Psychiatric medications passing through sewage treatment plants could be dramatically changing the behavior of fish. After researchers discovered low levels of common anti-anxiety drugs called benzodiazepines in perch living downstream from a treatment plant in southern Sweden, they tested the same concentrations of the drug on fish in the lab. They found that the medicine made the fish lose their […]
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There’s a controversy in planetary science — some researchers propose that the Solar System has a ninth planet with a distant orbit around the Sun. In search of a ninth planet has been on astronomers minds for some time. They suggest that there is a planet nine since some strange orbits have been found in our solar system. Researchers believe […]
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A desparate farmer killed himself in public, and India’s politicians do little more than point their fingers. Gajendra Singh, 43, climbed a tree and hanged himself during a rally against the government’s new land acquisition bill. A suicide note said his crop had failed and he could not support his three children. Singh joins “a long list of farmers who […]
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Think climate change is one of the world’s biggest problems? said Alex B. Berezow. Think again. Global warming doesn’t even crack the top 10 of the planet’s immediate concerns. Number 1 on that list: poverty. Nowhere near as “sexy” or “trendy” as climate change, it’s still the single biggest threat facing humanity. Hundreds of millions of people go hungry every […]
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During his trek across Antarctica back in December 2018 Colin O’Brady found himself having to drag with him all his supplies to cross the 932 miles without help. He also didn’t have resupply stations set up along the way on this desolate landscape. The weather was harsh, very cold from the start to the finish on the other side. He […]
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Radioactive residue from the Cold War could provide a valuable tool for stemming the deadly trade in illegal ivory, National Geographic News reports. Poachers killed an estimated 30,000 African elephants last year alone for their tusks—an ongoing slaughter that threatens the long-term survival of the species, whose population numbers about 500,000. Ending poaching has been nearly impossible because it is […]
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Along with goods for U.S. markets, China’s booming factories are exporting pollution that fouls the air over the Western U.S., a new study has found. “We’ve outsourced our manufacturing and much of our pollution, but some of it is blowing back across the Pacific to haunt us,” University of California, Irvine, earth scientist Steven Davis tells The Telegraph (U.K.).The study […]
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Human-like sounds made by a captive beluga whale suggest that cetaceans could learn to mimic our voices, and perhaps even converse with us. Researchers at the National Marine Mammal Foundation first noticed in the 1980s that one of their whales was attempting to copy the speech patterns of his handlers and they began recording his human-like vocalizations. Recently, they analyzed […]
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The white cliffs of Dover located on the southeastern coast of England, are composed of a variety of calcite shells, including single-celled plants called coccolithophores (a type of algae) that formed on the seafloor. The conditions in the ocean were perfect to form these coccolithophores because the nitrite levels, low silicate concentrations, and the right amount of iron enabled them […]
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Imagine waking up to your worst fear…. A spider in your bed!!! Well, residents in Memphis, Tenn. woke up this week to MILLIONS of them. In fact the entire town of Memphis, TN has been overrun by the 8-legged invaders. A spider apocalypse, if you will. Millions of little spiders have infested the yards of the city Some of the […]
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