Jackson, Miss. Belated ratification: Mississippi officially ratified the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery—148 years late. The approval came after University of Mississippi medical professor Dr. Ranjan Batra watched the Oscar-nominated film Lincoln, and began looking into whether the state had ever endorsed the end of slavery. Batra discovered that by December 1865 the measure had been ratified by the three fourths […]
Read more
Researchers have discovered a new map of the octopus genome that is so strange that it could actually be an “alien”. The first whole cephalopod gene sequence shows a striking level of complexity with 33,000 protein-coding genes identified – more than in a human. Not only that, the octopus DNA is highly rearranged – like cards shuffled and reshuffled in […]
Read more
Feeling itchy from a sunburn, a bug bite or some other skin irritation is miserable, but the pleasure you get from scratching it isn’t just the absence of pain. It feels legitimately good to scratch, and the reason is fascinating. A 2008 study at Wake Forest University hooked people up to a MRI scanner and monitored brain activity when they […]
Read more
Prague, Okla Tremors from fracking: Scientists have linked Oklahoma’s largest earthquake—a 5.6 magnitude quake near the town of Prague, in 2011—to hydraulic fracturing, supporting claims that the process increases seismic activity. Fracking, as it is known, injects water and chemicals into petroleum deposits in order to extract trapped gas. This week, researchers at the University of Oklahoma, Columbia University, and […]
Read more
A century ago Albert Einstein predicted that two neutron stars collided over 130 million years ago in his Theory of General Relativity. He said that when it happened it caused gravitational waves (a ripple in the universe) that travel at the speed of light at the same time as gamma rays. When gamma rays burst, they send out deadly radiation […]
Read more
Researchers have found that if the patient with Alzheimer’s is treated for any bacteria or infections it may help in the reduction of this condition. The immune system is being researched more to see if it can be the key factor in treatment for Alzheimer’s. If it is found out that infections are what may be causing Alzheimer’s then we […]
Read more
Beijing Mass arrests: In one of the biggest crackdowns on civil society groups in decades, Chinese authorities have detained and questioned at least 238 lawyers and human rights activists over the past two weeks. At least 20 activists remain incarcerated, and the whereabouts of six of them are unclear. Maya Wang, a researcher with Human Rights. Watch, said those still […]
Read more
Berlin The Nazis maintained more than 42,000 camps and ghettos across Europe, far more than had previously been identified, Holocaust researchers now say. For more than 10 years, historians at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum have been compiling records of all the slave-labor camps, brothels, death camps, and ghettos set up from 1933 to 1945, mostly in Germany and Poland. […]
Read more
Earthquakes are the result shifting plates in the crust of Earth. When there is frictional stress building of the plates it causes failure at a fault line an earthquake happens. The shaking of the ground happens when the energy is released, and waves radiate. Research has found that they predict where major seismic activity may happen, but they cannot forecast […]
Read more
■ A police station in northern France is storing so much seized marijuana that officers are getting high off the fumes. “The odor is really strong” said one officer. “After a day, you are stoned.” About 88 pounds of weed has piled up at the Roubaix station because of a strike at the agency that is supposed to dispose of […]
Read more