News flash — If you have an Android phone, you can actually detect earthquakes. Google has created an Android Earthquake Alerts system by using smartphone accelerometers. Between 2021 and 2024, the system has detected over 11,000 earthquakes and issued more than 1200 alerts in 98 countries. The results have been as effective as seismometers and,
Why is a koala bear a marsupial and not a bear? Because it doesn’t have the right koala-fications. Since this subject has come up, here are some facts about koalas. According to the San Diego Zoo, koalas are mammals, and they do resemble teddy bears with their round, fuzzy ears. But they are definitely marsupials,
Something you may have missed (and I’m a bit late in mentioning) is that timewise three recent days were shorter. Wait, what? Yes, it seems July 9, July 22 and August 5 were unusually short. We like to think our days are 24 hours, but the real world is never that simple. Earth’s rotation is actually
The ability to analyze genomes has given us great insight into the evolution of many animal species, including us. But have you ever wondered how plants evolved? Recently, scientists have discovered how one of our favorite food plants came to be. By using advanced genomic tools that are now available, researchers have deduced that random
Katie loves Christmas. Getting presents is nice, and playing in the snow with her friends is fun, but what she likes best are all the pretty decorations. When her family moves to Arizona, Katie can’t find any friends in her neighborhood, and her mom says it probably won’t snow, not even for Christmas. No snow?
If you are looking for a feel-good story, The New York Times recently found one. It seems the tooth fairy is real. Her name is Dr. Purva Merchant and she’s a pediatric dentist in Seattle, Washington. Which brings up the question, how did she get the job? It started with her boyfriend-now-husband who in 2004
When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, nuclear war was considered a real possibility. Every home-improvement show I remember attending had at least one contractor selling fallout shelters. But with the end of the Cold War, we don’t have to worry about that any more, do we? Actually, there is one organization
On a visit to SeaWorld (the one in Aurora, Ohio before it merged with Six Flags Ohio in 2000), I remember a concession which sold fish to feed dolphins. For a reasonable fee (I think $5), you purchased three small, sorry-looking fish in a cone-shaped paper cup at a stand next to a large pool
Social mores sure do change. Introducing yourself to the opposite sex has always been challenging (at least for me), but we can take some solace in knowing that this has been a problem throughout history. This is especially true during times when many women needed a chaperone to be seen in public. So it’s interesting
You may have heard about a mako shark swimming with an orange octopus hitching a ride on its head. This behavior did surprise a lot of people. But scientists have realized it’s not unusual in the animal kingdom. As described in “‘Sharktopus’ Wasn’t the First. These Animals Also Hitchhike on Other Animals” by Jason Bittel