Can dogs smell when a person is stressed? Turns out they can, and they're pretty accurate with it, too!

What makes dogs effective emotional support animals for those with anxiety, panic attacks, and PTSD? Researchers wondered whether dogs could be sensing chemical signals from their owners, so they put that thought to the test.

To investigate, researchers collected breath and sweat samples from non-smokers who had not recently eaten or drank. The participants were then subjected to a fast-paced arithmetic task, and another sample was taken from participants who reported increased stress levels. Blood pressure and heart rate were also monitored in the study.

The "relaxed" and "stressed" samples were presented to four well-trained dogs of different breeds. Surprisingly, the dogs correctly identified which sample was the "stressed" sample on 675 out of 720 trials — with 93.75% accuracy, a rating greater than expected by chance.

The authors concluded that dogs could detect the odor associated with the change in Volatile Organic Compounds that we produce in response to stress.

What awesome creatures.

(Image Credit: RebeccasPictures/ Pixabay)

Those still in their early years in the scientific field may be the "most innovative and creative," a new study suggested. Compared to previous studies about innovativeness, this research has had the privilege of combing through 5.6 million biomedical science articles published from 1980 to 2009, meaning this could be the best, or even the most objective, research about the topic.

The study observed that the least innovative scientists, who were still in their early years, tended to "drop out of the field and quit publishing new research." The most productive, meanwhile, continued to produce research even decades later.

As it turns out, a scientific article produced by the average scientist, who is already in his later years in the field, is only cited one-half to two-thirds less often compared to a paper he produced early in his career.

The study, however, went beyond just citation counts. It also created additional metrics such as the article's impact or whether the article was citing the best and latest research. These added metrics, surprisingly, "also lead to the same conclusion about declining innovativeness," say the authors.

While young scientists tend to be at their best state in terms of innovativeness, there are still some who are much more innovative. Organizations who fund scientists "may not be supporting the very best researchers," says co-author Gerald Marschke. And so, organizations should maintain "a delicate balance between supporting youth and experience."

Supporting experienced scientists also has its own advantage. "You are getting the ones who have stood the test of time." However, they are "not at their best anymore," continues Marschke.

(Image Credit: luvqs/ Pixabay)

Located in Central Belize is a cave known as the Midnight Terror Cave. As its name suggests, the place does hold truly dark secrets — it is believed to be a site of human sacrifice to the Maya rain god, Chaak. The Midnight Terror Cave houses over 10,000 bones, which archaeologists believe to be from at least 118 people, many of which suffered physical trauma at the time of their deaths.

To further investigate what happened to these sacrifice victims, researchers examined the calcified plaque (also called dental calculus) from the teeth of these poor individuals, and what they found were mysterious "blue fibers clinging to the teeth of at least two victims."

Upon further examination, researchers found that the teeth samples contained primarily cotton fibers, several of which were dyed bright blue, an important color in the Maya ritual.

It is worth noting that this pigment is used in Maya ceremonies, particularly in painting the bodies of sacrificial victims.

The archaeologists, led by Amy Chan, theorize that the victims were gagged with cotton cloths, possibly for an extended period of time. This could explain why some blue fibers were left on their dental calculus.

Some archaeologists disagree with the theory that Chan's team offered. However, all of them agree that studying dental calculus is crucial, as it not only reveals the diet of a group of people; it could also tell us how they might have lived... or died.

(Image Credit: Linda Scott Cummings/PaleoResearch Institute)

The 1993 Disney film Hocus Pocus was too silly to be a horror film, too sexy to be a children's movie, and too feminine to be a Three Stooges comedy. After bombing in its theatrical run, it became a cult classic through annual airings on cable TV. And now that Hocus Pocus 2 is streaming on Disney+, Screen Junkies has gotten around to making an Honest Trailer to warn us against it 30 years too late. Still, the Honest Trailer is well worth six minutes of your life, especially if, like me, you've never seen Hocus Pocus.

It appears that teqball has been around since 2014, but it's new to me. The ideal player is an expert soccer player who can adapt to the small confines of a table tennis setting. The table is curved to allow it to bank shots into high arcs that the players must send to the other team with feet, heads, or chests.

Players can't touch the ball with the same body part twice consecutively and can't send the ball to the other side with the same body part twice consecutively. These subtle rules make the game even more athletically demanding than this short video reveals.

The US federation for this sport claims that about 2,000 players in 100 countries play teqball. World championships were held in 2017, 2018, and 2019. They hope that teqball becomes an Olympic sport in 2028.

The iconic sitcom Seinfeld is often described as a "show about nothing", or to, borrow a play title from William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing. It is fitting to let the Bard of Avon have a go at screenwriting for this comedy program. At McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Michael Leonetti and Nick DiMaso rewrite scenes from Shakespeare plays as though they were Seinfeld episodes. Here's a passage from Romeo and Juliet in which Romeo and Mercutio attempt to make a purchase from the Soup Nazi:

Romeo and Mercutio wait in line in a Verona alley.

ROMEO: Now, Mercutio, remember what I said: he’s very peculiar about his wares.

MERCUTIO: I’m aware. He’s wary of selling his wares.

APOTHECARY: NEXT!

Romeo and Mercutio enter the Apothecary’s store. Mercutio steps up to the counter.

MERCUTIO: Medium coma-potion.

Mercutio pays the assistant but notices his order is missing something.

MERCUTIO: Uh, excuse me… but where is the dram of poison?

ROMEO: Leave it, Mercutio.

APOTHECARY: You want such mortal drugs, little man?

MERCUTIO: I would very much like it, please.

APOTHECARY: ONE HUNDRED DUCATS!

MERCUTIO: One hundred ducats? For a dram?

APOTHECARY: NO POTION FOR YOU. RETURN HENCE, FIVE AND THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY DAYS!

Read it all for selections from Hamlet, the Merchant of Venice, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, and the Scottish Play.

-via Debby Witt

The year 2021. Berlin. Inside a neuroscience laboratory in the busy German city, a subject was made to sit on a chair with arms up and bare toes pointed down. Behind the first subject is a second subject, with full access to the first subject's soles. The second subject's mission is simple — to tickle the first subject anytime they want to. As Subject 2 tickled Subject 1, the latter couldn't help but laugh. But when Subject 1 was asked to tickle himself, it was uneventful.

So why can't we help but laugh when we get tickled? And why can't we tickle ourselves? Why our some of our body parts more ticklish than others? These are the questions that humanity have had about tickling. Even the great thinkers and scientists pondered a thing or two about tickling and ticklishness.

"If you read the ancient Greeks, Aristotle was wondering about ticklishness. Also Socrates, Galileo Galilei, and Francis Bacon," says cognitive neuroscientist Konstantina Kilteni. "These questions are very old, and... we still really don't have the answer."

So why can't we tickle ourselves? The leading theory is that a tickle attack from another person is unpredictable, which sends our brain into a mini-frenzy. Meanwhile, a tickle attack from ourselves and to ourselves is predictable. This may be the reason why such scenario would be uneventful.

However, Michael Brecht, the mastermind behind the what I call "Tickle Your Partner" study, has a different theory. He thinks that when a person touches themselves, the brain sends a message throughout the body, which inhibits touch sensitivity. This is why we don't tickle ourselves when we scratch our toes or armpits, Brecht argues.

Learn more details about this fascinating study over at Ars Technica.

(Image Credit: erinmilleravonlady/ Pixabay)

Since we ditched the old shorter vats of breweries in favor of the new cylindrical fermentation tanks (which are taller, produce more beer, and are easier to clean), the quality of the beer we drink has reduced in terms of its taste. This reduced quality is caused by excess pressure from the carbon dioxide produced during fermentation. But it turns out we can make beer taste great again (or, at least, better), made possible through gene editing.

Researchers were able to identify in a "specific yeast strain" a single mutation in a gene, which was the source of the banana-like flavor and responsible for the pressure tolerance. Engineering the same mutation in other yeast strains resulted in said strains to better withstand carbon dioxide pressure.

Other strains could also be modified, it seems, and this could lead to better-tasting beers in the near future.

The authors' study is backed by a brewing company who wish to patent the use of the technology.

(Image Credit: aiacPL/ Pixabay)

This is what bacteria, or at least the bacterium Bacillus subtilis, do to handle difficult (and most likely life-threatening) situations. They crouch, make a shell around their DNA, and then shut down all signs of life. Talk about playing dead but taking it to the next level.

Gürol Süel, a microbiologist at the University of California, San Diego, remarks that these bacteria "appear to have literally no measurable biological activity."

But the thing is, bacteria can resurrect themselves back to life. The question is: how?

Süel's team have found the secret behind how bacteria bring themselves back to life: potassium atoms. The team hypothesized that since the bacteria's cores contained positively charged potassium atoms, which can move freely without energy usage from the cell, these said atoms could be the key. And they were correct in their theory.

As they exposed B. subtilis spores to nutrients and tracked the movement of potassium, they found that more potassium left the core with each exposure, and germination was triggered. Those with restricted potassium movement were also less likely to come back to life, no matter the amount of nutrients.

This information could lead to a method capable of bringing bacteria back to life to kill them once and for all.

(Image Credit: K. Kikuchi and Leticia Galera/ Suel Lab)

The Chicxulub impactor, the 6-mile (10-kilometer) wide asteroid, seems to have done more than wiping out 75% of the Earth's plant and animal species 66 million years ago. It may also have shaken our planet... literally. Research conducted by geologist Hermann Bermúdez seems to suggest this.

In 2014, while on Gorgonilla Island, Colombia, Bermúdez found layers of sediment containing deposits of spherules (small glass beads no larger than a grain of sand) as well as tiny shards known as "tektites" and "microtektites." Said substances are formed when heat and pressure from a massive impact melt and scatter material from the Earth's crust and shoot them into the atmosphere. These materials then fall back on Earth as glass beads.

The spherules, tektites, and exposed rocks on the island's coast reveal how the asteroid's impact affected the seafloor 66 million years ago — it deformed layers of mud and sandstone as much as 33 to 50 feet (about 10 to 15 meters).

Aside from the evidence on the island, Bermúdez also found evidence of liquefaction at the El Papalote exposure in Mexico. Liquefaction occurs when strong shaking causes water-saturated sediments to flow like a liquid. This establishes that some strong shaking did occur.

Now, if it was true that the asteroid triggered a "mega-earthquake," how strong would that have been? It is said that it might have released energy equivalent to 10^23 joules, which is about 50,000 times more than the magnitude 9.1 Sumatra earthquake in 2004.

(Image Credit: NASA/ Wikimedia Commons)

NASA's Curiosity and Perseverance rovers do not have to worry about the Martian dust storm affecting their energy levels, as the two rovers are nuclear-powered. However, the same cannot be said for the InSight lander, as it is solar-powered. Now, because of the continent-size dust storm looming over the red planet's Southern Hemisphere, the poor lander is having a difficult time gathering energy.

As the storm increased the dusty haze in the Martian atmosphere, less sunlight reached the InSight's solar panels, and the landers energy fell significantly from 425 watt-hours per sol (a term for a day in Mars), to only 275.

It was decided that the lander turn off its seismometer for the next two weeks to conserve power.

Chuck Scott, InSight's project manager, describes that they are now "on the ground floor" in the power situation. "If we can ride this out, we can keep operating into winter — but I'd worry about the next storm that comes along," he continues.

While common on Mars at all times of the Martian year, more and bigger dust storms occur during northern fall and winter. And while winds blow up to 60 mph (about 97 kph), storms on Mars are not that strong (compared to Earth) due to the planet's thin air.

(Image Credit: NASA/ JPL-Caltech)

(Image Credit: NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ MSSS)

(Image credit: Lon&Queta)

The ob-weaving spider you see above already had a fully-finished web ready to trap dinner. But it went back and gussied up the place with a lovely geometric pattern anyway. So did this St. Andrew's Cross spider, which was named for this kind of decoration. Charlotte would be proud.

(Image credit: Amos T Fairchild)

Spider of widely-varying species do this. The decoration itself is called stabilimentum, because scientists once thought it was done to make the web more stable. Arachnologists have abandoned that idea, but there's no agreement on why spiders decorate their webs. It could be because they are in a web-building mood and can't stop. Or maybe it makes them look bigger, or conversely, serves as extra camouflage. It could be to attract certain kinds of prey, or even to help the spider regulate its own temperature. Maybe they are showing off for mating purposes. But since this behavior has been observed in different species, they could have different reasons. Its even possible that spiders just like the look. Read about spiders and their stabilimenta at The Ark in Space. -via Everlasting Blort

Boing Boing describes this manual as something from "the handbook for a horror RPG", but I'm seeing similarities with the Monster Manual series from Dungeons & Dragons. I think that it's actually a fairly complete monster encounter manual for McDonaldland if only someone added stats and powers.

Browse through the 78-page document on the Internet Archive. It includes characters that have been slain, such as the French Fry Thatch (pp. 66-68), which has colors very inappropriate for fries, and CosMc the alien (pp. 76-78).

Visit your local McDonald's to mourn their loss. It's unlikely that you'll see Ronald McDonald himself. But if you do, keep out of his way, as urged on p.3:

Ronald resides in McDonaldland but is equally at home anywhere he goes. The other characters in McDonaldland look up to him, respect him, and are fond of him. Ronald is intelligent and sensitive, but always clown-like. He can do nearly anything, even incredible feats of magic. The antics of the other McDonaldland characters serve to complement Ronald's humor. They do not upstage him.

Ronald McDonald is the star.

You have been warned.

The Gotthard Base Tunnel runs underneath the Swiss Alps for 35.5 miles. A passenger riding a train through it wouldn't see daylight for 20 minutes straight. Building the tunnel was an amazing feat of engineering that cost about $12 billion US, but saved so much time and energy transporting people and goods through the Alps that it was worth it.  

But with a tunnel so long and so deep, imagine if an accident were to happen in the middle of it. There can be up to 16 trains in the tunnel at a time. What about a fire? The temperature two kilometers below the surface gets up to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. You'll be glad to know that there are multiple complex safety systems at work to make sure the trains run quickly and safely, or if not, that experts can respond to any emergency. Tom Scott is impressed, and you will be, too.  

The public radio show This American Life did an episode exploring the theme of whether most people are basically good (or not). The first guest was Jessica Williamson, who, some years ago, made the poster above about a found cat. You've seen the poster, but what you don't know is that in the original version, Williamson included her real phone number. She distributed the poster around her neighborhood, but never thought about someone posting it on the internet. As you can imagine, she got a lot of phone calls.

And then when I started listening to the voicemails, it was kind of like this very unscientific, I would say, social experiment. Because you could really lock the calls into three groups. And the largest group of people were actually very kindly just calling to tell me that it wasn't a cat and that it was a possum.

Williamson estimated that maybe 20% of the calls were playing along with the joke and claimed it was their cat, and another 10% were calling to tell her she is an idiot. Of course, this slice of humanity only involves those who went to the trouble of actually calling the number. You can listen to the eight-minute segment, which includes excerpts of the actual calls she received, or read the transcript here. Or listen to the whole episode if that interests you. -via Metafilter