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July 9, 2015 Prachi Gupta

There are plenty of compelling reasons to stay in school, but a new study published in journal PLOS ONE has offered up one more — it may also be good for your health. According to researchers at New York University, the University of Colorado, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, “lacking education may […]

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July 8, 2015 Liam Mathews

Researchers at the University of Queensland have observed that male koalas raise their voices in order to avoid conflict, according to EurekAlert. “Unlike humans, who raise their voices in an argument, male koalas bellow their presence to avoid confrontation with other males in the breeding season,” the University of Queensland’s Dr. Bill Ellis said. “They […]

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July 6, 2015 Liam Mathews

Russian scientists at the A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution have determined that mice that are exposed to cat urine in infancy do not avoid the smell later in life, and therefore get eaten by their feline predators, EurekAlert reports. “Because the young mice (less than two weeks old) are being fed milk […]

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July 1, 2015 Liam Mathews

Researchers at Duke University have identified neurological patterns that may predict if young people will drink heavily as a response to stress. In the studies, researchers used MRIs to measure brain activity in the the ventral striatum, which processes rewards, and the amygdala, which assesses threats. According to a press release, researchers observed that “having […]

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June 26, 2015 Prachi Gupta

Gaby Hoffman swears by the placenta smoothie. January Jones prefers hers ground up and dehydrated, in pill form. Most mammals eat their placentas, too. Some women have started embracing placentophagy, the practice of consuming the placenta after pregnancy, and cite a myriad of health benefits such as prevention of postpartum depression and pain relief. The […]

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June 18, 2015 Prachi Gupta

Christianity argues that kids are born with “Original Sin,” an impulse that has to be knocked out of them to become functional and morally responsible adults. Well, science is again at odds with religion, because a new study published in Current Biology argues that kids are acutely aware of justice and try to do the […]

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June 17, 2015 Liam Mathews

A very large old elm tree was chopped down on 34th Street in Astoria this spring, much to the dismay of residents. One longtime resident of the block saved some of pieces the tree as souvenirs. She thought the branch in her backyard was dead, but it began sprouting new branches and leaves the other […]

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June 8, 2015 Liam Mathews

Everything has been bigger in Texas since before Texas even existed. A report published in the journal PLOS One (the only peer-reviewed journal with a name like a graffiti writer) shares results of a study of shark vertebrae found in the Duck Creek Formation, a rocky area outside of Fort Worth. Husband-and-wife paleontology team Joseph […]

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June 3, 2015 Liam Mathews

The Wall Street Journal profiled seventh- and eighth-grade students of the Upper East Side’s Ella Baker School, where a math teacher named Michael Paoli had them raise a tank full of tilapia. The students cared for the fish all year, learning about science and math in the process. Now, the fish are teaching the students […]

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May 21, 2015 Liam Mathews

In a thought experiment that demonstrates how science can be as fantastical as religion or magic, a mad scientist named Fergus Simpson from the University of Barcelona is publishing a paper in the journal arXiv that uses a mathematical approach to determine the population and body size of alien races. According to Live Science, who […]

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