Popular Science

Designer crossbreed dogs are increasingly popular pets. By some estimates, the wider world of “doodles” alone rakes in over $1 billion dollars a year. Much of the rising interest is tied to claims that these mixed pooches possess more desirable aspects than many purebreeds or mutts. But according to a study published today in the journal PLOS One, at least three trendy designer breeds—labradoodles, cavapoos, and cockapoos—display more problematic traits than at least one of their origin breeds.

The latest findings come from a survey of dog owners in the United Kingdom representing 9,402 cavapoos, cockapoos, and labradoodles. Each crossbreed comes from a poodle bred with a cavalier King Charles spaniel, cocker spaniel, or Labrador retriever. Animal behavioralists from the Royal Veterinary College used an industry standard review called the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ), to collect data on behavioral traits such as aggression, excitability, and trainability. 

Their results contradict some of the most popular assumptions about these crossbreed dogs. In over 44 percent of comparisons, a crossbreed had more undesirable aspects than their purebred progenitors including excess energy, separation anxiety, and more. Meanwhile, they did not find any notable differences in nearly 46 percent of comparisons, and less than 10 percent of crossbreeds displayed fewer issues.

But if you had to pick one of the three canine types, the study suggests avoiding cockapoos. These dogs scored worse than their parent breeds in 16 of the 24 behaviors, particularly when it came to owner-directed anger and excitability. Cavapoos came in second place, with worse scores in 11 out of 24 areas, although labradoodles appear to fare the best. These dogs only scored worse in five areas and actually ranked better in six subjects like aggression towards other pets.

While the findings aren’t a condemnation of any one specific crossbreed, the study’s authors hope the new information will help dispel ongoing myths about designer dogs. At the very least, pet owners should know what they’re in for when they bring their new four-legged friend home.

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Over 200 colorful minerals will hit the auction block on March 20 as part of Heritage’s The Collection of William and Ruth Loomis Fine Minerals Signature® Auction. What started as a shared hobby evolved into a lifelong passion that soon will be offered to mineral collectors everywhere. Soon after marrying in 1987, the pair opened Loomis Minerals in Flagstaff, Arizona, which became the hub for their finds. 

“William and Ruth Loomis dedicated much of their adult lives to building this enticing collection, and their vast knowledge shines through in the lots that will cross the block in this auction,” Nic Valenzuela, Heritage’s Director of Fine Minerals, said in a statement. “This presents an opportunity to bid on some exceptional minerals from some of the most important mines around the world.”

Check out some of the items up for bid below. (Click to expand images to full screen.)

This aquamarine with muscovite was found in Nagar District in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. It is roughly the size of a cabinet and is largely composed of one massive crystal with a glassy luster and vibrant sky blue zoning and shiny bladed muscovite associations. Image: Heritage Auctions. Native gold from the Harvard Mine in the Jamestown District in Tuolumne County, California. This mine was among the first to be discovered in 1848, at the beginning of the American Gold Rush. Despite their rarity, when compared to the gold found in nuggets or veins, crystallized gold specimens often have a level of history and even aesthetics that go beyond their bullion value. This particular piece is 3.66 inches long and presented against a white quartz to contrast with its yellow color. Image: Heritage Auctions. This colorful elbaite (tourmaline) and quartz comes from Paprok, Afghanistan. The main focus of this particular specimen is a single immense, heavily striated, prismatic crystal that rises to a complex termination and is partially wreathed by striking parallel growths. This crystal is polychromatic, showing vibrant layers of deep red and pink that are topped by yellow, grass-green and blue-green zoning. Image: Heritage Auctions. 
This zincite is from Silesian Voivodeship in Poland and is 12 inches long in each direction. Zincite rarely occurs as crystallized examples in nature, apart from at a couple of localities. Similar to other zincites found throughout Poland’s various zinc smelting sites, this piece was found lining the interior of the smelter’s smokestack. Most of the hexagonal crystals are arranged in a jackstraw cluster of needle-shaped growths that come to very thin points. Image: Heritage Auctions. Opalized wood from Virgin Valley in Humboldt County, Nevada. It’s 12.68 inches long and boasts an extremely colorful field of opal,  showing large swatches of violet, blue, and green that cover most of the piece. Image: Heritage Auctions. The auction includes 20 tourmalines, including this tourmaline with lepidolite and smoky quartz from Paprok in the Kamdesh District in Nuristan, Afghanistan. It’s 7.64 inches long and has a large tourmaline crystal joined by dense clusters of lepidolite and associations of smoky quartz. It’s pink hue that is most intense at its core. Image: Heritage Auctions This schorl with goshenite comes from the Erongo Mountains in Namibia. It’s 4.45 inches long, and its schorl crystals intertwine in every direction. Hexagonal crystals of goshenite—a colorless variety of beryl—are also all over the mineral helping contrast with the black. Image: Heritage Auctions.

Images and information about all lots in the auction can be found at HA.com/8244.

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Our ancient ancestors loved their birch tar. Neanderthals likely used the sticky substance to build and repair tools, but it also may have had another important use. With its antibiotic properties, birch tar could also treat wounds. The findings are detailed in a study published today in the journal PLOS One.

Long believed to be one of the less advanced Homo species, recent studies have shown that Neanderthals built tools, collected random items, and even made art using a type of crayon. Archaeologists frequently find birch tar at Neanderthal archaeological sites, which comes from birch trees. Some researchers have questioned if Neanderthals were using it for more than just making tools. Indigenous communities in northern Europe and Canada treat wounds with birch tar and there is growing evidence that Neanderthals employed a variety of medical practices, including helping their sick or injured comrades.

To investigate birch tar’s medicinal potential, the team extracted tar from modern birch tree bark, specifically targeting tree species known from Neanderthal sites. They used multiple extraction methods that Neanderthals would have used, including distilling the tar in a clay pit and condensing it against a stone surface. 

“The messiness of birch tar production deserves a special mention,” the study’s co-authors wrote in a joint statement. “Every step of the production is a sensory experience in itself, and getting the tar off our hands after spending hours at the fire has been a challenge every time.”

In the lab, the team exposed the tar samples to different strains of bacteria. All of the tar samples were effective at hindering the growth of Staphylococcus bacteria known to cause wound infections.

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According to the team, these experiments support the efficacy of Indigenous medicinal practices, and also reinforce the possibility that Neanderthals used birch tar to treat their own wounds. It also may have been used as an insect repellent.

“We found that the birch tar produced by Neanderthals and early humans had antibacterial properties,” the team said. “This has important implications for how Neanderthals may have mitigated disease burden during the last Ice Ages, and adds to a growing set of evidence on healthcare in these early human communities.”

Future studies of the potential uses of these natural ingredients could also lead to a more thorough understanding of a lost Neanderthal culture and could have a direct impact on the future of medicine as antibiotic resistance grows. 

“By bringing together research on indigenous pharmacology and experimental archaeology, we begin to understand the medicinal practices of our distant human ancestors and their closest cousins,” the team concluded. “Additionally, this study of ‘palaeopharmacology’ can contribute to the rediscovery of antibiotic remedies whilst we face an ever more pressing antimicrobial resistance crisis.”

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Clothing trends come and go, but in some cases, they don’t stay away for too long. For decades, both the fashion industry and its devotees have referenced the so-called “20-year-rule,” which suggests society is liable to see certain styles return at semiregular intervals. However, without any hard data to back up the claim, that “rule” has long remained more of a hypothesis.

That’s changing, thanks to recent analysis from mathematicians at Northwestern University. After examining nearly 160 years’ worth of women’s clothing, an interdisciplinary research team confirms that fashion trends frequently resurface every 20-or-so years.

“To our knowledge, this is the first time that someone developed such an extensive and precise database of fashion measures across more than a century,” study lead author Emma Zajdela said in a recent university profile.

Example of how the researchers measured features like hemlines, waistlines and necklines in archival sewing patterns. Credit: Emma Zajdela / Daniel Abrams / Commercial Pattern Archive

To reach their conclusions, researchers first compiled a dataset of about 37,000 garments by combining the University of Rhode Island’s Commercial Pattern Archive with generations of runway collection images dating back to 1869. They then broke down clothing based on specific features including hemline, waistline positioning, and neckline to assess each example in measurable, numerical terms. Finally, they built a new mathematical model to analyze the push-and-pull between novel and more recognizable fashion designs. According to Zajdela and her colleagues, the evidence clearly shows that the fashion industry routinely recycles certain themes and designs around every two decades.

“Historically, the lack of data posed a barrier to explicit quantitative study of this system,” explained Zajdela, adding that they now have “some very interesting results.”

Basically, the fashion industry is constantly fluctuating between originality and tradition. Once a clothing style is too popular, designers begin changing their new apparel just enough to stand out while still remaining desirable to potential wearers.

“Over time, this constant push to be different from the recent past causes styles to swing back and forth. The system intrinsically wants to oscillate, and we see those cycles in the data,” said applied mathematician and study coauthor Daniel Abrams.

The most obvious example of this pattern is the hemline. For more than a century, skirt fashion has swayed between short and long styles. Flapper dresses with short hemlines were all the rage in the 1920s, but gave way to lengthier designs in the 1940s and 50s. By the 1960s, the trend returned back to even shorter options like the miniskirt.

However, despite this mathematical support, the 20-year-rule may not last much longer. Beginning in the 1980s, the short-long skirt dichotomy began breaking down as both options remained popular for wearers.

“In the past, there were two options—short dresses and long dresses. In more recent years, there are more options: really short dresses, floor-length dresses and midi dresses,” said Zajdela. “There is an increase in variance over time and less conformity.”

Only time will tell if the 20-year-rule remains in effect. Until then, it’s probably best to hold on to that old piece of clothing for at least a little bit longer. It’s not only good for your wardrobe—it’s good for the environment.

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Over the long and complicated course of evolutionary history, mammals independently turned towards water to make a home multiple times. While many of the warm-blooded animals that abandoned dry land for a watery habitat no longer exist, we still have plenty of stunning examples: Think dolphins, whales, manatees, porpoises. There’s even a whole suborder of carnivores called the pinnipeds, which includes seals, sea lions, and walruses who move between land and water. 

But, just like all animals, marine mammals need water to stay hydrated to survive. The trouble is that salt water, which makes up some 97 percent of the water on earth and is home to mammals like orcas and bottlenose dolphins, is dehydrating by nature. “We have salt in our body fluids, but a lot less salt than in sea water,” Martin Grosell, an aquatic organisms researcher at the University of Miami, tells Popular Science. “This means that the high salt concentration in sea water, by osmosis, drags water out of the animal.” 

Despite the fact that you get wet when you enter the ocean, living in the sea is physiologically similar to living in a desert, Grosell adds. To live in any tough scenario, on land or otherwise, animals must adapt. To understand how mammals can survive and hydrate in the sea, we must dive in the evolutionary deep end. 

The difference between invertebrates and vertebrates

While scientists still can’t pinpoint the exact origin of life, many scientists believe it actually started deep in the ocean. But these early creatures hardly resemble what we think of as today’s sea beasts—they were invertebrates, meaning they didn’t have backbones. 

“Most of the invertebrates do not control their internal salt content, so they have the same salt content as the sea water,” says Grosell. “What that means is they are not dehydrating, they’re not losing water.” This strategy for survival, called osmoconforming, appears in all sorts of animals we are familiar with today: starfish, jellyfish, lobsters, mollusks, and more. 

But things get complicated when you throw in a backbone. Fish, sea reptiles (think sea snakes and saltwater crocodiles), sea mammals, and even sea birds all require specialized body parts to remove the salt from the water they consume. 

“The big challenge for animals that drink sea water is the salt they’re getting with that water, ” Grosell says. “If they cannot get rid of that salt, there’s no benefit to taking in that water.” 

For fish, drinking salt water is just part of the day-to-day. The water gets absorbed into their intestines, but the salt is transported from their blood to cells in the gills, which then push that salt back into the sea. 

Humpback whales have really salty pee, relying on specialized kidneys to filter out salt from ocean water. Image: Getty Images / Westend61

But for animals without gills, like mammals, reptiles, and birds, the story is more complex. These creatures need to expel the extra salt somehow, which for mammals is via the kidneys. While it’s exceptionally difficult to measure, say, the saltiness of whale urine, what we do know is that the kidneys of marine mammals can “produce a urine that’s really concentrated,” Grosell adds. Some marine animals even have what are called reniculate kidneys. These organs are divided into hundreds of tiny filtering units that help expel a ton of salt. 

Birds, on the other hand, have glands above their eyes that secrete high-salinity fluid like a mammal’s kidney would. This comes in handy for feathered friends who spend swaths of the year with only access to saltwater, and research has demonstrated that salt gland masses of different birds may even vary seasonally. 

For reptiles, the process is quite similar. Sea turtles have salt glands behind their eyes (which makes them look like they are crying when above the water), marine iguanas have salt glands connected to their nose (which makes for some very salty sneezes), and sea snakes and crocodiles have salt glands on their tongues.

To drink or not to drink

While some animals certainly do, purposefully or otherwise, drink salt water and then deal with the consequences, this is a very metabolically expensive way to live. “If they can get water in other ways, they’re gonna prefer that,” Grosell adds. “And some of those ways, of course, are the water that’s contained in whatever prey they eat.” 

Almost all marine mammals are carnivores: Think orcas, whales, dolphins, and even walruses and otters. Even baleen whales eat swarms of tiny animals known as krill. Chowing down on fish and other marine creatures means eating animals with a similar water content as themselves, and it turns out to be a solid hydration strategy. 

For instance, one study from the 1970s demonstrated that this kind of lifestyle, merely chowing down on fish, allows for enough hydration that elephant seal pups don’t even need a sip of fresh water to stay healthy. In fact, they can fast on land for up to three months without drinking thanks to their unique combination of behavioral and physiological water conservation mechanisms. 

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Still, some marine mammals can’t resist a mouthful of unsalted goodness. This is especially true of manatees, which will seek fresh water sources near the shore or low-salinity river mouths, adds Grosell. 

Floridians may attest to this, he says, as manatees will sometimes approach boaters for a tasty sip. “They have a very strong ability to find water,” he says. “Water is a commodity for them, and it’s one they will work hard for.” 

On the other side of North America, hooded seal pups found off the Davis Strait, the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland, and the Gulf of St Lawrence have been recorded slurping up sea water as well as snow. Snow, even when it falls over the ocean, is freshwater thanks to the tricks of evaporation. 

The key to remaining a hydrated mammal while thriving in sea water is threefold: eat watery food, find freshwater as needed, and pee out any extra salt that gets in the way. It’s a tried-and-true method that’s lasted millions of years. But humans don’t have these adaptations. So next time you hit the beach, remember to pack a water bottle if you don’t want to dehydrate.

In Ask Us Anything, Popular Science answers your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the everyday things you’ve always wondered to the bizarre things you never thought to ask. Have something you’ve always wanted to know? Ask us.

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Tuesday March 10th was a particularly punishing day of bad weather for the residents of Kansas City, Missouri. That evening, hailstones as large as grapefruits bombarded homes, businesses, and vehicles in the area, causing widespread damage to the community.

While such weather events remain comparatively rare, severe storms are continuing to strengthen due to climate change. Unfortunately, meteorologists still have a lot to learn about hailstorms in particular. It remains difficult to anticipate the size of ice chunks falling from the sky, and even estimating how hail melts as it careens towards Earth is a challenge.

To improve their understanding and better prepare for future events, NASA researchers are asking the public to help contribute to their ongoing hailstone investigations. And as storm season gears up, there’s no better time to familiarize yourself with the free hail tracking app courtesy of the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow (CoCoRaHS) network.

Designed in collaboration with the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, the CoCoRaHS Southeast Region (SEaRCH) project relies on volunteer submission reports on local hail events. Users can upload storm details including time, date, location, as well as hailstone photos and measurements directly to the CoCoRaHS app.

CoCoRaHS organizers estimate it only takes five to 10 minutes to finish per event, and free training is available through multiple outlets. Particularly dedicated citizen scientists can take it a step further, too. The SEaRCH app also accepts precipitation measurements using a rain gauge that costs about $42 to purchase.

With the aid of volunteer submissions, NASA scientists are now combining hail reports with archived satellite data to develop and hone hail prediction models, as well as melt profiles of the ice. Melt profiles do more than just improve forecasting abilities. They allow meteorologists to better estimate how various hailstone sizes melt over time.

Curious citizen scientists are encouraged to download the app and start submitting their data as soon as they can—just be sure to wait until a hailstorm is completely over before venturing out to take your measurements. No one wants to be beaned with a cantaloupe-sized ball of ice.

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There are quite a few animals considered “living fossils” in today’s world. Once thought extinct, the prehistoric coelacanth has continuously swam through Earth’s oceans since the time of the dinosaurs. Horseshoe crabs exist in fossil records dating back hundreds of millions of years. Even many sharks look virtually unchanged from their Cretaceous Era ancestors. But although Tanyka amnicola was last seen about 275 million years ago, it was already a living fossil in its own time.

It was also an extremely strange creature. So strange, in fact, that paleontologists initially thought they were looking at an ancient aberration when they discovered the first jawbone of this salamander-esque creature in a dry riverbed near the Amazon rainforest in Brazil.

A Tanyka jawbone, with rock hammer for scale, found in the Brazil. Credit: Ken Angielczyk / Field Museum

“The jaw has this weird twist that drove us crazy trying to figure it out. We were scratching our heads over this for years, wondering if it was some kind of deformation,” recalled Jason Pardo, a paleontologist at Chicago’s Field Museum.

As Pardo and his colleagues detail in a study published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Tanyka’s odd jaw was simply part of its evolutionary package. And they have eight other similar fossil specimens to prove it.

Tankya (“jaw” in the local Indigenous Guaraní language) was an incredibly early four-legged vertebrate, or tetrapod. Present-day examples of four-legged animals are found across birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, but they all trace back to a single lineage called stem tetrapods. Eventually, stem tetrapods separated into two groups—one that laid eggs on land, and another that laid them in water. Tankya, however, firmly remained in the “stem tetrapod” camp.

“Tanyka is from an ancient lineage that we didn’t know survived to this time,” said Pardo.

He likens it to the present-day platypus. Almost every living mammal reproduces through live births, but the first examples laid eggs. The platypus retained its egg-laying abilities over millions of years, making a bit of a mammalian oddity.

And then there is Tanyka’s mouth. The bottom teeth didn’t face upward—they pointed to either side instead. Meanwhile, the section of jaw that faces the tongue in humans was oriented toward the roof of the mouth. These surfaces were also covered in tiny teeth known as denticles that turned the angled jaw into a grinding surface.

Fossil showing the denticles on the jaw, forming a cheese-grater-like surface that may have been used for grinding plant matter. Credit: Ken Angielczyk / Field Museum

“Based on its teeth, we think that Tanyka was a herbivore, and that it ate plants at least some of the time,” said Juan Carlos Cisneros, a study co-author and paleontologist at Brazil’s Federal University of Piauí.

This only adds to the animal’s uniqueness, since the vast majority of stem tetrapods were strictly carnivorous.

“We expect the denticles on the lower jaw were rubbing up against similar teeth on the upper side of the mouth. The teeth would have been rasping against each other, in a way that’s going to create a relatively unique way of feeding,” added Pardo.

Based on these details, its closest evolutionary relatives, and its river habitat, the study’s authors believe Tanyka likely resembled a three-foot-long salamander sporting a lengthier snout. But at least for now, determining what it looked like is mostly guesswork.

“We found these jaws in isolation, and they’re really weird, and they’re very distinctive,” said Field Museum paleomammalogy curator and study co-author Ken Angielczyk. “But until we find one of those jaws attached to a skull or other bones that are definitively associated with the jaw, we can’t say for sure that the other bones we find near it belong to Tanyka.”

Until then, Tanyka’s jawbone alone is still more than enough to raise eyebrows.

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While a recent Iron Age discovery in northern Germany is proving itself an archaeological goldmine, local firefighters might be a bit annoyed by the find. According to the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe (LWL), construction on a new fire station in the town of Hüllhorst roughly 45 miles west of Hanover was delayed after the surveyors identified evidence of a settlement dating back over 2,500 years. As only the third such find in the region, the site offers an exceptional opportunity to learn more about ancient life in Germany prior to the Roman Empire’s arrival in 1st century BCE.

Although a welcome excavation project, the Iron Age community’s existence in the area isn’t a huge surprise. Archaeological surveys in the region are often scheduled prior to new building projects, largely due to its proximity to Wöhrsiek, an active freshwater spring that has been used by nearby inhabitants for thousands of years. In the summer of 2025, researchers began removing narrow strips of topsoil, and soon noticed evidence of past settlement. Most of the residual finds came in the form of soil discolorations that point to former refuse pits and storage areas, but certain stains also indicated the presence of postholes. Using these as references, archaeologists were able to recreate entire layouts of various buildings.

Typical vessel shards of the early Iron Age: a rim decorated with finger dots and a fragment with a wide rimmed handle. Credit: LWL-AfW / S. Düvel

“In addition to two smaller buildings, we also discovered the remains of a large residential building,” excavation director Hisham Nabo said in a LWL statement translated from German.

The house was positioned carefully and intentionally. By facing northeast-to-southwest, its narrow sides faced towards the prevailing winds, thereby reducing exposure to the elements. Nabo’s team explained that this shows just how environmentally and architecturally aware this Iron Age community was at the time.

Excavation manager Hisham Nabo (left) and excavation worker Ristam Abdo (right) stand in an excavated settlement pit and examine some of the shards found there. The discolorations are cut to capture their structure and recover the finds within. Credit: LWL-AfW / S. Düvel

Beyond the buildings, archaeologists also recovered fragments from handled cups called terrines and other pottery with recognizable rim decorations. Combined with additional radiocarbon dating, experts believe that the settlement dates to somewhere between 800 and 600 BCE.

“For us, this is a real stroke of luck, because until now we in East Westphalia only knew house plans from this period from Werther and Minden, which were only discovered in recent years,” added scientific adviser Sebastian Düvel. “Together with the new discoveries in Hüllhorst, we hope to gain exciting insights into everyday life during this time.”

The post 2,500-year-old settlement found during fire station construction appeared first on Popular Science.

As if flamingos weren’t showy enough, the American flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) has officially been elevated to a new celebrity status. The Florida House of Representatives and Senate have designated the species as Florida’s official state bird. 

The long-legged American flamingo is one of the largest flamingo species in the world, and gets its iconic cotton-candy pink hue from a pigment in its food. The birds live on South America’s northern coast and in the Caribbean. In the United States, they only exist naturally in Florida. 

The move replaces the mockingbird, or northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) as the official state bird, but we don’t think they will mind. The grayish species still holds the title in Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee.

The bill also designates the Florida scrub-jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens) as Florida’s official state songbird. Clearly, those involved in the two decisions were going for color. This songbird endemic to Florida is starkly blue.

If you’re surprised by the fact that Florida has both a state bird and a state songbird, you’re in for a ride. Florida has official symbols for a shocking amount of things—from both a state saltwater (sailfish, Istiophorus platypterus) and freshwater fish (Florida bass, Micropterus salmoides) to beverage (orange juice) and shell (horse conch) all the way to official state soil (Myakka fine sand). 

“I filed the bill designating the American flamingo as Florida’s official state bird and the Florida scrub-jay as the official state songbird. This legislation not only highlights the unique avian diversity of our state but also emphasizes the importance of conservation efforts for these iconic species,” Florida Rep. Jim Mooney explained. While American flamingos are doing well, Florida scrub-jays are classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). 

“This bill encourages public engagement in conservation initiatives and fosters a sense of pride in our state heritage,” Mooney continued. “With this bill, we take a significant step toward promoting awareness and action for the conservation of these remarkable birds, ensuring that future generations can appreciate and enjoy Florida’s rich wildlife and natural beauty.”

The post Florida finally makes the flamingo its state bird appeared first on Popular Science.

The world’s largest acidic geyser is erupting for the first time in six years. Yellowstone National Park’s Echinus Geyser is part of the very active Norris Geyser Basin in Wyoming. In early February, the geyser began spewing out acid and water up to 30 feet into the air. The new eruptions highlight the power of the hottest and most dynamic region of Yellowstone National Park.

Acid geysers like Echinus are considered rare since acidic water is usually powerful enough to break down the rock that makes up a geyser’s plumbing system. However, Echinus’ acidic water composition comes from the mixing between acidic gases and neutral waters. This means that there is not enough acid in the water to eat away at the rock.  

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), this unusual water chemistry creates some interesting formations, compositions, and color. The red color that surrounds the geyser pool and the silica-covered spiny rocks come from iron, aluminum, and arsenic.

The Echinus Geyser pool itself is about 66 feet across. Since the acid itself is not concentrated, it is not particularly dangerous and the USGS says it has a similar acidity to orange juice or vinegar. However, the water temperatures can reach upwards of 200 degrees Fahrenheit, so visitors should be cautious. The Norris Geyser Basin is also home to the tallest active geyser on Earth—Steamboat Geyser.

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Geologists believe that the Echinus Geyser was mostly dormant except for occasional eruptions until 1948. During the 1970s, it erupted in regular 40 to 80 minute intervals, before becoming more extreme in the 1980s and 1990s. These more intense eruptions could sometimes last over 90 minutes. By the early 2000s, the eruptions started to wind down and the activity became much less common as temperatures cooled. 

The geyser really came alive in fall 2017. From October 18 to November 10, 2017, Echinus consistently erupted roughly about every two to three hours. The activity then stopped with only one eruption in January 2018 and 2019 and then two in December 2020. 

This year marks Echinus’ first eruption since 2020. In early February, the geyser’s surface became agitated and started releasing more water down the runoff channel. Beginning on February 16, the eruptions began repeating every two to five hours, lasting about two to three minutes, and water levels reached 20-to 30-feet high. The USGS says that this pattern resembles what happened in 2017.

To follow the Echinus Geyser’s activity from anywhere, users can monitor the temperature graphs on the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory’s website. Spies that reach about 158 degrees Fahrenheit are eruptions, while those at 104 °F are the surges. The eruptions are not expected to last into the busy summer tourist season at Yellowstone, so watch while you can. 

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For centuries, people traveled to Delphi in southern Greece hoping for a glimpse of their future. There, at the temple of the god Apollo, a priestess was said to enter a trance and issue prophecies in the voice of Apollo himself. Everyday people, kings, even Alexander the Great traveled for miles to hear the priestess’s input on important decisions, from personal finance to matters of state.

Known as the Pythia or the Oracle of Delphi, the priestess wasn’t believed to be a psychic. Ancient writers like Plutarch, who served as a priest at Delphi in the first and second centuries, described her as a vessel for a power that came from the Earth. 

According to Plutarch’s account, the temple of Delphi was constructed around a natural spring, where the water and fissures in the rock produced a sweet-smelling gas called pneuma. On designated days a few times per year, the chosen priestess sat amidst the pneuma on a tripod stool and inhaled enough to enter her trance. This was an exhausting ordeal for the woman. She might cry out, become hysterical, or collapse.

Plutarch claimed that there was less pneuma in his time than there had once been, leading to a decline in the temple’s popularity. After the temple closed down in 393 AD, the pneuma remained an enduring scientific puzzle. Was the trance-inducing vapor real? And if so, what exactly was it, and where had it come from?

Decoding ancient sources for clues

The first modern excavations at Delphi, conducted between 1892 and 1950, failed to find a large fissure in the rock, which they had pictured as the source of the gas. At the time, experts believed that gases could only rise from the Earth in connection with volcanoes, which Delphi doesn’t have. This led scholars to dismiss the ancient accounts as hearsay. However, subsequent investigations came to a very different conclusion, spurred on by the words of the ancient authors. 

“When I’ve got written sources from the ancient world, my first effort is, ‘What can I learn from them?’” archaeologist John Hale tells Popular Science. In the 1990s, Hale and a multidisciplinary team of researchers finally uncovered scientific evidence that corroborated the ancient descriptions of Delphi. 

Shifting tectonic plates can cause gases to rise from the Earth

Hale explains that his colleague, Dutch-American geologist Jelle Zeilinga de Boer, had noticed a fault line passing under the temple of Delphi during a 1980s surveying project. Fault lines are places where two of the Earth’s tectonic plates bump against one another. The plates’ movement can cause earthquakes and other forms of geological activity, including the emission of gases. 

De Boer wondered if the ancient pneuma at Delphi was “a light hydrocarbon gas” that rose from the permeable limestone under the temple, says Hale. 

Hydrocarbons are compounds made entirely of carbon and hydrogen. A fundamental component of living things, they also occur in fossil fuels like petroleum. Such chemicals “are found in a lot of geological formations all over the planet,” says Hale. “They’re part of the mix of the Earth’s crust.” 

When two tectonic plates rub against each other along a fault line, they produce friction, which can generate enough heat to convert those solid hydrocarbons in the Earth’s crust into gas. And if there’s enough holes or channels in the Earth, that gas can rise to the surface, similar to what ancient authors described at Delphi. 

When tectonic plates shift, hydrocarbons, such as methane and ethane, can rise to the Earth’s surface. Video: Insane Natural Gas Discovery in the Wild! / @CrafterDUCK Testing Delphi’s bedrock for prophetic fumes

Early excavations at Delphi discovered a porous limestone bedrock far below the temple. That stone could provide the necessary, near-invisible channels for the flow of gases to reach ground level and, in turn, a waiting priestess’s lungs. 

But there was no evidence of a hydrocarbon deposit at the site. Together, Hale and De Boer decided to see if Delphi’s limestone really did contain these compounds. If found, they might represent the final piece of the puzzle.

In 1996, after gaining permission from the Greek government, Hale and De Boer made their first expedition to Delphi. They took samples of the bedrock and sent them to a lab for analysis. As they suspected, the porous limestone was rich in hydrocarbons, such as ethane, methane, and ethylene.

What exactly was the Oracle of Delphi inhaling?

Ethylene is a hydrocarbon and one of the world’s most widely-produced organic compounds. In industry, it’s a building block for plastics. In agriculture, it’s used to induce ripening in fruit. (Have you ever put a green banana in a paper bag to make it ripen faster? Fruit releases ethylene to encourage its own ripening, which builds up inside the bag). In the past, ethylene gas was even used as a surgical anesthetic, because inhaling it at a concentration of 20 percent causes unconsciousness. 

But what happens if someone inhales a lower, though still highly-concentrated, dose? To find out, Hale and De Boer turned to toxicologist Henry Spiller, due to his research on “huffing,” the inhalation of hydrocarbons and other toxic gases for recreation. 

What does inhaling ethylene do to a person?

Spiller found many parallels between the altered state of mind produced by ethylene inhalation and ancient accounts of the Pythia’s trance. People under the influence of ethylene remain lucid and responsive, but may speak or behave strangely. They may become agitated, scream, or convulse, and may be unable to remember what happened after the gas wears off. Hale calls ethylene “a perfect match” for the ancient pneuma. Ethylene even smells sweet, just as Plutarch described. 

Repeated inhalation of gases like ethylene carries serious health risks. Plutarch noted that inhaling the gas shortened the priestess’s lives and could even kill them on rare occasions. At the temple’s height, multiple women shared the office of oracle because of how physically demanding it was to enter the trance state. Being Pythia was considered a great honor, but it was also a burden. 

The Oracle of Delphi would utter her prophecies from inside the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, Greece (shown here). Image: Federica Grassi / Getty Images Federica Grassi Why ethylene comes to the surface

Today, we know that shifting tectonic plates can produce gases even when a volcano is not present. And, if there are channels up to ground level, those gases only have one direction to go: up.

“Ethylene is one of those lighter-than-air gases that comes straight to the surface if it’s being emitted,” Hale explains, rising through openings like those in the porous limestone at Delphi. And after that, Hale adds, the gas “can be huffed by anybody who’s on top and put them in an altered state.” 

Early excavations at Delphi were looking for one big chasm in the rocks. The most recent evidence suggests that gas actually seeped through many small openings, following the paths made by spring water. Hydrocarbons have also been found in the water at Delphi itself, and some still rises from groundwater as gas today; enough to occasionally kill birds that come too close. 

Archaeologists now know that the Oracle of Delphi didn’t inhale fumes from a single fissure, but instead inhaled fumes from invisible channels within the porous limestone beneath the Temple of Apollo. Image: Public Domain What makes Delphi unique

Hale notes that the physical site of Delphi was recognized as unique in the ancient world. It was not the only temple where an oracle claimed to foretell the future, but “it’s the only one that ever mentioned a sweet-smelling gas as part of the sacred experience,” he says. 

When compared with other Greek temples, Delphi was likely designed to enclose the spring, allowing gas to accumulate in the inner chamber where the Pythia sat. Other Greek temples may not have had vapor-inhaling oracles, but many were also positioned over sites of high geological activity, such as the temple at the ancient city of Hierapolis (modern Pamukkale, Turkey). There, carbon dioxide rather than ethylene rises from the Earth, which was also used in ancient religious rites to kill sacrificial animals.

We know from Hierapolis and similar sites that the water which carries gases to the surface also deposits minerals. This may gradually clog the channels in the stone, so that less gas reaches the surface over time. Earthquakes, which occurred at Delphi even in ancient times, might also lead to changes in the pathways for the gas. An earthquake might close previously open channels for ethylene or release a large buildup of it at once. So while we can’t know for certain, there may be a geological explanation for Plutarch’s assertion that the pneuma declined over time.

Today, Delphi’s unique geology is far from inactive. Gases can still rise from the porous limestone beneath the temple ruins, serving as a very real connection between us and our ancient ancestors. 

In That Time When, Popular Science tells the weirdest, surprising, and little-known stories that shaped science, engineering, and innovation. 

Other 'That Time When' Stories

In medieval France, murderous pigs faced trial and execution

4 times drinking coffee was illegal—or even punishable by death

Emus once faced down the Australian army—and won

During WWII, a dress-wearing squirrel sold war bonds alongside FDR

Idaho once dropped 76 beavers from airplanes—on purpose

Shifting tectonic plates can cause gases to rise from the Earth

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If you’ve spent any time on the Earth in the last 50 years or so, you might have noticed a lot of trash laying around…with less and less space to, you know, put it. Meanwhile, we’re sending all sorts of satellites and rockets beyond our atmosphere every day.

That’s why you asked us: Why can’t we launch our junk into space, too? Or better yet: STRAIGHT INTO THE SUN!

For the moment, let’s set aside the big problems with creating too much trash in the first place, and focus on the blocker: We simply can’t afford to shoot our junk into that flamin’ hot Cheeto in the sky.

Plus, shouldn’t we worry about finding a solution down here on our planet? Yes.

On our latest video episode of Ask Us Anything, we explain why we can’t launch our garbage into the sun or onto the moon.

If you’d like to see more Popular Science videos, subscribe on YouTube. We’ll be bringing you explainers and explorations of our weird world.

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A biocomputer powered by lab-grown human brain cells has leveled up from Pong to Doom. While nowhere ready to handle the video game shooter’s most challenging levels, researchers at Cortical Labs in Australia believe their neuronal chip is well on its way to powering a new generation of hybrid organic technologies.

“This was a major milestone, because it demonstrated adaptive, real-time goal directed learning,” Brett Kagan, Cortical Labs Chief Scientific and Chief Operations Officer, said in a recent video announcement.

It’s taken years to cross the Doom benchmark. In 2021, Cortical Labs debuted DishBrain—an early biocomputer utilizing around 800,000 human nerve cells. These neurons were connected to a small processing chip capable of interpreting and directing electrical activity similar to a standard silicon-powered device.

To showcase DishBrain’s potential, engineers successfully trained their biocomputer to play Pong. The classic, 2D game is often a test case for computational neuroscientists because it requires their system to navigate a dynamic information landscape in real time.

It took Cortical Labs more than 18 months using its original hardware and software to accomplish their Pong goal. DishBrain was eventually supplanted by CL1, which the company bills as the “world’s first code deployable biological computer.”

But for a biocomputer to be actually useful, it’s going to need to do much more than move a pixelated paddle up and down on a screen. Enter Doom. For decades, major tech companies and DIY hobbyists have demonstrated ways to run the video game on all types of devices including calculators, tractors, and even ATM machines. “Can it play Doom?” is such a ubiquitous request in the tech world that it wasn’t a question of “if” Cortical Labs would try it on neuronal chips, but “when.”

The major challenge for CL1 to understand Doom is that it needed to “see” what a human player sees when playing the game on a computer. Without any optical input, this meant that engineers needed to figure out a way to convert visual information into electrical stimulation patterns that are recognizable to the neurons.

The solution wasn’t only achievable,it was completed in about a week by Sean Cole, an independent developer with little experience in biological computing. The key to this is the CL1’s new interface, which allows anyone to program it using Python.

Don’t expect the biocomputer to win any Doom tournaments, however. It plays the game better than a system that simply fires randomly at enemies, but it still loses a lot of the time. That said, Cortical Labs says it reached its current performance level faster than silicon-based machine learning systems, and will likely get better as its algorithms improve.

Beyond gunning through pixelated enemies, future generations of biocomputers may one day power robotic arms or help run complex digital programs. It’s got a long way to go, but surpassing rites of passage like playing Doom bodes well for the technology.

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Like many other cultures, the ancient Romans loved their board games. Some of history’s most well-documented examples of tabletop pastimes date back to the empire. Ludus Latrunculorum, aka latrones, was a strategy face-off between two players on a grid board similar to chess or checkers. Another favorite, Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum, saw players compete on a backgammon-like setup that also involved dice.

A complete catalog of Roman games may never be known, but an international research team is confident they have a new addition to the list. As detailed in a recently published study in the journal Antiquity, their explanation also finally solves a mystery that’s puzzled archaeologists for over 40 years.

The saga began in 1984 while researchers excavated the ancient settlement of Coriovallum. Located in the Netherlands not far from the present-day German border, the town was founded during the reign of Augustus (27 BCE–14 CE) and is one of the region’s only outposts that is specifically named in primary sources. Coriovallum was also strategically placed at the nexus of two principle roadways for the Roman Empire. This guaranteed a sustained level of economic prosperity for centuries, as evidenced in its impressive architecture and ornate burial plots.

During their excavation work, archaeologists discovered an oval stone measuring roughly 8.3 by 5.7 inches in diameter and etched with various intersecting lines. Further examinations revealed the material to be a type of white Jurassic limestone sourced from ancient quarries in Norroy in northeastern France.

“Norroy limestone was a popular choice for large architectural elements in the Roman northern provinces because of its white color, smooth surface, and relative softness, making it an easily sculpted substitute for marble,” explained the study’s authors.

Experts debated the stone’s purpose for years. It was too small to be intended as a building component, and its shape wasn’t suited for roadwork. Although its lines conceivably could represent some form of architectural sketch, the theory was unlikely due to a lack of similar examples from the time period. But while some researchers consistently contended the stone was a board game’s playing surface, it didn’t resemble any known examples from the era.

Recent analysis now appears to support the longstanding board game theory. 3D imaging revealed some of the diagonal and horizontal lines are deeper than others—indicative that people routinely moved tiny pieces along these routes more often than others.

“We can see wear along the lines on the stone, exactly where you would slide a piece,” Leiden University archaeologist and ancient game specialist Walter Crist said in a statement.

But if it was a board game, then what were the rules? The question may seem impossible to answer without access to a playing guide, but Crist’s team doesn’t think this is necessarily the case. After enlisting help from machine learning programmers at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, researchers designed an artificial intelligence system trained on rules from around 100 ancient games documented from the same region as the stone’s origin. The resultant AI program (dubbed Ludii as a play on ludi, Latin for “games”) calculated a number of optional playing styles for the mystery pastime researchers named Ludus Coriovalli.

“[Ludii] produced dozens of possible rule sets. It then played the game against itself and identified a few variants that are enjoyable for humans to play,” said Maastricht University AI designer Dennis Soemers.

From there, researchers doublechecked the potential rule sets against the documented wear on the stone to confirm the most likely move patterns in the game. In the end, Crist, Soemers, and their colleagues theorize Ludus Coriovalli was a “deceptively simple but thrilling strategy game” with the objective to pursue and trap your opponent’s pieces in as few moves as possible.

Although the study’s conclusions offer arguably the most plausible explanation behind the limestone artifact, researchers stopped short of declaring themselves the winners. Without additional primary source references, the exact rules of Ludus Coriovalli may never be fully known.

“If you present Ludii with a line pattern like the one on the stone, it will always find game rules. Therefore, we cannot be sure that the Romans played it in precisely that way,” Soemers cautioned.

Like any great board game, it’s always important to consider all the options and avoid getting too cocky.

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To an untrained eye, it might just look like the remains of some ferocious predator’s feast. But this particular antler is thousands of years old, and could be a remnant of interactions between the last of Europe’s hunter-gatherers and the continent’s early farmers. 

Neolithic farmers belonging to what archaeologists refer to as the “Linear Pottery culture” began to expand across Europe around 5500 BCE. During this migration, they pushed Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in central Germany, among other places, further north. 

“There is a long period in which farmers and hunter-gatherers coexist,” Oliver Dietrich, co-author of a recent study published in Praehistorische Zeitschrift and press officer at the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt – State Museum of Prehistory, tells Popular Science. “Neolithic and Mesolithic thus are not mutually exclusive time periods, but describe two life styles, which are partly contemporary.”

Archaeologists know very little about the contact between these two peoples. Cue Germany’s Eilsleben-Vosswelle settlement, a prehistoric farming community that existed on the frontier, with hunter-gatherers in the north and farmers in the south. It was likely fortified, and may have seen significant interactions with proximal hunter-gatherer groups. 

“The material culture discovered at Eilsleben reflects this frontier situation, as it shows many influences from the world of hunter-gatherers,” Dietrich continues. “[Among] them is the antler industry, i.e. tools and other implements made from antler in a Mesolithic/hunter-gatherer style. The roe deer antler is a prime example,” he adds, referencing a previously discovered 7,000-year old antler from Eilsleben. 

Dietrich and his colleagues investigated the artifact for signs of human modification. They found that the rectangle-shaped skull fragment, cut marks (suggesting skinning), and notches at the base fit the bill. The artifact was probably worn as part of a mask or headdress, and the notches would have secured it in place. The headdress also dates back to 5291–5034 BCE. 

Roe deer antler worked into a headdress from Eilsleben. Image: Juraj Lipták/State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt.

“Similar headgear is not known from early farmer contexts, but there are good analogies from hunter-gatherer contexts. The best comparison for the Eilsleben antler is from the shaman´s grave of Bad Dürrenberg,” says Dietrich.

The Bad Dürrenberg shaman was a 30 to 40-year-old woman who died around 9,000 years ago. She was laid to rest alongside an approximately 6-month-old child in an intricate tomb in present-day central Germany. Researchers identified her as a shaman, or spiritual leader, thanks in part to animal teeth pendants and a deer antler that researchers believe to be a headdress. 

Despite the fact that the shaman´s grave of Bad Dürrenberg is older than the Eilsleben antler, the shaman’s antler “provides a frame of interpretation for the find,” Dietrich explains. The Eilsleben antler could represent contact between hunter-gatherer ritual specialists and farmers, according to the researchers. 

Some transitions associated with the Neolithic lifestyle weren’t healthy, per a statement by the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt – State Museum of Prehistory. Within this context, it’s possible that early farmers would have requested help from a healer connected to the spirit world who was certainly an expert on local flora’s healing properties. 

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A horse’s whinny is an iconic sound, arguably on par with a cow’s moo and a sheep’s baa and a donkey’s hee-haw. Most people can immediately recognize a horse’s signature sound, so it might come as a surprise to learn that researchers have no idea how the animals actually produce some of the whinny sounds. That is, until now. 

“Although humans have been co-existing – and co-evolving – with horses for 4000 years, we still understand their communication imperfectly,” Elodie Floriane Mandel-Briefer, a biologist at Copenhagen University interested in vocal communication and cognition in birds and mammals, tells Popular Science. “The whinny in particular is strange: it has a low-frequency component that fits the large body size of horses, but a very high-frequency component as well that is way too high for such a large animal.” 

About 10 years ago, Mandel-Briefer and colleagues discovered the existence of the two pitches, which overlap to create a vocal phenomenon called biphonation. The low-frequency component is produced when air from the lungs causes vibrations of the vocal folds. This is also how humans, along with the majority of mammals, make sounds. 

However, normal vocal fold vibrations can’t explain the high-frequency part of whinnies, given how big horses are. So how are these animals making such high noises? Mandel-Briefer and co-authors investigated this biomechanical puzzle in an interdisciplinary study recently published in the journal Current Biology. They ultimately discovered that a laryngeal whistle is behind the whinnies’ high-frequency sound. Part of their work involved two of the authors blowing air through horse larynges secured from a horse meat supplier. 

“Initially they only got the low component, but with some playing around they were able to obtain the high frequency component as well. That showed that both components are produced by the larynx itself (not, as in human whistling, with the lips),” Mandel-Briefer explains. “To prove that the high component is a laryngeal whistle, they then blew two different gases through: air and helium. Because it has different physical properties, helium—compared to air—shifts whistle frequencies up, while frequencies emitted by tissue vibration (like the low component) do not change.”

A horse at Le Borre equestrian center in Montecreto, Italy. Horses have a whistle in their larynx behind their whinnies. Image: Margherita Bassi/Popular Science.

The frequency change confirmed that a laryngeal whistle explains the mechanical production of the high-frequency whinny component. More broadly, the team found that horses create biphonation by simultaneous vocal fold vibration and laryngeal whistling. As far as they know, horses are the only animals that use these two mechanics at the same time. The team proposes that their biphonation probably evolved to communicate multiple messages to each other at once. 

In a 2015 study, Mandel-Briefer and colleagues also demonstrated that frequency and emotion are connected. The high-frequency whinny component indicates that a horse’s emotion is pleasant or unpleasant. The low-frequency components represent the feeling’s intensity. Horses could also use two components to convey messages across varying stretches of space. The high component is louder and can travel farther.

While Przewalski’s horses, which are close relatives of domesticated horses, also create whinnies with biphonation, more distant relatives such as zebras and donkeys don’t seem to have the high frequency part. Horses might possess distinctive vocal adaptations enabling them to create a more plentiful and intricate call spectrum than fellow mammals. 

The paper “highlights the remarkable adaptive flexibility of the mammalian laryngeal vocal production system,” Mandel-Briefer concludes. “Understanding the communication system of any species is of fundamental scientific interest to help us understand their cognition, emotions and welfare, and this helps us understand horses better.”

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Two friends out walking their dogs along the eastern coast of Scotland unexpectedly found an archaeological goldmine. After wind gusts as strong as 55 mph blew away sand on the dunes of a beach near Angus, Ivor Campbell and Jenny Snedden (along with their pooches Ziggy and Juno) spotted the unique indentations in a layer of long-dried clay. 

The pair contacted a local archaeologist, and researchers from the University of Aberdeen quickly descended on the picturesque seaside locale to preserve the discoveries. Since time was of the essence, the team improvised using a quickly assembled toolkit including Plaster of Paris purchased from a nearby craft store.

Thanks to the team’s rapid work, researchers have now documented Scotland’s first examples of ancient preserved human and animal footprints. Using radiocarbon dating, experts estimate these geological time capsules date back to around 2,000 years ago.

“We had to work fast in the worst conditions I’ve ever encountered for archaeological fieldwork—the sea was coming in fast, with every high tide ripping away parts of the site, while wind-blown sand was simultaneously damaging it,” University of Aberdeen archaeologist Kate Britton recounted. “We were effectively being sand-blasted and the site was, too, all while we were trying to delicately clean, study and document it. So it became a race against the elements.”

Although the entire find was destroyed within 48 hours of its discovery, Britton’s team managed to both physically and digitally map the location while also taking plaster molds of the scene. An initial assessment of the data indicates that the area was once visited by a mix of animals like deer, as well as humans. The findings date back to the late Iron Age—a pivotal time in the region’s history.

Only a handful of similar sites have been discovered across the UK. Credit: University of Aberdeen

“It’s very exciting to think these prints were made by people around the time of the Roman invasions of Scotland and in the centuries leading up to the emergence of the Picts,” added archaeologist Gordon Noble.

Researchers have documented similar tracks at only a handful of sites across the United Kingdom, many of which no longer exist today.

“It is incredibly rare to see such a delicate record saved, taking only minutes to create and hours to be destroyed, a snapshot of what people were doing thousands of years ago,” said project collaborator William Mills. “While this site was very short lived, it demonstrates the potential for similar finds—any of the clays of the wider Montrose basin area could preserve more of this important archaeological information.”

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Paleontologists still know comparatively little about fin-backed Spinosaurid dinosaurs. But while the newest addition to the family is impressive, Spinosaurus mirabilis isn’t making it easier for researchers. In a study published today in the journal Science, researchers at the University of Chicago describe S. mirabilis, a species that stalked present-day central Africa around 95 million years ago. At first glance, the dinosaur is instantly iconic. Its head crest is shaped like a curved sword called a scimitar, and measures 20 inches long. However, the dinosaur’s overall anatomy and Cretaceous stomping grounds showcase Spinosaurid’s unexpected and fascinating evolutionary culmination.

“This find was so sudden and amazing, it was really emotional for our team,” said study co-author Paul Serano.

S. mirabilis stands apart from its relatives due to where paleontologists discovered their specimen. Serano’s team uncovered the first fossil evidence in 2019 while excavating a remote region of the central Saharan desert in Niger. Previous Spinosaurid specimens have all been found in ancient coastal deposits near prehistoric shorelines, but the first S. mirabilis bones were located far inland—somewhere between 310 to 610 miles from the nearest marine habitats. Given the nearby presence of long-necked dinosaurs in river sediments, paleontologists now believe this Spinosaurus lived in a forested region crisscrossed by waterways. According to Serano, it would have been a fearsome sight no matter where it lived.

“I envision this dinosaur as a kind of ‘hell heron’ that had no problem wading on its sturdy legs into two meters of water, but probably spent most of its time stalking shallower traps for the many large fish of the day,” he said.

The jaws of S. mirabilis were evolved to trap fish similar to many crocodiles today. Credit: Dani Navarro

Based on the crest fossil’s inner vascular canals and exterior texture, the team theorizes that the cranial accessory was likely housed in keratin and brightly colored. They also contend S. mirabilis finally puts to rest the theory that Spinosaurus primarily lived and hunted in marine environments. Aside from the location of its discovery, S. mirabilis is the first dinosaur known to possess an interdigitating piscivorous (or “fish trap”) mouth. This anatomy features a lower jaw with teeth that protrude out between the upper set—a trait previously only seen in flying pterosaurs, marine ichthyosaurs, and semiaquatic crocodilian predators. This also makes S. mirabilis the only Spinosaurid with the distinct dental arrangement.

A 3D reconstruction of the skull of ‘S. mirabilis.’ Credit: Daniel Vidal, courtesy of Fossil Lab

For as much as S. mirabilis contextualizes its wider dinosaur family, it raises many more questions about its life, habitat, and role in the Cretaceous era. 

“I’ll forever cherish the moment in camp when we crowded around a laptop to look at the new species for the first time,” said Serano. “That’s when the significance of the discovery really registered.”

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While Super Bowl LX is over, the big game still echoes in the minds of many viewers. Not the Seattle Seahawks’ offensive coordination (or the New England Patriots’ lack thereof), mind you, but all those annoyingly catchy commercial jingles. It’s not your fault if a 30-second advertisement spot’s melodic hook continues to keep you up at night, however. Pop culture’s most successful earworms are rarely a fluke—they’re often carefully crafted to maximize memorability. Today, you can even pursue a Bachelor’s degree in commercial songwriting.

The mathematical study of tones dates at least as far back as the 5th century BCE Pythagorean philosophers of ancient Greece, but there is still a lot to learn about the numbers behind the notes. At the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, computational mechanics researchers recently examined musical melodies from an algebraic standpoint and found that there is an unsung component to many popular tunes: symmetry. Their findings were presented at the 6th AMMCS-International Conference on Applied Mathematics, Modeling, and Computational Science.

“Our goal was to build a clear mathematical bridge between abstract algebra and the experience of listening to music,” said study co-author Olga Ibragimova. “When we think of melodies as shapes we can transform, it becomes clear that composers have been using these kinds of symmetries intuitively for centuries.”

Ibragimova and her colleagues primarily relied on group theory, a subset of mathematics focused on transformations and mirrored patterns. They first assigned each of the chromatic scale’s 12 notes a corresponding 1-12 numerical placeholder, then broke down various melodies into discrete note groups. This allowed them to express tunes as algebraic notation. The team then analyzed how some of the most common techniques affect overall song structures. Among these were melodic concepts like inversion (flipping a tune), transposition (shifting it up or down scales), retrograding (reversal), and translation (movement over time).

They focused on two primary symmetry types—tonal and positional. With those concepts in mind, they were able to create formulas that illustrate how a melody can evolve while either retaining a foundational structure or purposefully altering it in predictable patterns. 

“What surprised us is how cleanly the mathematics separates tonal structure from positional structure,” explained systems design engineer and study co-author Chrystopher Nehaniv. “This duality helps us identify patterns that are not obvious by ear or by looking at a musical score. It also means we can systematically construct and count all possible symmetric melodies for a given length.”

Ibragimova and Nehaniv believe their work may help composers with conceptualizing new music possibilities, as well as pave the way for new methods of songwriting and research. But while this may help some artists, others continue to credit the ineffable qualities of music composition. 

“Whenever the goal is just to write something that’s very catchy and is going to get stuck in people’s heads, that’s, like, the least I think about,” songwriter Nick Lutsko tells Popular Science. “It’s kind of the first thing that comes to my head and I just go with it. I don’t overanalyze or overthink it. It’s not intellectual whatsoever.”

Lutsko has multiple full-length albums of his own, as well numerous comedy releases that have garnered an dedicated, international fanbase. In 2022, he won a Webby Award for his musical work on an Old Spice ad. You may even have one of his songs stuck in your head right now. He penned not one, but two of those absurdly memorable jingles that ran during this year’s Super Bowl.

As is the case in many corporate ad campaigns, Lutsko was one of multiple songwriters to receive prewritten lyrics with a prompt to put them to music.

“The first time I read those lyrics, the melody came to me as I was reading them,” he explains. “I know [people] talk about algebraic equations and the math or science behind songwriting, but to me it’s almost supernatural. I think it’s because it comes from a place of familiarity.”

At the same time, Lutsko doesn’t fault anyone who turns to the mathematics of music for their inspiration. Remember the commercial songwriting major route? Lutsko took it himself.

“It doesn’t irk me. I went to school for [it],” he says. “But I’ve always been more interested in creative expression. Like, science was always my worst subject in school. It’s just not how my brain works. I just want to have fun and not think about it too much.”

The post Can’t stop humming that tune? Thank math. appeared first on Popular Science.

Bananas are in trouble. The popular fruit is threatened by a fungal disease called Fusarium wilt of banana (FWB), which blocks the flow of nutrients and makes it wilt. In the 1950s, the pathogen even made one species–Gros Michel bananas–functionally extinct.

Fear not though, scientists are on it. In 2024, a team identified the molecular mechanisms behind the microbe that destroys bananas. Scientists at The University of Queensland in Australia have now made another step towards protecting the global banana supply. The team identified a region in the banana genome that controls resistance to a strain of Fusarium wilt called Sub Tropical Race 4 (STR4), which affects bananas in subtropical regions. The newly discovered genomic region is detailed in a study published in the journal Horticulture Research and could lead to new banana varieties that are more resistant to disease.

“Fusarium wilt—also known as Panama disease—is a destructive soil-borne disease which impacts farmed Cavendish bananas worldwide through its virulent Race 4 strains,” Dr. Andrew Chen, a study co-author and geneticist, said in a statement. “Identifying and deploying natural resistance from wild bananas is a long-term and sustainable solution to this pathogen that wilts and kills the host plant leaving residue in the soil to infect future crops.”

The team crossed a wild banana called Calcutta 4 with susceptible bananas from a different subspecies. When they exposed the cross-bred plants to STR4, they compared their DNA with the bananas who had died from the pathogen with those that didn’t. They found that the Calcutta 4 banana is resistant to STR4 infection on chromosome 5.

Generations of Calcutta 4 crosses were grown to identify STR4 resistance was carried in chromosome 5.  Image: Professor Elizabeth Aitken.

“This is a very significant finding; it is the first genetic dissection of Race 4 resistance from this wild subspecies,” Chen added. 

Scientists spent five years on this complicated project to help save bananas from extinction. Each generation of banana crosses needed to grow for at least 12 months before it was studied and then used for further breeding once it flowered. 

According to the team, the discovery will help develop banana varieties that are more resistant to Fusarium wilt. While the Calcutta 4 banana does have critical genetic resistance, it is not suitable for commercial cultivation because “it doesn’t produce fruit which are good to eat.”

“The next step is to develop molecular markers to track the resistance trait efficiently so plant breeders can screen seedlings early and accurately before any disease symptoms appear,” said Chen. “This will speed up selection, reduce costs and hopefully ultimately lead to a banana that is good to eat, easy to farm and naturally protected from Fusarium wilt through its genetics.”

Banana suppliers around the world are working to protect the industry valued at $140 billion. Bananas are also considered the fourth most important food crop in the world, following wheat, rice, and maize. About 80 percent of bananas are for local consumption, and over 400 million people rely on the fruit for 15 to 27 percent of their daily calories.

“It’s easy to take the banana for granted—simple, familiar, always there. But behind that simplicity lies one of agriculture’s most coordinated and collaborative supply chains,” Fresh Del Monte Produce chairman and CEO Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh said in their July 2025 earnings call. “Protecting it is our shared responsibility—and if we don’t act collectively to support growers and stabilise this supply chain, we risk seeing this fruit—and the livelihoods behind it—disappear before our eyes. That reality weighs heavily on me and drives much of our focus today.”

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