Answers to old questions, a clue to ancient Viking lore and the upside of being a psychopath all made our top stories this week. Don't miss these.
10. New life found in Antarctic lake
A new type of microbe has been found at a lake buried under Antarctica's thick ice, according to news reports. The find may unveil clues of the surrounding environment in the lake, according to scientists.
The bacteria, said to be only 86 percent similar to other types known to exist on Earth, was discovered in a water sample taken from Lake Vostok, which sits under more than 2 miles (3 kilometres) of Antarctic ice. The freshwater lakehas likely been buried, unaltered, under the ice for the past million years.
9. Buzzed bees excel
Honeybees, like tired office employees, like their caffeine, suggests a new study finding that bees are more likely to remember plants containing the java ingredient.
Caffeine occurs naturally in the nectar of coffee and citrus flowers. Bees that fed on caffeinated nectar were three times more likely to remember a flower's scent than bees fed sugar alone. The findings, detailed today (March 7) in the journal Science, show how plants can manipulate animals' memories to improve their odds of pollination.
8. Stone-Age skeletons unearthed
Archaeologists have uncovered 20 Stone-Age skeletons in and around a rock shelter in Libya's Sahara desert, according to a new study.
The skeletons date between 8,000 and 4,200 years ago, meaning the burial place was used for millennia.
7. Viking sunstone found?
Ancient lore has suggested that the Vikings used special crystals to find their way under less-than-sunny skies. Though none of these so-called "sunstones" have ever been found at Viking archaeological sites, a crystal uncovered in a British shipwreck could help prove they did indeed exist.
The crystal was found amongst the wreckage of the Alderney, an Elizabethan warship that sank near the Channel Islands in 1592. The stone was discovered less than 3 feet (1 meter) from a pair of navigation dividers, suggesting it may have been kept with the ship's other navigational tools, according to the research team headed by scientists at the University of Rennes in France.
6. Why small pups outlive big dogs
Credit: Eric Isselee | Shutterstock
Big dogs apparently die younger mainly because they age quickly, researchers say.
These new findings could help unravel the biological links between growth and mortality, the scientists added.
5. Vortex knots created
A century-old physics question had scientists and mathematicians in knots, until two researchers at the University of Chicago annihilated them.
Dustin Kleckner, a postdoctoral scientist, and William Irvine, an assistant professor of physics, used a tank of fluid to generate a vortex loop, a structure similar to a smoke ring. Vortex loops are common phenomena, showing up in not only smoke rings but mushroom clouds, fire-eater tricks, and even the sun's outer atmosphere, the corona.
4. Sex may relieve migraines
Credit: lmcsike | Shutterstock.com
Sex may relieve migraine pain for some people who suffer from the intense headaches, new research suggests.
The finding, published in the March issue of the journal Cephalalgia, found that sexual activity relieved the pain of migraines or cluster headaches, severe, one-sided recurring head pains, for up to a third of patients. Some of the patients even reported using sex as a kind of headache therapy.
3. The positive side of being a psychopath
A small fraction of people are aggressive, manipulative and lack empathy or remorse - aka psychopaths. Given the social stigma psychopaths face, it's a mystery why such traits persist in society.
"For a long time, people have been aware that there are some people who don't play by the rules and are not cooperative," study co-author Matthew Gervais, an anthropologist at UCLA, told Live Science. "There's been debate about whether those people benefit or incur costs."
2. Baby with HIV cured?
Credit: Sebastian Kaulitzki | Shutterstock
In a dramatic medical breakthrough, a baby born HIV-positive in 2010 now shows no signs of HIV infection.
Though medical experts caution that this single case does not represent a cure for all cases of HIV infection, the child’s aggressive antiretroviral treatment may become a new standard of care for children born to HIV-positive mothers.
1. Monster mosquitoes to strike Florida
One of the most ferocious insects you've ever heard of - it's the size of a quarter and its painful bite has been compared to being knifed - is set to invade Florida this summer.
The Sunshine State, already home to man-eating sinkholes, invading Burmese pythons, swarming sharks, tropical storms and other disasters, can expect to see an explosion of shaggy-haired gallinippers (Psorophora ciliata), a type of giant mosquito, according to entomologist Phil Kaufman of the University of Florida.
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