Author: News

Found frozen deep in the Siberian Arctic, the cave lion cub looks like she’s asleep and one touch might awaken her.The cub’s golden fur is matted with mud but otherwise undamaged.Her teeth, skin, soft tissue and organs are mummified but all intact.A frozen cave lion cub found in Siberia with whiskers still intact is more than 28,000 years old. (Love Dalen)Some 28,000 years since she last closed her eyes, her claws are still sharp enough to prick the finger of one of the scientists who are studying this remarkable – and unprecedented – permafrost-preserved specimen.The Siberian Simba, nicknamed Sparta, was…

Comparative research reveals extraordinary animal athleticism—mites lift >1000 times their body weight, mantis shrimp strike their prey with the force of a bullet, and peregrine falcons dive toward prey at 335 mph (539.13 km/hour) ([ 1 ][1]). Even human babies travel the distance of eight football fields per hour during free play ([ 2 ][2]). However, movement in the real world is not about being the strongest, fastest, or most active. Rather, effective action is a moment-to-moment process of matching the current status of the body to features of the environment ([ 3 ][3]). Locomotion—like other actions—must be tailored to…

The epic Twitter saga of a 19-year-old that attracted thousands of followers hits the big screen. Source

The historic California town of Mendocino is running out of water and the reservoir it depends on is drying up amid a devastating drought in the state.  “It’s dire and it’s only getting worse,” said Ryan Rhoades, the town’s groundwater manager. Rhoades said he’s considering bringing in water by train. In the meantime, the local high school has offered some of its reserves, which is only one truckload of water per day. “That’s the problem,” he said.More than 84% of California is experiencing extreme drought, where the current water supply is deemed inadequate for agriculture, wildlife, and urban needs, according…

After a slight delay, CEO Elon Musk says that SpaceX is now on track to stack a complete Starship prototype on top of a Super Heavy booster for the first time ever as early as Friday morning. In the latest stage of SpaceX’s continually impressive “Starbase Surge,” the company rolled the first orbital-class Starship prototype’s aft tank section from its birthplace in the factory “midbay” to a much larger “high bay” around noon on August 3rd. Mere hours later, Elon Musk revealed that SpaceX had fitted the Starship with a full six Raptors – a first for any Starship prototype,…

Reverse passthrough VR: eyes on the outside of your VR glasses. Facebook Do you remember those old holographic glasses that looked like eyes were staring out? You’d wear them and look insane. It’s hard to look at Facebook Reality Labs’ newest experimental project, being presented as part of this year’s SIGGRAPH conference, in any other way.There’s a reason for the weirdness, but I’m not sure I agree with it. Get the CNET Now newsletter Spice up your small talk with the latest tech news, products and reviews. Delivered on weekdays. The concept is called “reverse passthrough VR,” developed by researcher…

Every day, there are acrobatic extravaganzas going on above our heads. Squirrels navigate remarkably complex and unpredictable environments as they leap from branch to branch, and mistakes can be fatal. These feats require a complex combination of evolved biomechanical adaptations and learned behaviors. Hunt et al. characterized the integration of these features in a series of experiments with free-living fox squirrels (see the Perspective by Adolph and Young). They found that the squirrels’ remarkable and consistent success was due to a combination of learned impulse generation when assessing the balance between distance and branch flexibility and the addition of innovative…

Good news: Scientists won’t have to worry about their mouse sperm vials breaking in transit ever again. Researchers in Japan have developed a way to freeze dry rodent ejaculate between thin plastic sheets and sticky tape it to postcards, with the samples surviving long journeys to produce healthy pups. The… Source

A gas station, hotel and bar were among many fixtures gutted in the town, which dates to California’s Gold Rush era.A three-week-old wildfire engulfed a tiny Northern California mountain town, wiping out historic buildings and leaving much of the downtown in ashes, while a new wind-whipped blaze also destroyed homes as crews braced for another explosive run of flames on Thursday in the midst of dangerous weather. The Dixie Fire, swollen by bone-dry vegetation and 64kmph (40mph) gusts, raged through the northern Sierra Nevada community of Greenville on Wednesday evening. A gas station, hotel and bar were among many fixtures…

Astana-Premier Tech racing the team time trial at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali. After only one season as co-title sponsor of Astana-Premier Tech, Canadian company Premier Tech will leave that role at the end of 2021. The team announced the news on Thursday, less than seven months after announcing that Premier Tech had become a co-owner of the team and would move into a co-title sponsor position after several years as a secondary sponsor of the Kazakh squad. “Although it is disappointing for Premier Tech to end its collaboration with Kazakhstan, it has been fantastic to be involved in…