World’s first cloned arctic wolf is now 100 days old
Chinese researchers have created the world’s first cloned arctic wolf, and it is now 100 days old: Scottish scientists proved back in 1996 that it was possible to clone a mammal using a cell from an...
View ArticleLow height off the ground and innate agility
I was pretty sure that corgis weren’t bred simply to look ridiculous, but I didn’t know exactly what they were bred for: Welsh Corgis were cattle herding dogs; the type of herding dog referred to as...
View ArticleIt all goes back to a well-heeled cock
I didn’t know the origin of “well-heeled,” so I looked it up: Originally American English, from a literal use in cockfighting: a well-heeled cock was provided with sharp spurs and could inflict maximum...
View ArticleWhen people get richer, they get more resilient
We are incessantly told about disasters — heat waves, floods, wildfires, and storms — when people have become much, much safer from all these weather events over the past century: In the 1920s, around...
View ArticleWe see a similar pattern of results in humans
It used to be that if researchers needed obese rats for a study, they would just add fat to normal rodent chow, but it turns out that it takes a long time for rats to become obese on this diet: A...
View ArticleAs it turned and ran the ice axe fell out of his head
Clint Adams was mountain goat hunting on Alaska’s Baranof Island in October with his friend, Matt Ericksen, his girlfriend, Melody Orozco, and their guide, when he heard the guide yell three words that...
View ArticleFlorida county under quarantine after giant African land snail spotted
Part of Florida’s Broward County is under quarantine after giant African land snail spotted: Florida’s agriculture officials have contended with the giant African land snail before, and in the past...
View ArticleThe girl’s father beat the beaver to death
A rabid beaver bit a young girl while she was swimming in a northeast Georgia lake: Kevin Beucker, field supervisor for Hall County Animal Control, told WDUN-AM that the beaver bit the girl on Saturday...
View ArticleBullying was considered a virtue
Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk biography explains that when Elon was twelve he was taken by bus to a wilderness survival camp, known as a veldskool: “It was a paramilitary Lord of the Flies,” he recalls....
View ArticleModern dogs have a bigger neocortex
Because domestication was relatively recent, modern dog breeds live alongside ancient breeds, making comparison possible: “About 80 percent of the dogs living on the planet today are what’s known as...
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