The discovery of Krypton, drunk elephants and political opposites getting along, are just the beginning. We found some very diverse stories in Science this week.
10. Coffee Does a Worldview Good
Credit: Markus Reugels, LiquidArt
Caffeine may make the world seem like a better place, helping people spot positive words, researchers have found.
Past research has found that people are faster and more accurate at recognizing positive words such as "happy" than negative words such as "mad," and similar effects are seen with pictures and sounds. This emotional bias is curious, given how people are equally good at remembering both positive and negative details of an event, such as words, pictures and sounds.
9. Superman's Krypton Planet Found
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson just did Superman a super favour.
The scientist, who is director of New York City's Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, was approached in late summer by DC Comics, home of the long-running Superman series.
8. Drunk Elephants?
"Marauding pack of booze-addled elephants wreak havoc on Indian village." It's a story, or at least a headline, that's surprisingly common.
A few representative samples from the news reports on the latest incident: "Herd of Elephants Go on Drunken Rampage After Mammoth Booze Up," and, of course, "Trunk and Disorderly!"
7. Super-Earth May Be Habitable
Astronomers have detected an alien planet that may be capable of supporting life as we know it - and it's just a stone's throw from Earth in the cosmic scheme of things.
The newfound exoplanet, a so-called "super-Earth" called HD 40307g, is located inside its host star's habitable zone, a just-right range of distances where liquid water may exist on a world's surface. And the planet lies a mere 42 light-years away from Earth, meaning that future telescopes might be able to image it directly, researchers said.
6. Ancient Murder Mystery?
More than 8,000 years ago, a 19-year-old woman and a slightly older man fell - or were they pushed? - into a well. Archaeologists have now uncovered the remains, revealing a Stone Age mystery.
No one knows whether the couple fell into the well by accident or whether foul play was involved, but archaeologists say the choice of final resting place closed the water source for good.
5. Alien Horned Dino Found
Palaeontologists in Canada have discovered fossils of a new 2-ton, 20-foot-long horned dinosaur that roamed the Earth about 80 million years ago. And its headgear would've put on quite a show for the ladies.
The dinosaur, a distant cousin of Triceratops called Xenoceratops foremostensis, is one of the oldest specimens known to date of the ceratopsid group. The beast's name, Xenoceratops, translates to "alien horned-face," referring to its strange pattern of horns on its head and above its brow, and the rarity of such horned dinosaurs in this part of the fossil record.
4. Left vs. Right: Can We Ever Get Along?
First there were the debates. The partisan attacks. Your normally mild-mannered friends cluttering up your Facebook newsfeed with political rants.
And now, the election is over.
The next question is, will our politicians be able to come together to govern the country over the next four years? And will you and Aunt Mildred be able to civilly pass the peas over Thanksgiving dinner after that knock-down, drag-out fight you had about health-care reform on Election Day?
3. Vodka & Sunlight Ignite Liquor Store
A band of sunshine crept under a window shade, which refracted light through a vodka bottle in a cardboard display case, which set the display case ablaze, which burst open the vodka bottles, which spewed fuel on the blossoming fire, which sent 12-foot (3.66 meter) plumes of flame soaring toward the ceiling of a mom-and-pop liquor store in a town called Burnsville.
It's the kind of claim that you don't make to an insurance company unless you have video evidence. But Red Lion Liquors in Burnsville, Minnesota [USA], has a surveillance setup and filmed every unlucky step of the spontaneous Rube Goldberg machine.
2. Tomb of Ancient Princess Discovered
The tomb of an ancient Egyptian princess has been discovered south of Cairo hidden in bedrock and surrounded by a court of tombs belonging to four high officials.
Dating to 2500 B.C., the structure was built in the second half of the Fifth Dynasty, though archaeologists are puzzled as to why this princess was buried in Abusir South among tombs of non-royal officials. Most members of the Fifth Dynasty's royal family were buried 1.2 miles (2 kilometres) to the north, in the central part of Abusir or farther south in Saqqara.
1. Meth May Fight Flu
Meth kills brain cells, fuels tooth decay, loads the body with toxins and weakens the heart, muscles and immune system. But the otherwise body-wrecking drug may also have flu-fighting properties, new research suggests.
A group of scientists from the National Health Research Institutes in Taiwan set out to study how methamphetamine interacts with influenza A virus in lung cells. Previous research has suggested that chronic meth abuse makes individuals more susceptible to pathogens such as HIV. The team wanted to investigate how the drug might reduce users' resistance to flu viruses.
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