“It’s kind of common knowledge, but if you cut off a legal supply you open up opportunities for black markets.”
Source: Newsweek
1915 was the last time anyone saw Endurance, the ship that famed explorer Ernest Shackleton took to Antarctica, where he and his crew almost died.
However, next January and February, scientists on a research trip to study the ice in the area where the ship sank are hoping to find it. Finding the ancient, broken wreck will require new technology, century-old notes and a lot of luck.
We talked to the scientists hoping to find the ship as well as Shackleton’s own granddaughter to explain the expedition—and why they want to find Endurance.
When there’s no real estate in the safe part of town, you might just have to try to make it in the dangerous part. This philosophy is not lost on octopuses, who move to dangerous areas at the risk of losing their babies.
Researchers at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency studied macaques, monkeys that are known to be susceptible to the same prion diseases as humans. They fed the macaques venison, or deer meat, infected with chronic wasting disease. After three years of eating a total of 5 kilograms of infected venison each, three out of the five macaques were found to be infected with CWD. The human equivalent would be eating one 7-ounce steak per month.
Source: Newsweek
Most species of crayfish reproduce the same way that humans do: by having sex. But one species of crayfish that evolved out of the pet trade can do something unique—clone itself—and this ability has led populations of the crustacean to spawn out of control.
Source: Newsweek
In late 2017, Chinese scientists saw the birth of the world’s first primates cloned by the same method used to clone Dolly the sheep. Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, two adorable crab-eating macaques, took the world by storm, and scientists believe that they are just the first in a long line of monkeys that will be cloned for medical research.
Mu-ming Poo, one of the scientists who helped clone the monkeys, calls them “national treasures.” But what will happen to them now that the photo-ops and media coverage have subsided?
Source: Newsweek
1. Explode it. Fun, but messy.
2. Drag it out to sea. Sensible, but sometimes it returns.
3. Compost it. Useful, but it takes a while.
4. Landfill. Sensible, but seems like a bit of a waste.
Source: Newsweek
A man considers crossing a bridge (yes, there is a wooden bridge in there) after driving three and a half hours to Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite and getting caught only part of the way through the trail. Bizarre weather, including a winter with a record amount of snow and a summer with record heat brought snowmelt cascading over the trail--something he had never seen in his 20 years of hiking there.
This man decided not to cross, but a few days later, someone else did. That man slipped and died.
Imagine that two Facebook users post videos of people “self-immolating,” or setting themselves on fire. Both videos contain graphic footage that’s hard to look at, information about the context, and a caption interpreting it. Maybe one user thinks it’s an important display, and one thinks it’s funny.
How does Facebook know which one to censor? What’s the difference between shock videos and news—and how much does it matter?
Source: Newsweek
‘Head of Edward Mordrake, preserved for posterity by Dr. P. Manvers’
Can this truly be the mummified head of the two-faced legend, Edward Mordrake himself? Whose second head didn’t speak except to whisper sinister things to him at night? And who asked that, upon his suicide, the second face should be destroyed, lest it torment him in the grave.
With optogenetics, scientists created male fruit flies that ejaculate on command under red light. Turns out, they love it, and flies that nut more are less interested in alcohol.
These are some of the most inspiring poems on the themes of evolution, space, and dinosaurs that you may ever read.
Source: Newsweek
Nolan explained that Ata was dear to someone, as you can tell by the way that someone laid the body out and kept it close. “The arms are at the side, it's laid out perfectly flat, prostrate, it's laid out with a sort of reverence or respect,” Nolan explained. “They thought it was special, they saved it and it ended up on a shelf somewhere.”
Source: Newsweek
This goat is going viral. But would you believe that some consider him to be one of the world’s most beautiful goats?
This is a Damascus goat, and yes, he was bred to look like that.
This is a reticulated python, but not just any reticulated python.
This “cyclops” snake has two eyes in the same socket. Read what happened and see more photos here.
Prior studies have attempted to pinpoint the genetic underpinning for synesthesia. But the technique used in this one provides a far more precise pictures of genetic changes in families that can hear colors.
Some media outlets have reported that Earth is expecting a “massive magnetic storm” on March 18. "This story is not plausible in any way, shape or form," one expert from NOAA's Space Weather Forecast Center told us.
How do a million and a half penguins hide from human knowledge? They hang out on cold Antarctic Islands with the ominous and accurate name of “Danger Islands.”
Hi, I’m here to ruin your day by informing you that wild horses don’t exist.
Until now, it had been thought that the Przewalski’s horse, or takhi, was the last living horse that had never been domesticated. However, new genetic evidence suggests that they are actually descendants of domestic, currently extinct, and sometimes appaloosa-spotted Botai horses.
(photo via Laika ac on Flickr, reconstruction by Ludovic Orlando, Seas Goddard and Alan Outram)