Now, one researcher from UC Santa Barbara believes the Mayans could have been like them in other ways, using the stars to try and plan out future dates for holidays. Gerardo Aldana, an anthropologist and professor of Chicana and Chicano studies, has studied the Venus table from the famous Dresden Codex, one of the few remaining Maya manuscripts left in the world. (Few are left because invading peoples made great efforts to destroy Maya works, and then stole others and brought them back to Europe for kings and queens....

So in 2004, when a geologist working in the cliffs of the archipelago of Svalbard, Norway, found a 115,000-year-old jawbone sticking out of the sediment, the find spurred decades of insight into the evolution of the polar bear. A new, high-resolution analysis of the DNA contained in that jawbone, published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, opens a window into the evolution of both brown bears and polar bears through a warming and cooling world....

by Shane Snow. Learn about data visualization tools. visaul.ly

Algal blooms such as these pose growing health and environmental concerns. In the Gulf of Mexico, they create dead zones that choke fisheries. Earlier this year, three dogs died after playing in Washington’s contaminated Columbia River. But while algal blooms are often thought of as a modern phenomenon, fed by fertilizers used in industrial agriculture, new research led by Waters suggests that Lake Amatitlán has experienced these blooms before—when it sat at the feet of a much older city....

The prominent alien figurines speak to the fact that the community has a sense of humor at times, but on the flip side, also takes the topics at hand seriously. Individuals with long history in this field both young and old bring credibility to the table. (Although their claims can’t be verified by science, many people continue to report UFO sightings.) Former FBI agent Ben Hansen who hosts SyFy’s “Fact or Faked,” and has worked as a producer on “UFO’s Declassified” on the History Channel, is all about gathering and analyzing the data....

Now, this won’t be the company’s first production car—that will come in the next few years, and will most likely be a sedan meant to compete with Tesla’s Model S or smaller Model 3. The FFZERO1 is purely a concept, meant to show off the new brand’s nascent technology and the innovation Faraday claims lies within. This includes four electric motors—one at each wheel—to produce those 1,000 horses, and a slew of driver-centric amenities, including augmented reality and a majority of vehicle info displayed on the driver’s smartphone, which will sit mounted in the steering wheel....

Avant-garde’s winning word was Murraya, a genus of flowering citrus tree that comes from eastern Asia and Australia. Charles Linnaeus, the first botanist to formally describe the plant, gave it a Latin name inspired by one of his Swedish botany students. And it sounds more like Maria than Mariah (though the contest did end on a high note yesterday). The official Scripps definition mentioned that the plant, commonly known as orange jessamine, has “pinnate leaves” and “imbricated petals....

WHAT CAUSES IT? At its most basic, CTE is a cumulative effect from repetitive head trauma—not just concussive blows but also weaker ones. Impacts damage the brain’s neural pathways, and as a result a protein called tau builds up. The more tau along the pathways, the less easily brain signals can move around, which can lead to memory loss, lack of impulse control, aggression, and depression. HOW COMMON IS IT? Scientists at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University examine the brains of dead contact-sports athletes....

But childhood dreams die hard, and nearly 40 years later, when the opportunity arose to travel to Baja California with the Great Whale Conservancy, Chami jumped at the chance to get closer to the massive creatures that caught his imagination as a kid. His job was to time blue whales breathing and humpbacks breaching—a major departure from his usual day job. In the end, though, he came away with a project that bridges his past and present focus....

When I started taking my kids on car-camping trips, creating the essential on-the-go kitchen was imperative so that we could pack light, have order at the tent site, and prepare meals without much of a fuss. Coffee Since the day begins with coffee, we should start there, too. Any gear that resembles a Russian nesting doll is ideal, as it takes up much less room in the car. Eureka! sells a pour-over Camp Café with five pieces that tuck inside each other....

When one of our students told us they were going to drop out of college in August 2021, it wasn’t the first time we’d heard of someone ending their studies prematurely. What was new, though, was the reason. The student had become a victim of a cryptocurrency scam and had lost all their money–including a bank loan–leaving them not just broke, but in debt. The experience was financially and psychologically traumatic, to say the least....

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have turned their attentions to this mystery by performing a variety of simple tests on groups of 3 and 4-year-old children. The researchers first placed the children in eye masks and asked them whether they could be seen by the researchers, as well as whether the researchers could see other adults if those adults were wearing eye masks. Nearly all the children felt that they were obscured from view as long as their eyes were masked, and most of them also thought the eye masks shielded the adults from view as well....

Stephen King’s evil clown, Pennywise, will make his second screen appearance in two years in “IT Chapter Two,” while Batman’s demented nemesis The Joker, played by Joaquin Phoenix, will appear as the antihero of his origin story, “Joker.” How did a mainstay of children’s birthday parties start to become an embodiment of pure evil? In fact, a 2008 study conducted in England revealed that very few children actually like clowns....

In short: They nearly aborted the mission. As he ascended up through 80,000 feet, Felix indicated that he wasn’t feeling the faceplate heating system kick in properly. When Felix exited the capsule, he would be falling through temperatures as low as minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit. And he needs to see the horizon in order to maneuver into a stable position. “The worst thing that can happen to a guy is a faceplate that doesn’t work,” Kittinger says now....

Producing ruminant meat, or meat from cattle, sheep, goat, and buffalo, remains an overwhelmingly GHG-intensive process. To reduce the consumption of ruminant meat and minimize the environmental impact of food production, it’s necessary to explore various meat alternatives. People can opt for plant-based substitutes that mimic meat products using plant materials like soy or peas. There’s also the option of lab-grown meat, which comes from the cultivation of a small sample of animal cells....

Controlling antimicrobial resistance requires a combination of two factors. The first is to develop newer pharmaceutical options, such as novel antibiotics or other natural means, including viruses and antimicrobial peptides. The other is to reduce the current use of antibiotics in both agriculture and medicine. The first will take years if not decades to materialize while the second can be instituted immediately. Unfortunately, reducing use is not popular among those who prescribe and use these drugs....

Product 1: Nuovoware 2-Pack Wine Bag, Portable Wine Tote Holders and Carriers Insulated Bag for Wine and Water Bottles, Wine Bottle Protector for Home Travel and Picnic, Black Caption: These are attractive enough to give to a friend and durable enough to be reusable. Badge: Best value Markdown: This waterproof, neoprene set of wine bags is perfect to carry with you to your next park hang, commute or other outdoor activity....

We know that humans don’t like robots that are bossy or talk out of turn. But they do want robots to listen and understand certain social cues. What’s more, designing robots that are human-like can be an ethical minefield. There are issues of privacy to consider, as well as problems with deception and attachment. Although there have been attempts to instill social skills into virtual agents like chatbots and avatars, physical robots are interesting because they can actually interact with humans and their surroundings as assistants and companions....

Xanthan gum is produced through the fermentation of glucose or sucrose by the Xanthomonas campestris bacterium. In the United States, corn sugar is the primary source of the fermentation. Xanthan gum is soluble in both cold and hot water. It works well across a wide pH range, and is very salt-tolerant. For practical applications, xanthan gum is dispersed with high shear, and forms sols or thickened liquids, rather than gels with a solid structure....

Cooks from South Asia marinate meat in a blend of yogurt and spices like garam masala, cumin, coriander, turmeric, and ginger and garlic pastes. The technique is common in several dishes from the subcontinent, although it’s not particularly prevalent in other East Asian, Arab, or European dishes. A fermented dairy product also makes up a key ingredient in that classic American comfort food: fried chicken. Before breading and frying pieces of the meat, an overnight soak in buttermilk and poultry seasonings ensures it will be perfectly juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside....