Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan that is fatal to otters if its ingested. They may be getting in it from the shellfish they eat, or just drink it in sea water. The most likely explanation is housecats. Cats shed live toxoplasma eggs in their scat, wh...
On the way home from the grocery, you get delayed so much that the frozen meat youve bought thaws out. The question for this Moment of Science is should you refreeze it? Weve been told by reliable authorities that its not good to refreeze uncooked me...
Unfortunately, a lot of sea otters off the coast of California are dying off, and the problem may be Mr Allfor. A four-year study was recently concluded by wildlife vet Melissa Miller at the California Department of Fish and Game. He tried to find wh...
Take two nails and scrape them together vigorously. Now touch the place you were scraping. Its hot! Let them cool and try it again. Its hot again! You could do this all day and the nails would never stop growing hot. If heat were a liquid, there woul...
So basically, in order to move, a cell climbs hand-over-hand along the extracellular matrix until it reaches a blood or lymphatic vessel and penetrates it. From there, its smooth sailing. By the way, the thinner walls of lymphatic vessels are easier...
A major reason why many cancers are so dangerous is that they metastasize. This means that instead of staying in one place, the cancer cells migrate from their original site to other parts of the body. Its no wonder scientists are busy studying the m...
But although it happens passively, arm swinging plays an important role in making your stride more efficient. It does this by counterbalancing your torso and hips and keeping them from twisting and bobbing too much. Holding your arms still against yo...
Unfortunately, theres no quick and easy way to dry up a toddlers runny nose. Although anti-histamines may stop the drainage, they can also clog up the nose and keep the mucus from draining away germs. A runny nose can become a sign of a more serious...
Have you ever wondered why we swing our arms while walking? Its a curious phenomenon, since arms dont play an obvious role in locomotion. You can still walk normally when your arms are full of groceries or with your hands in your pockets, so why do w...
Turbines with one or two blades are actually even more efficient. But because theyre also lighter and tend to spin faster, theyre also noisier. These designs also require a special tilting hub that acts as a sort of shock absorber, which is expensive...
As anyone whos had a toddler knows, theyre incredibly demanding creatures. Armed with an insatiable desire to eat and/or destroy just about everything in their path, these walking embodiments of unchecked ego can be a handful. Especially when they ha...
If youve ever driven by a wind farm, you may have noticed that the turbines most likely have three blades. Not two, not five, but three. Now, you may think that if the point of a wind turbine is to capture wind, wouldnt five blades capture more wind...
If, somehow, brains could read other brains directly, there would indeed be a very strong evolutionary advantage to it. In Asimovs example, even a simple version of mind-reading, such as a chicken being able to sense an approaching foxs brain as it t...
Scientists studying emotions have found that basic emotions like amusement, anger, fear, and sadness are common among all cultures. And people from different cultures, whether theyre modern Americans or pre modern aborigines, recognize sound cues lik...
Sometimes we get letters here at Moment of Science asking whether psychics are for real. Well, despite the t.v. shows, there isnt any scientific evidence that psychic powers, such as mind-reading, actually exist. That doesnt prove they dont existjust...
