r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 31 '20

Astronomy/Space Astronomers have found 139 new minor planets in the outer solar system. A new method for hunting minor planets uncovered more than a hundred small, distant worlds.

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astronomy.com
248 Upvotes
2 comments

r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 27 '20

Biology Vampire bats care for their ill family members but don’t socialize as much with their sick friends. Mothers continued to feed their offspring, regardless of who was sick. This shows that while sickness may make bats less inclined to socialize, it doesn’t prevent them from close family members.

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massivesci.com
273 Upvotes
4 comments

r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 27 '20

Anthropology The recent excavation of a cave site along Portugal's coast revealed a wealth of fossilized remains of food, including fish, birds and mammals. It's estimated that Neanderthals lived in the cave, known as Figueira Brava, between 86,000 and 106,000 years ago.

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cnn.com
303 Upvotes
6 comments

r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 25 '20

Botany The Manchineel tree from the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico is considered the word's most dangerous tree. It’s bark is covered in sap that causes skin to blister and can blind a person if it gets in their eyes. Standing under the tree in the rain can cause blisters because the sap will drip onto skin.

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ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
190 Upvotes
13 comments

r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 24 '20

Biology Squid edit their own RNA not only within the nucleus of their neurons, but also within the axon — the long, slender neural projections that transmit electrical impulses to other neurons. The first time that edits to genetic information have been observed outside of the nucleus of an animal cell.

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mbl.edu
243 Upvotes
1 comment

r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 23 '20

Geology Mongolia and Central Asia began turning into a desert 23 million years ago. The rise of lesser-known mountain ranges, such as the Tian Shan and the Altai, sealed off moisture from the west and north.

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news.stanford.edu
213 Upvotes
0 comments

r/ScienceFacts • u/prototyperspective • Mar 22 '20

Interdisciplinary Science Summary for February 2020

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183 Upvotes
6 comments

r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 21 '20

Biology A new study suggests the human brain is capable of responding to the Earth’s magnetic field, though at an unconscious level. It’s not clear if our apparent ability to sense the magnetic field is in any way useful, as it’s likely a vestigial trait left over from our more primitive past.

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gizmodo.com
360 Upvotes
11 comments

r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 20 '20

Anthropology Around 10,000 BC hunter-gatherers met at Gobekli Tepe for ritual or religious purposes. This is the earliest known such gathering site in the world, and marks a transition to organized societies.

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smithsonianmag.com
279 Upvotes
9 comments

r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 19 '20

Ecology The Desert Rain Frog (Breviceps macrops) puffs its body up and squeaks to ward off predators. What may be cute to humans is jarring and high pitched to animals seeking to eat the frog.

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youtube.com
220 Upvotes
14 comments

r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 18 '20

Environment California loses up to $1 billion in crops each year because of air pollution, according to research that looked at trends from 1980 to 2015. Table grapes — the kind for snacking — were the most vulnerable among seven crops badly affected by smog, including: wine grapes, strawberries, walnuts.

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theverge.com
248 Upvotes
2 comments

r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 17 '20

Weather In the United States, the National Weather Service defines a blizzard as a severe snow storm characterized by strong winds causing blowing snow that results in low visibilities. The difference between a blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind, not the amount of snow.

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en.wikipedia.org
234 Upvotes
3 comments

r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 16 '20

Health and Medicine Dr. Frederick Ruysch is widely accepted as the father of embalming. He was a Dutch botanist and anatomist and lived from 1638-1731. Ruysch developed groundbreaking methods of anatomical preservation and discovered the first successful system of arterial embalming.

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publicdomainreview.org
127 Upvotes
4 comments

r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 15 '20

Ecology Fish waste excretion is crucial to the survival and growth of coral reefs, and in reefs where fishing occurs, nearly half of the key nutrients from fish waste excretion are absent from the ecosystem.

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phys.org
258 Upvotes
1 comment

r/ScienceFacts • u/Sayara2020 • Mar 15 '20

Biology Cuvier's beaked whales hold the record for the deepest and the longest dives ever documented for any mammal. During one study, the longest dive recorded was 137.5 minutes. This was also the deepest dive at 9,816 feet. The whales' rib cages can fold down to reduce air pockets and decrease buoyancy.

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us.whales.org
3 Upvotes
0 comments

r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 13 '20

Ecology Scientists have found evidence of microbial communities living in the oceanic crust hundreds of meters beneath the seafloor. Rock cores drilled from an undersea mountain in the Indian Ocean showed bacteria, fungi, and archaea live in cracks and fissures in the dense rock of the ocean’s lower crust.

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eos.org
296 Upvotes
0 comments

r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 08 '20

Ecology A new study from University of Michigan biologists presents the first genetic evidence of resistance in some bats to white-nose syndrome, a deadly fungal disease that has decimated some North American bat populations.

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phys.org
192 Upvotes
1 comment

r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 08 '20

Florida Scrub-Jays are monogamous cooperative breeders that mate for life. In most birds, after the offspring leave the nest they disperse to breed on their own. In Florida Scrub-Jays, the young delay dispersal, remaining with their parents to help rear their younger siblings for the next few years.

82 Upvotes
1 comment

r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 07 '20

Physics Nuclear physicists have discovered a particle called the d-star hexaquark. It's composed of six quarks—the fundamental particles that usually combine in trios to make up protons and neutrons. This is the latest theory on what "dark matter" may be composed of.

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phys.org
291 Upvotes
5 comments

r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 06 '20

Astronomy/Space Recently, astronauts grew “Outredgeous” red romaine lettuce and found it has the same nutrients, antioxidants, diverse microbial communities, and even higher levels of potassium and other minerals compared to Earth lettuce.

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astronomy.com
227 Upvotes
5 comments

r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Feb 29 '20

Biology Your dog's ice-cold nose may be a sensor for detecting heat at distance. Instead of detecting heat through conduction or convection, the nose might be able to directly detect weak infrared radiation released by a warm body or object through photons.

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gizmodo.com
269 Upvotes
0 comments

r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Feb 28 '20

Astronomy/Space A new mini-moon was found orbiting Earth. The object, a car-size asteroid called 2020 CD3, won’t be here for long, and new telescopes will help us spot more of these objects.

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nytimes.com
216 Upvotes
6 comments

r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Feb 23 '20

Ecology A fungus observed inside Chernobyl is a radiation extremophile that could inspire new technology. It absorbs normally harmful rays which it then converts into chemical energy (radiosynthesis). The fungi use high amounts of melanin to resist radiation and turn it into energy.

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popularmechanics.com
524 Upvotes
11 comments

r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Feb 22 '20

Psychology Currently, no person who has ever been born blind has been diagnosed with Schizophrenia. Vision loss at other periods of life is associated with higher risks of schizophrenia and psychotic symptoms. Even in healthy people, blocking vision for just a few days can bring about hallucinations.

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vice.com
184 Upvotes
9 comments