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The world’s oceans just broke on an important climate change record

As climate change worsens, experts anticipate worsened tropical storms, more frequent wildfiresrising sea levels and shortages of important products like food and microchips. Humanity needs every break that it can get in offsetting the greenhouse gas emissions causing this overheating, which is why a recent report from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Service raises such concern: It reveals that global heating has fueled such massive overheating in the world’s oceans that over the past year they broke temperature records every single day....

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Poll finds fewer Americans are concerned about climate change

Even though humans are experiencing the hottest months in recorded human history, and scientists warn our species is living on “borrowed time,” a recent poll found a notable dip in the number of people who view climate change as an urgent issue. 

In the latest poll by Monmouth University, less than half (46%) of the American public perceives global heating as being a very serious problem....

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Death toll from floods in Brazil reaches 83, with climate change viewed as a major driver

With one Brazilian official decrying it as “the worst disaster” in his state’s history, the recent floods in Rio Grande do Sul have claimed 83 lives at the time of this writing and scientists agree climate change was a culprit. The death toll is expected to rise.

The torrential downpour — which bombarded Rio Grande do Sul in just four days with more than 70 percent of all the rain it would normally get in the month of April — destroyed roads, left thousands without water and power and destroyed key infrastructure....

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Do we need our wisdom teeth removed? Experts say this common procedure may be unnecessary

There is nothing wise about the way humans view wisdom teeth, according to many experts.

Wisdom teeth, or a person’s third and final set of back molars, are the last teeth to grow in one’s mouth. As far back as the 4th century BC, the Greek philosopher and polymath Aristotle chronicled how these teeth usually erupt around the age of twenty, although he noted cases of wisdom tooth eruptions in people as old as their eighties....

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Was T. rex really as smart as primates? A new study argues the dino’s intellect has been overstated

Despite films like “Jurassic Park” depicting Tyrannosaurus rex as nothing more than a stupid killing machine, Dr. Suzana Herculano-Houzel believes the mighty dinosaur “deserves better.”

Herculano-Houzel is no passive dinosaur observer. The Vanderbilt University neuroscientist is an expert in comparative neuroanatomy, as well as editor-in-chief of The Journal of Comparative Neurology....

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Why climate change action requires “degrowth” to make our planet sustainable

Climate change truly is a major existential threat, one we’re clearly not addressing fast enough. But as individuals, there’s little we can do to stop it on a grand scale — it will require global cooperation to overcome. Nonetheless, the accompanying feelings of helplessness when faced with such a daunting crisis can make many feel paralyzed with despair....

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European wine just had its worst growing season in 62 years. Climate change could make it worse

When a team of New Zealand scientists analyzed the alcohol produced by the local vineyard Greystone Wines, they found something with profound implications for every wine drinker on the planet. The microbial ecosystems that distinguish literal wine from mere grape juice — the panoply of yeasts, bacteria and fungi — fluctuated significantly between the vintages produced in 2018 and 2021 by the North Canterbury winemaker because of human-caused climate change....

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How squirrels cope with stress: New study may offer climate lessons for humans

Squirrels are found nearly everywhere, and their apparently playful demeanor makes it easy not to notice that their lives can be difficult. That rambunctious behavior we observe both in city parks and in wilderness is because squirrels must spend most of their time either searching for food and — perhaps more importantly — striving not to become food themselves. ...

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Mars probe spots “spider” shapes in Martian Inca City

The European Space Agency reported a surprising finding in a region of Mars known as Inca City, in which dark shapes resembling spiders were discovered by the agency’s Mars Express orbiting satellite. The strange arachnid shapes are actually geologic features formed by channels of carbon dioxide gas that originate as the weather warms in Mars’ Southern Hemisphere for that planet’s spring....

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