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science

SCIENCE: Are There Creativity Genes?

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Creativity - Pixabay

Creativity could be one of the main reasons Homo sapiens survived and dominated over related species such as Neanderthals and chimpanzees, according to a new study. The idea that creativity may have given Homo sapiens a survival edge over Neanderthals has been around a long time, said senior author Dr. Claude Robert Cloninger, a professor emeritus in the psychiatry and genetics departments at Washington University in St. Louis. But that’s a tricky case to prove, as we still don’t know how creative Neanderthals actually were, he said. “The problem with evaluating creativity in extinct species is, of course, you can’t … Read more

150 Years May Be the Upper Age Limit For Humans

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Old Hands - Deposit Photos

Humans may be able to live for between 120 and 150 years, but no longer than this “absolute limit” on human life span, a new study suggests. For the study, published online May 25 in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers used mathematical modeling to predict that after 120 to 150 years of age, the human body would totally lose its ability to recover from stresses like illness and injury, resulting in death. If therapies were to be developed to extend the body’s resilience, the researchers argue, these may enable humans to live longer, healthier lives. Studies like this one … Read more

What Color Are These Spheres?

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Munker-White illusion Spheres

These levitating spheres may appear red, purple or green at first glance, but in actuality, all 12 orbs are the same bland shade of beige. Shrinking the image exaggerates this illusion, while zooming in minimizes the effect, according to David Novick, the creator of the image and a professor of engineering education and leadership at the University of Texas at El Paso. But why do we perceive the spheres as anything but their true color, beige? This skewed perception stems from a phenomenon known as the Munker-White illusion, Novick told Live Science. In essence, the illusion works because “our acuity … Read more

SCIENCE: Is There a Creativity Gene?

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Creativity - Deposit Photos

Creativity could be one of the main reasons Homo sapiens survived and dominated over related species such as Neanderthals and chimpanzees, according to a new study. The idea that creativity may have given Homo sapiens a survival edge over Neanderthals has been around a long time, said senior author Dr. Claude Robert Cloninger, a professor emeritus in the psychiatry and genetics departments at Washington University in St. Louis. But that’s a tricky case to prove, as we still don’t know how creative Neanderthals actually were, he said. “The problem with evaluating creativity in extinct species is, of course, you can’t … Read more

There’s Plastic in the Air You Breathe

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Plastic - Deposit Photos

Millions of tiny pieces of plastic are swirling around in Earth’s atmosphere and traveling across entire continents, according to a new study. This environmental problem is likely to get much worse and could have serious effects on human health, experts say. Microplastics measure less than 0.2 inches (5 millimeters) long, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). And previous studies had shown that these microscopic particles can be found in the ocean, bottled water and even our poop, but until now, the atmospheric section of this “plastic cycle” had been poorly understood. The new study revealed thousands of … Read more

Scientists Make Human-Monkey Embryos

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dna - pixabay

Scientists injected dozens of human stem cells into developing monkey embryos, and the resulting hybrids survived for up to 20 days in lab dishes. These human-monkey embryos could someday serve as helpful models for human disease, embryonic development and aging, the study authors noted in a new report, published April 15 in the journal Cell. By zooming in on the interaction of human and animal cells in the embryos, scientists could also learn how to help human cells survive amongst animal cells, potentially advancing the effort to grow human organs in living animal models. Such studies would offer a window … Read more

SCIENCE: Spaceflight Shrinks Your Heart

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heart - pixabay

What do extreme long-distance swimming and spaceflight have in common? They can both shrink the heart, according to a new study. Both activities reduce the pressure of gravity on the heart, making it so that it doesn’t have to work as hard to pump blood upwards through the body. The heart is a muscle, and just like any other muscle in the body, if it’s not used as much as it used to be, it will shrink. To understand what effect weightlessness has on the heart, a group of researchers analyzed health data from retired astronaut Scott Kelly’s year aboard … Read more

SCIENCE: Do Octopuses Dream?

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octopus - pixabay

When octopuses snooze on the seafloor, their skin sometimes pulses with an array of colors, and at other times, they become pale and plain. These alternating patterns mark two distinct stages of the octopus sleep cycle, a small study suggests. During “active sleep,” when an octopus’s skin ripples with dazzling colors, the cephalopod may experience something similar to our rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep, the authors wrote in the study, published March 25 in the journal iScience. Humans do most of their dreaming during REM sleep, but for now, we don’t know if cephalopods also drift off to dreamland — or … Read more

SCIENCE: Our Global Junk is Making Men’s Private Junk Shrink

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Man Tape Measure - Deposit Photos

As if forest fires and melting ice caps weren’t enough to keep you up at night, here’s a brand new nightmare: global warming is coming for your penis. According to leading epidemiologist and environmental scientist Dr Shanna Swan, penises around the world are shrinking, and pollution is to blame. Humanity is facing an “existential crisis”, she explains in her cheery new book Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperilling the Future of the Human Race. It all comes down to phathalates, a chemical used in manufacturing plastics that impacts … Read more

What Is Ice 19?

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ice - pixabay

Scientists have identified the 19th form of water ice. The exotic, four-sided crystals of this rare ice variety, now dubbed ice XIX, form at ultra-low temperatures and ultra-high pressures. It only exists in laboratory experiments, but researchers say it reveals more about other forms of ice, which can be found deep in the Earth’s mantle and on very cold planets and moons. “To name a new ice form, one needs to elucidate exactly what the crystal structure is,” said lead researcher Thomas Loerting, a professor of physical chemistry at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. That means figuring out the … Read more