks.

Arizona State University researchers are using a high-tech mannequin to learn more about how the human body responds to extreme heat.

Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Research Science (CSRS) and the University of Toronto have discovered a new way to attack fungal infections.

Where biomedicine gets it wrong about primate research.

TW: animal abuse described in quite graphic detail

Scientists know that the tight confinement of standard laboratory cages distorts the psychology and physiology of our animal subjects. Yet despite a half-century of evidence, we continue to cage them as if their biology is baked into their genetics. From decades of rodent studies, scientists know that an animal’s brain anatomy and physiology are highly vulnerable to even modest changes in their living environments. Mice housed in standard cages, rather than slightly larger ones furnished with blocks and tunnels for mental stimulation, are more susceptible to drug abuse, genetic modifications, and toxic chemicals. Monkeys, nearly our next of kin, can become so mentally deranged by their cage environments that they no longer resemble healthy humans. They might have more in common with children housed in Romanian orphanages in the 1980s and 1990s, who were so deprived of human contact that they still struggle with lifelong physiological and psychological disabilities.

The test from Quest Diagnostics looks at a certain brain protein is known to contribute to the condition.

Nature-based solutions (NBS) can help grand challenges, such as climate change and food security, but, as things stand, communities outside of Europe do not stand to benefit from these innovations. New research from the University of Surrey has found that more than 60% of NBS are located in Europe, with other regions showing poor use of the technologies.

Teens engaged in activism become better critical thinkers, study finds: Youth involved in community-based activism over time become better critical thinkers and more politically active, according to a new University of Michigan study.
https://phys.org/news/2023-08-teens-engaged-critical-thinkers.html

#science #socialscience #education #activism #criticalthinking #politics #teens #teenagers

“There was a time that I didn’t know if I was even going to live, or if I wanted to, frankly. And now, I can feel the touch of someone holding my hand. It’s overwhelming," said Keith Thomas, the patient who received the revolutionary treatment.

The rising costs university libraries are paying to access journals have implications far beyond the ivory tower. From new cancer treatments to debates about foreign policy, new information enters the public domain through academic studies. Now libraries are having trouble affording the subscriptions.

A last gasp in a long-standing link between Russia and Ukraine in the field of rocketry could come this week in an unlikely place—the rural wetlands of eastern Virginia—halfway around the world from the battlefields where the nations' military forces are locked in a deadly conflict.

This seems odd, considering Ukraine and Russia have been at war for nearly a year and a half, but the title doesn't do the article justice. This partnership ends in the United States, not in Europe.

Sun 'umbrella' tethered to asteroid might help mitigate climate change: An astronomer has proposed a novel approach -- a solar shield to reduce the amount of sunlight hitting Earth, combined with a tethered, captured asteroid as a counterweight.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/07/230731151552.htm

#science #space #climatechange #astronomy #solarshield #asteroid

German semiconductor maker Infineon Technologies AG announced that it’s producing a printed circuit board (PCB) that dissolves in water.

The new superconductor is made from cement and carbon black could one day power homes and charge EVs on the road.

At about its halfway point, the record-breaking hot and extreme summer of 2023 is both unprecedented and unsurprising.

The tick-borne disease has not caused any deaths, health officials say, but people with alpha-gal syndrome have described it as bewildering and terrifying.

In May, Mallory became the first patient to give birth via uterus transplant outside of a clinical trial.

About 42,000 U.S. children ages 6 to 17 were diagnosed with gender dysphoria in 2021, nearly triple the number in 2017, a unique data analysis for Reuters found.

An expert on aging thinks humans could live to be 1,000 years old—with a few tweaks to our genetic “software”

Science fiction is rife with fanciful tales of deadly organisms emerging from the ice and wreaking havoc on unsuspecting human victims.

Scientists on Thursday published a paper identifying and naming the worm, which they said belonged to a previously-unidentified species.

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Evidence 600-Million-Year-Old Ocean Existed In The Himalayas – Found: High up in the Himalayas, scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Niigata University, Japan, have discovered droplets of water trapped in mineral deposits that were likely left behind from an ancient ocean which existed around 600 million years ago.
https://www.ancientpages.com/2023/07/29/600-million-year-old-ocean-himalayas/

#ancient #geology #IISc #NiigataUniversity,

#science

Armed with plastic boxes, a group of scientists from the University of Copenhagen sought to "vacuum" animal DNA using DNA air sampling.

DOE Intends to Lease Land on Sites Across the U.S. for Utility-Scale Clean Energy Projects