A 200-mile lightning flash and another flash lasting nearly eight seconds have redefined experts’ notions of what is possible for such events.
The new data prompted a World Meteorological Organization committee to recommend revising the definition of lightning discharges.
Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Record-Breaking Lightning Flashes Help Change Definition Of Lightning Events
During World War I, an American surgeon named William Baer noted that the maggot-ridden wounds he found on some soldiers looked surprisingly healthy, showing fewer signs of inflammation or infection. Baer’s observation was really a rediscovery of the medical value of maggots, a quality known to Napoleon’s Army doctors and probably used by civilizations as far back as the ancient Maya.
Today, doctors use the creepy crawlies to stem infections, speed healing and save money, particularly in cases of chronic wounds like diabetic foot ulcers. Ask your doctor if medical maggots are right for you – but first read
Seven to 10 billion years ago, a bunch of galaxies fell in with a bad crowd at the Coma cluster — a galactic group comprising thousands of their ilk. That crash “quenched” the ill-fated galaxies. They’d never again burn with hot, young stars. But the crash should have done more than shut down the unfortunate galaxies’ stellar birth rate. It should have strewn their stars across space.
So what kept these cosmic corpses intact? Read on, if you dare (OK, so the title is a bit of a hint …).
In honor of World Oceans Day (June 8), here’s my recent article on some of the remarkable discoveries made by marine biologists over the past few years. From clearing up the murky “lost years” of juvenile turtles to further solidifying our understanding of a jellyfish’s final fate, these delvers of the deep have shrunk what Shakespeare called “the vasty deep” to something a bit more fathomable but no less amazing. Find out more as I take a deep dive into …
I don’t know about you, but I could spend all day watching nature documentaries. Nature is endlessly fascinating, adaptive and, occasionally, just plain scary.
Take the insect world, for example. You can wax lyrical about butterfly wings all you like, but when it’s time to throw down — or just plain survive — you do not want to mess with an insect. They will end you, and I’ve 10 good reasons why:
