On January 21, 1971, Apollo 14 launched toward the moon with astronauts Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, and (former U.S. Forest Service smoke jumper) Stuart Roosa on board. Most people remember this mission as when Alan Shepard played golf on the moon. But Roosa, flying above the moon’s surface in the Command Module, had brought along
Most people consider their pets to be members of their family. This is especially true for dogs. What’s more, many owners feel they know what their dogs are thinking and can communicate with them on a basic level. That’s why I was intrigued by the article “Top 10 Smartest Dogs: Find Out if Your Pup
How many times have you read an account of a natural disaster and thought, “I wish we had better warning systems”? Our weather and monitoring instruments, sophisticated as they are, still have serious limitations. We can’t predict earthquakes, for example. And yet much better warning systems do exist. It appears animals’ senses are finely tuned
How many times a year do you change a battery somewhere in your home? From smoke detectors to remotes, there are enough electrical devices in our lives that keeping a supply of several different types is virtually a necessity. And then there is the disposal problem… That’s why news of a study published on April 30
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
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
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