This week, every American family has been searching for recipes and preparing their best turkey for today’s Thanksgiving. But the question remains, why is turkey the preferred bird for a holiday about gratitude? Historian Troy Bickham wrote in the Conversation that there are not enough records showing...
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Paleontologists in northern China made discoveries redefining the history of the evolution of lampreys, a carnivorous fish, after unearthing two, 160-million-year-old fossils of the species, Science Alert reported. Lampreys are one of the most ancient living types of animals on Earth. They have been around for...
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Scientists discovered that rats could be capable of dreaming giant cheese platters or imagining ways to avoid traps, the Guardian reported. A new study showed that the small mammals can, using their thoughts alone, navigate their way through spaces and areas they previously explored. The research team...
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Astronomers recently discovered that a massive black hole in a galaxy far away is the oldest ever recorded, the Washington Post reported. The “supermassive” object has roughly the same mass as all the stars in that galaxy – known as UHZ1 – combined, and is believed...
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Saturn’s famous rings will vanish in 2025, CBS News reported. Fortunately, this disappearing act is just temporary and it doesn’t mean the majestic ring system will disappear completely. NASA scientists confirmed last week that the planet will go edge-on, which means it will become invisible to us...
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In the “Shrek” series of movies, Puss in Boots opens his eyes big and round, and wields a mighty weapon with this mesmerizing, pleading stare. That’s a look you might recognize in your feline. It’s just one of hundreds of expressions cats use, Live Science reported. In...
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Starfish don’t have brains. They digest their food externally. And they can regenerate parts of their bodies. In other words, they are freaks of nature, Science Alert reported. These creatures belong to a group of marine life known as echinoderms, which include sea urchins and the sea...
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Women go through menopause. So do some toothed whales. Now, a new study has found that some chimpanzees do, too. Even so, researchers still haven’t figured out what the evolutionary advantage of menopause is, or why it only impacts certain species, Popular Science reported. Menopause usually occurs...
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Many a voter bemoans the current state of election campaigns, wishing they were less vitriolic, less dirty. Turns out, the ancient Romans probably wished that too, according to Smithsonian Magazine, detailing a discovery in Pompeii that highlights vote-buying and other election shenanigans almost two thousand years...
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A crashing meteorite and data from a four-year-long NASA mission recently unveiled hot new details about Mars’ core, upending what scientists thought they knew about its fiery interior, Nature magazine reported. It’s smaller and more complicated than they previously thought. Between 2018 and 2022, NASA’s InSight mission...
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No water? No problem for an evergreen shrub found in arid coastal regions of the Middle East, which packs a unique and sophisticated mechanism to obtain water in extremely harsh environments, Science News reported. In a new study, a research team explained that the Athel tamarisk...
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Scientists studying giant South American river turtles found the animals have a remarkable ability to communicate even before hatching, the Washington Post reported. Locally known as arrau, the freshwater turtles are found throughout the Amazon River and its tributaries. During dry seasons, thousands of females go...
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A new study on a 2,300-year-old medical document suggests that ancient Egypt had more venomous snakes than today, Newsweek reported. Scientists recently analyzed the contents of the Brooklyn Papyrus, an ancient scroll dating from 660-330 BCE. Kept in New York City’s Brooklyn Museum, the medical treatise is...
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Australia’s modern relationship with its dingoes is not very friendly. The animals are responsible for attacks on livestock to such an extent that officials implement culls and have even erected a nearly 3,500-mile-long fence to keep the wild dog species at bay. How far these creatures have...
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Humans can’t survive on Mars but that doesn’t mean mice can’t, Cosmos magazine reported. A research team found recently that leaf-eared mice have no issues surviving at the summits of Andean volcanoes more than 20,000 feet in altitude. These areas are considered “Mars-like” environments and rank among...
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Brazil’s Amazon region is experiencing a severe drought that has drawn water levels down to unprecedented lows. Still, the drought has also unveiled a myriad of stone carvings of human faces and other figures dating back more than a thousand years, the Guardian reported. Archaeologists found the...
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Scientists have created an innovative paint that goes beyond traditional aesthetics – it contains cyanobacteria capable of producing oxygen and absorbing carbon dioxide, New Atlas reported. Cyanobacteria, often referred to as blue-green algae, are well-known for their photosynthetic abilities. They can capture carbon dioxide from the...
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Astronomers spotted a distant and powerful radio wave burst which took eight billion years to journey across the universe to reach Earth, CNN reported. In their paper, scientists explained these signals are known as fast radio bursts (FRBs), which they describe as intense blasts of radio...
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Seaweed is usually associated with East Asian cuisines, but the aquatic plants were also a staple for early Europeans thousands of years ago, Smithsonian Magazine reported. In a new study, archaeologists and scientists analyzed the fossilized dental plaque from the remains of 74 humans unearthed at...
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Ancient Chinese soldiers packed a lot of firepower when they were guarding the Great Wall of China, according to Newsweek. Archaeologists recently discovered a cache of 59 “stone grenades” in the ruins of a building along a section of the monument known as the Badaling Wall,...
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