Sep 11, 2023 | Salon.com
New research in the journal Scientific Reports points to a missing ancestor that links koalas with other marsupials like kangaroos, possums and wombats. In the process, the scientists may have just cracked a major mystery related to evolution in Australia. Meet Lumakoala blackae, an ancient koala species believed to have lived throughout Australia 25 million years ago....
Originally posted on salon.com
Sep 10, 2023 | Salon.com
Whether you’re a fan of dogs or not, chances are you’ve seen “dog shaming” online. It is the meme-able, viral trend of photographing one’s dog next to handwritten signs in which the pups “confess” to their real-life misdeeds. Such canine crimes include barking too loudly, biting strangers, eating remote controls, stealing cookies from children and peeing on a Virgin Mary statue....
Originally posted on salon.com
Sep 8, 2023 | Salon.com
Mary Joy is an undergraduate student at Dartmouth University’s Department of Anthropology — and, additionally, is a climber and runner. Indeed, Joy’s athletic interests have fueled her scientific endeavors in at least one important way: They helped her develop a hypothesis about the evolution of shoulders, elbows and wrists in human beings....
Originally posted on salon.com
Sep 7, 2023 | Salon.com
The three-day African Climate Summit concluded in Nairobi Wednesday as the continent’s leaders announced their support for a global carbon tax regime — a tariff system they hope will disincentivize the fossil fuel use that is primarily causing global heating. In the process, however, the politicians underscored the rifts within the movement to address climate change....
Originally posted on salon.com
Sep 7, 2023 | Salon.com
While the term “high cholesterol” is usually associated with health problems, there is at least one way in which most people would prefer to have high cholesterol: In their inner ear, so that they will continue to have strong hearing as they get older. At least, that is the premise a recent study in the scientific journal PLOS Biology, whose authors found that plant-based substances called phytosterols — which look and act like cholesterol — improved the hearing in mice who had grown deaf while losing their inner ear cholesterol....
Originally posted on salon.com
Sep 6, 2023 | Salon.com
Summer 2023 has proved to be a literally historic season, at least as far as climate change is concerned. In a recent statement, United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that the global climate is “breaking down,” adding that the past three months were the warmest ever recorded in human history....
Originally posted on salon.com
Sep 6, 2023 | Salon.com
Although the exoplanet TOI-1853 b is roughly the size of Neptune, its mass is almost twice that of any other known planet of comparable size. For this reason, TOI-1853 b should not exist, at least based on the known laws of physics. That is why some scientists have a bold hypothesis — that the strange alien world may only be around because a group of smaller planets collided into each other, according to a recent study in the journal Nature....
Originally posted on salon.com
Sep 5, 2023 | Salon.com
There is an asteroid so large that a person could easily roam around it as if it was their individual home. That same asteroid is about to come awfully close to striking Earth, at least according to the NASA Asteroid Watch Dashboard, which exists to warn the Earth of the presence of NEOs (near earth objects)....
Originally posted on salon.com
Sep 4, 2023 | Salon.com
Bulldogs. Pugs. Boston terriers. French bulldogs. There is a term for these widely-loved pups who seem to lack snouts altogether, with their face instead appearing to have been smooshed in through years of inbreeding. That term is “brachycephalic,” derived from the Greek for “short head.”
Whether you adore these animals or think their very existence is inhumane (a controversial subject indeed), experts from both the dog worlds and the climatology world agree on one thing: Brachycephalic dogs are going to suffer a lot more as climate change worsens....
Originally posted on salon.com
Sep 2, 2023 | Salon.com
When a person hears the term “forever chemicals,” it is unlikely that their immediate reaction is, “Yum! I want that inside my body!” Yet these so-called forever chemicals — technically known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), as well as chemicals like bisphenols— are absolutely everywhere. It is a statistical certainty that a person reading this article has forever chemicals in their bloodstream, and perhaps in other tissues....
Originally posted on salon.com