School books, publications and even the movie Jurassic Park held to the notion that the Tyrannosaurus Rex (T-Rex) was the largest dinosaur to walk the Earth in its days.
Standing tall and mighty above all others, but how accurate is that? With these animals now extinct and paleontologists rarely coming across entire skeletons, how is it possible to determine the true holder of the “World’s Largest Dinosaur” title?
Head on over to Live Science to find out which dinosaur scientists deem as the largest, as of now, and how these determinations are made.
The world we live in advances tremendously every day. When we think of transplants the images of kidneys, livers or even hearts are generally the first to come to mind. However, what about uteruses?
Doctors at Brazil’s Sao Paulo University Hospital continue to accomplish the unexpected. It is there that the world’s first baby was born via uterus transplant from a deceased donor:
It comes after 10 previously known cases of uterus transplants from deceased donors ― in the United States, the Czech Republic and Turkey ― failed to produce a live birth.
The girl born in the Brazilian case was delivered via cesarean section at 35 weeks and three days, and weighed nearly 6 lbs, the case study said.
Dani Ejzenberg, a doctor at Brazil’s Sao Paulo University hospital who led the research, said the transplant ― carried out in September 2016 when the recipient was 32 ― shows the technique is feasible and could offer women with uterine infertility access to a larger pool of potential donors.
What set this occurrence apart from the rest? What are the norms with this type of procedure? Find out more over at Huffington Post.
Who knew that sharks, the feared predators of the ocean, are actually quite sophisticated? Strangely enough, classical music is not their cup of tea - instead, they like jazz:
Scientists at Australia's Macquarie University Fish Lab have found that the fish are able to associate music with food rewards - and jazz is more their bag than classical.
They found the sharks learned to go to a feeding station far better when played jazz music than other kinds of songs.
"Sound is really important for aquatic animals; it travels well under water and fish use it to find food, hiding places and even to communicate," said the study's lead author, Catarina Vila-Pouca, from the university's department of biological sciences.
So how does the great white shark’s music preference concern mankind? Read all about it here.
Image credit: Mark Norman/Museum Victoria/Wikipedia
When a French-Russian archeology team discovered the skull of a French soldier, they noticed the horrific saber wound that split the man's jaw and knocked out most of his teeth.
The soldier, part of Napoleon's army that attacked Russia in 1812, was buried in a mass grave in Kaliningrad. Now, a team of scientists have reconstructed the face of the anonymous soldier:
From his skeleton, it was clear to the scientists that the soldier was male and most likely between the ages of 24 and 27 when he died, with thigh bones that indicated he rode a horse regularly. The blow that split his jaw had knocked out most of his teeth, aside from a few molars, and the team concluded he had probably been chopped by the middle of the blade, not stabbed by the tip, of a saber wielded by the right hand of someone else charging at him on horseback.
The reconstruction gives scientists insight into the lives of soldiers living in the 18th century. Interestingly, the gruesome saber wound to his face actually didn't kill him ... Learn what did and read all about the solider and his facial reconstruction over in this article over at BuzzFeed News.
During the Great Depression, many localities in the United States printed their own local currencies that residents could spend at local businesses. This currency, also called scrip, was issued during the time where uncertainty led to hoarding and the subsequent shortage of the official dollar.
Nowadays, local currencies are issued to foster the "buy local" mentality and cultivate a sense of community. There's logic behind it, as money spent with local indie businesses circulate in the neighborhood economy up to three times longer than money spent on national chains, as noted by the International Monetary Fund.
In 2012, pop star David Bowie lent his likeness to be put on the local currency of his birthplace, the south London neighborhood of Brixton. The Brixton Pound has since gained popularity:
It is accepted on local buses and for council tax payments. In addition to bills, it can also be used for payments online and via text messages. There are some 500,000 Bristol pounds in online accounts and 70,000 circulating in cash.
Yet, for many users it is the novelty designs, rather than practical use, that make local currencies attractive. The bill that pictures Mr. Bowie represents 10 Brixton pounds but has sold for as much as £50 online ...
In the world of prime time TV, where a complex whodunit is solved in an hour (less commercial time), DNA evidence is analyzed in just a few seconds - usually with the haggard detective hovering right outside the state-of-the-art police lab.
In real life, on the other hand, where crime labs are often understaffed and perpetually backlogged, analyzing DNA samples can take weeks if not months.
But now, in a twist where real life mimics police tv shows, there's a new machine that can analyze DNA samples very quickly.
They call it the “magic box.” Its trick is speedy, nearly automated processing of DNA.
... in early 2017, the police booking station in Bensalem became the first in the country to install a Rapid DNA machine, which provides results in 90 minutes, and which police can operate themselves. [...]
The science-fiction future, in which police can swiftly identify robbers and murderers from discarded soda cans and cigarette butts, has arrived.
But not everyone's excited. Critics, including legal experts and scientists, pointed out that the system can lead to trouble:
As police agencies build out their local DNA databases, they are collecting DNA not only from people who have been charged with major crimes but also, increasingly, from people who are merely deemed suspicious, permanently linking their genetic identities to criminal databases. ...
“It’s a lot harder to resist the temptation just to run some people’s DNA, just to see if there’s anything useful that you get out of it,” said Erin Murphy, a law professor at New York University and author of “Inside the Cell: The Dark Side of Forensic DNA.” That approach challenges the “fundamental way we’ve structured liberty in our constitutional order.”
What do you think? Is the DNA "Magic Box" a boon or a ultimately pitfall to society?
In fecal microbiota transplant, doctors take stool - and all the microbes it contains - from a donor with a healthy gut and transplant it to a patient in order to help "reset" the recipient's digestive system.
But apprently not all donor poop are created equal.
In one study the remission rate for ulcerative colitis was twice as high among recipients whose transplant included stool from one particular donor. Such results have fuelled the emergence of an unlikely sounding hero: the super-donor.
Looking at previously published studies in the field, O’Sullivan and colleagues say a stool from a super-donor often has a greater diversity of microbes. However, they add for some conditions, including inflammatory bowel disease, specific components are important such as whether the stool is richer in particular bacteria – such as those which produce certain chemicals.In other studies, it has been suggested the presence of viruses in the stool might play a role in resolving certain conditions. “We think the super-donors differ depending on the condition you are trying to treat,” said O’Sullivan.
Read the rest of the story on why number two from these super donors is really number one when it comes to fecal transplant, over at The Guardian.
If worrying over global warming is giving you indigestion, you'd reach out for a bottle of antacids. But what if antacid itself - in the form of calcium carbonate powder - is actually the prescription to tackle the planet's global warming woes?
Harvard researcher Zhen Dai thought that it might:
In powdered form, calcium carbonate—often used to relieve upset stomachs—can reflect light; by peppering the sky with the shiny white particles, the Harvard researcher [Zhen Dai] thinks it might be possible to block just enough sunlight to achieve some temperature control here on Earth.
Can you teach students how to use a computer without having any computer in the classroom?
Richard Appiah Akoto (aka "Owura Kwadwo Hottish" on Facebook), a teacher in Ghana, didn't let the lack of computers in the classroom stop him from teaching his students.
As old tech is better than no tech, Akoto decided to draw the features of a Microsoft Word window on a blackboard using multi-colored chalk. When Akoto posted photos of this on Facebook, the post went viral.
When asked about their favorite Christmas gift giver, most children would choose jolly Saint Nick. But not in Spain:
In a 2015 survey, Spanish children overwhelmingly chose the Three Kings as their favourite gift giver (67 percent) over Santa Claus (27 percent).
In Spain ‘Los Reyes Magos’ - Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar - play a similar role to Santa Claus in many other parts of the world. Spanish children write letters to the Three Kings, or Three Wise Men, who then bring the children gifts the night before, or on the morning of the Epiphany, January 6th.
In some houses children leave their shoes outside the door so that the Three Kings will fill them with gifts, often leaving bigger presents alonsgide.
See those strands of hair that fall out as you comb your hair? You probably just toss 'em away, but not Xiang Renxian of Chongqing, China!
Xiang, a 60-year-old retired teacher, collect strands of her own hair for 11 years, then spin them into yarn and knit a sweater and hat that she can actually wear:
"It's actually not that difficult. The key is patience and persistence," said Xiang. ...
According to Xiang's records, the nearly half-kilogram sweater is made from exactly 89,112 hairs and is decorated with 18 knit roses. The sweater required 15 hairs to spin a knitable strand.
A 2-meter tall hippo sculpture was stolen from Chilstone ornament makers in the UK. It took five people to lift the luxurious hippo sculpture in the past. The sheer size of the piece makes it difficult to hypothesize how it was stolen.
Spiders like to lurk in dark corners and shadowy places but if you're out in the open during broad daylight, surely you're safe from the creepy crawlies. Right?
Wrong, said Mother Nature, who proceeded to rain spiders from the skies:
Summer in south-east Brazil has brought soaring temperatures and some disconcerting eight-legged visitors.
Residents in a rural area of southern Minas Gerais state have reported skies “raining spiders”, a phenomenon which experts say is typical in the region during hot, humid weather.
While the spiders in the sky may seem scary, they are not venomous. Moreover, instead of raining they are clinging on to a giant web that is unnoticeable to the human eye. Find out more over at The Guardian.
Photo: Image capture from footage of Brazil's "spider rain" (TV45000)
Historians used to believe that only men wrote manuscripts in the medieval times, but evidence has proved them wrong. Scientists have identified traces of a rare gemstone called lapis lazuli in an ancient female tooth. This is direct evidence that shows that the lady was a paintbrush-licking painter. The ultramarine gemstone was reserved for only the most exceptional of scribes to use.
Who would have thought that medieval women participated in the production of religious manuscripts too?
Because female names are especially scarce among the surviving texts from this period, historians have long assumed that male monks were the primary producers of these intricately illustrated manuscripts.
Only recently has this belief been re-examined. Along with a growing body of research, a new discovery adds even more evidence that female monastics were not only literate, but were also prolific producers and consumers of books during the Middle Ages.
Hidden within the dental plaque of a middle-aged woman buried at an all-female
monastery in Germany sometime around 1000-1200 CE, researchers have now found a clue that speaks volumes: a hint of ultramarine ink.
