Latest CNAS in the Media

Leeches may be 200 million years older than we thought—and haven’t always sucked blood

SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE - The biological history of leeches is difficult to study: Their tissue decomposes almost immediately, and their boneless bodies rarely fossilize. But a geological formation in Wisconsin preserved a leech fossil for 437 million years, a new study finds. It’s the first-ever discovery of its kind—and an analysis of the preserved leech suggests...
By Mary Randolph | Smithsonian Magazine |

Leeches weren’t always bloodsucking fiends like today. They used to swallow their prey whole

ZME SCIENCE - Leeches are some of the most hated creatures in the world, even though most people rarely (if ever) see one. We even use the word as an insult. A leech is a parasite, someone who lives only to suck the blood from others. But leeches deserve more respect. A newly described fossil...
By Mihai Andrei | ZME Science |

Carbon cycle ‘flaw’ can overshoot, plunging Earth into potential Ice Age: Study

INTERESTING ENGINEERING - A new study has provided fresh insights into how Earth recycles its carbon. Rock weathering acts as the slow, reliable mechanism that stabilizes Earth’s climate. The easy explanation is that rain, rocks, and carbon burial keep the climate in check, but new research shows this account may be incomplete. The University of...
By Mrigakshi Dixit | Interesting Engineering |

Leeches didn't always suck blood — ancient fossils reveal they swallowed prey whole

DISCOVER MAGAZINE - It’s the beginning of the spooky season, which means ghouls, ghosts, and bloodsuckers abound. One of the most famous bloodsuckers in nature is, of course, the leech. These parasites feed on blood and have been used throughout history to treat a whole host of medical problems in humans. Now, for the first...
By Stephanie Edwards | Discover Magazine |

This leech had an appetite for something other than blood

THE NEW YORK TIMES - If you look around Waukesha County in Wisconsin today, it can be difficult to imagine a tropical coastline teeming with trilobites, the oldest known scorpions and jawless vertebrates. But 437 million years ago, during the Silurian period, these creatures lived and died there, some getting washed into a salty cove...
By Jack Tamisiea | The New York Times |

How global warming today could trigger a future ice age

EARTH.COM - Earth has never stood still when it comes to climate. For billions of years, our planet has cycled between heat and cold, shaping the environment where life evolved. But new research from UC Riverside (UCR) reveals that the story of Earth’s carbon balance is more complicated than once believed. The findings suggest that...
By Eric Ralls | Earth.com |

Laser wavefront-correcting device gives LIGO 10x boost to spot distant gravitational waves

INTERESTING ENGINEERING - Gravitational waves, tiny ripples in spacetime caused by cosmic collisions like merging black holes, are almost impossibly faint. Detecting them requires LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory), one of the most sensitive instruments ever built. However, there’s a catch. To see farther and catch weaker signals, LIGO needs more powerful lasers, but stronger...
By Rupendra Brahambhatt | Interesting Engineering |

How Earth’s ‘thermostat’ can malfunction, flipping global warming into ice-age level cooling

STUDYFINDS - New modeling shows that global warming events can, under certain conditions, trigger long-term cooling strong enough to resemble ice age conditions, according to researchers at the University of California, Riverside. When the planet experiences large-scale carbon emissions and warming, natural cooling processes can sometimes overshoot and send global temperatures plummeting far below their...
By Staff Report | StudyFinds |

Exoplanet discoveries pass the 6,000 mark, shedding light on how our solar system compares with the rest of the universe

SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE - Just decades after the first exoplanets were identified, our database of the distant worlds—monitored by the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute—has breached a new threshold. Now, astronomers have officially identified more than 6,000 planets outside our solar system. “This milestone represents decades of cosmic exploration driven by NASA space telescopes—exploration that has completely...
By Margherita Bassi | Smithsonian Magazine |

NASA’s extrasolar planet tally officially hits the 6,000 mark

FORBES - NASA reports that its official tally of extrasolar planets has hit the 6,000 mark. This thirty-year milestone has been in the works since two little known Swiss astronomers, Michel Mayor and Didiez Queloz, first detected 51 Pegasi b. The first of the so-called “hot Jupiters” to be detected, “51 Peg” is a gas...
By Bruce Dorminey | Forbes |

Termites wreak havoc on California homes. A new species was just discovered.

SFGATE - Described by researchers as one of the most serious wood-destroying pests in the world, subterranean termites cause an estimated $32 billion in damage globally per year, and California is a battleground where both native and non-native species flourish. Now, unfortunately for squeamish homeowners, researchers at UC Riverside said there may be even more...
By Ariana Bindman | SFGate |

Rivers are turning orange. The effects are disastrous.

POPULAR MECHANICS - For the past several years, dozens of rivers throughout the Arctic watershed have been undergoing a shocking transformation: They’re turning orange. When rivers sport these troubling hues, humans are usually the culprit—whether through mining operations, agricultural runoff, or criminally dumping hazardous materials into waterways. With these rivers mostly tucked away in northern...
By Darren Orf | Popular Mechanics |

Why Is Venus Hell and Earth an Eden?

QUANTA MAGAZINE - enus is arguably the worst place in the solar system. A cloak of carbon dioxide suffocates the planet, subjecting its surface to skull-crushing pressure. Sulfuric acid rains down through the sickly yellow sky but never reaches the lava-licked ground. Venus is so hot — hot enough to melt lead — that the...
By Robin George Andrews | Quanta Magazine |

Alaska’s rivers used to run clear, now they’re turning orange for good

DAILY GALAXY - In Alaska’s far north, something strange is happening. Rivers that once ran crystal clear are now turning a rusty orange, and scientists say the shift is permanent. A new study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has uncovered the hidden force behind this transformation, one that is quietly...
By Melissa Ait Lounis | Dailygalaxy.com |

'Astounding:' Alaska researchers make alarming discovery in Arctic rivers

SFGATE - When John McPhee and his ragtag crew first kayaked into the pristine Alaskan wilderness in 1975, they were awestruck. The author, who chronicled his reconnaissance trip in the literary classic “Coming into the Country,” was surrounded by an abundance of untouched flora and fauna. Beneath them, Arctic grayling, chum salmon and Dolly Varden...
By Ariana Bindman | SFGate |

Orange rivers in Alaska signify a color-changing crisis, exposing fish to toxic metals

DISCOVER MAGAZINE - In the northern Alaskan wilderness, a bizarre symptom of climate change is emerging: The rivers there are turning unnaturally orange. This phenomenon paints a worrisome picture for watersheds all across the Arctic, now faced with toxic metals being released by melting permafrost. A new study published in the Proceedings of the National...
By Jack Knudson | Discover Magazine |

And then there were three: New termite species identified in California

ENTOMOLOGY TODAY - In southern California, subterranean termites in the genus Reticulitermes are a common scourge, responsible for significant economic damage in that part of the state. Early studies of these termites indicated that only two pest species existed—Reticulitermes hesperus and Reticulitermes tibialis. However, a 2023 study by Chow-Yang Lee, Ph.D. , endowed presidential chair...

By Andrew Porterfield | Entomology Today |

Will the James Webb telescope lead us to alien life? Scientists say we're getting closer than ever.

LIVE SCIENCE - Imagine a planet twice as wide as Earth, covered in an ocean that smells like sweet cabbage. Every day, a faint red star warms this ocean world and the uncountable masses of hungry, plankton-like creatures that inhabit it. They rise to the surface by the billions, joining together in a living, floating...

By Brandon Specktor | Live Science |

Dark matter could turn some planets into tiny black holes

SCIENCEALERT - Giant worlds beyond the Solar System could be the probe we need to figure out how dark matter manifests in the Universe. According to a new study, one particular dark matter model could see the mysterious mass accumulating in the cores of giant planets, collapsing into tiny black holes destined to consume the...

By Michelle Starr | ScienceAlert |

Vitamin B1 theory from 1958 is finally proven by scientists after being called 'crazy'

EARTH.COM - or years, one rule in chemistry class seemed simple: certain high-energy carbon species, like vitamin B1, fall apart in water. That’s why many reactions take place in specialized organic solvents instead of the most common solvent on Earth. A new study puts a crack in that rule. It shows that a reactive carbon...

By Eric Ralls | Earth.com |
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