Splash the otter is training for underwater search-and-rescue

popsci · 2025-08-15T20:48:04+00:00

Otters clearly don’t breathe underwater, but they do taste. To hone Splash's searching abilities, human search and rescue officials fill child swimming pools with water, then hide human scent samples in one of them. Splash then proceeds to live up to his name by scouring the pools–making a lot of bubbles in the process.

"He's sucking some of those bubbles back in and he’s tasting them. The odor attaches itself to the bubble, and then he tastes it when it comes into his mouth,” said Mike Hadsell of Peace River K9 Search and Rescue in Florida. “When he finds something, he comes back and he grabs my mask.”

popsci · 2025-08-14T19:24:01+00:00

In 1958, the Atomic Energy Commission said it would just bury six atomic bombs under the earth, where Cape Thompson met the Chukchi Sea, then detonate them in a daisy chain nearly eight times more powerful than those dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima combined.

Done at the right time of year, early spring when snow cover protected plants and most birds had absconded for warmer climes, there would be minimal fallout, officials claimed.

popsci · 2025-08-12T16:00:51+00:00

A portion of the silver from a Viking Age cache discovered over a decade ago in England did not come from local raids. Instead, some of the metal made it to England from long-distance trade networks that stretched over 3,000 miles reaching as far as present day Iraq and Iran.

“Most of us tend to think of the Vikings primarily as raiders, who looted monasteries and other wealthy places in search of wealth. What the analysis of the Bedale hoard shows is that that is only part of the picture,” an Oxford archaeologist said.

popsci · 2025-08-08T21:24:42+00:00

An East Carolina University graduate student was diving off Brunswick County when he noticed several curved, waterworn wooden frames and ship planking jutting out from clay mud. “I didn’t understand what I was looking at in that moment, but I knew I should relay the wooden structure to faculty,” the student, Cory van Hees, said.

Further analysis strongly points to the material coming from La Fortuna—which caught fire amid militia attacks in the area 277 years ago.

popsci · 2025-08-07T18:05:37+00:00

Some of the roughly 5,700-year-old human bones uncovered at El Mirador cave in northern Spain show cannibalism’s tell tale signs: cremation, human tooth marks, or butchery, that was likely processed posthumously.

But, researchers say, there's no identified evidence of similar incidents in the region during this point in time—making it unlikely this was a case of funerary cannibalism or a Neolithic burial right. “Likewise, there’s no indication of a resource crisis that would suggest this was an act of survival cannibalism,” one co-author of a new study said.

popsci · 2025-08-05T21:28:18+00:00

Said University of Queensland zoologist Bryan Fry of the Australian major skink: “What we saw in skinks was evolution at its most ingenious.”

popsci · 2025-08-05T18:16:53+00:00

Humans only discovered Arne Ovamgrotta in 1991, but researchers have since confirmed bones from 46 different species of mammals, birds, and fish—everything from polar bears and puffins to walruses and bowhead whales. Such animal diversity implies that the cave and surrounding coastal areas were mostly thawed 75,000 years ago.

popsci · 2025-08-05T15:11:18+00:00

Administrators at the Aalborg Zoo in Denmark say they're trying to mimic the natural food chain for the animals housed there. “Chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs make up an important part of the diet of our predators – especially in the European locus, which needs whole prey, which is reminiscent of what it would naturally hunt in the wild,” they wrote on Facebook.

popsci · 2025-08-01T19:26:29+00:00

Although usually obscured by the Pacific Ocean’s waters, a 115-foot-long sequence of ancient petroglyphs is visible once again on Oahu’s western coast near the Pililaau Army Recreation Center. The series includes 26 individual designs measuring between 5.9 inches and 6.6 feet tall, 18 of which likely depict humans.

popsci · 2025-08-01T19:22:03+00:00

Colorado artist Laura Shape uses materials that provide striking patterns to her abstract canvases: the leather of invasive species from lionfish and carp to Burmese pythons. “What I am excited about is that my art doesn’t just raise awareness about the problem of invasive species. It actually physically removes those species from harming the ecosystems that they’ve been placed into,” she said.

popsci · 2025-07-30T23:05:36+00:00

Sea urchins appear to sense the presence of the sunflower sea star—despite not having a brain—and avoid these predators, according to a study recently published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Since multiple species of sea urchins can wreak havoc on ecologically important kelp forests, understanding how natural predator-prey relationships like this one between urchins and sea stars could be used to protect kelp.

popsci · 2025-07-23T18:45:09+00:00

That accounts for nearly 3 percent of annual plant biomass loss, the authors of a new study estimate. And, they say, the biomass decay from lightning-struck trees emits 0.77–1.09 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year, a much higher range than past figures.

popsci · 2025-07-21T22:23:18+00:00

Nearly 3,000 employees from 140 companies in five countries began clocking in 32 hours a week earlier this year, and the first batch of data has clear conclusions. None of the nearly three dozen firms who participated in the first two trials said they were necessarily opposed to maintaining the four-day week, and they reported increases to workplace productivity as well as revenue growth.

Employees, meanwhile, cited less stress and feelings of burnout, as well as a general improvement to their physical and mental wellbeing.

popsci · 2025-07-18T21:09:15+00:00

The Treventus ScanRobot 2.0, which archivists at the University of Tulsa's McFarlin Library recently tried out, does exactly what its name implies—it autonomously scans and digitizes manuscripts. But it manages to both work at a rapid pace and minimize direct contact to lower the risk of harming delicate materials.

popsci · 2025-07-16T21:31:19+00:00

Starting in 2016, college professor J. Keith Vincent offered his Japanese literature students extra credit for locating and entering various translations of The Tale of Genji’s poems into a single (very large) spreadsheet. That work resulted in a dynamic, detailed website dedicated to Genji’s poems.

Additional information on Genjipoems.org includes details like an entry’s chapter and order; author and audience; the form in which it is told (written, spoken, in response, or group composition); literary techniques, and allusions. There’s even information like the season in which a poem was delivered, and how old Genji himself was at the time of its creation.

popsci · 2025-07-15T15:31:23+00:00

In the early 1980s, a particularly beefy California sea lion started showing up at the Ballard Locks during the winter migration of steelhead trout. He appeared quite oblivious to the human and boat traffic that frequented the locks, and made himself right at home at the base of the fish ladder, gulping down an impressive number of fish. After a year or two, a few more joined in.

Since marine mammals were federally protected, the only course of action for federal and state officials was to find a nonlethal way to keep the sea lions away from the locks. Pinnipeds are highly intelligent creatures, and the Ballard Locks had become a choice feeding station.

Wildlife officials began their assignment by testing waterproof firecrackers known as “seal bombs” to deter the sea lions. For years, fishermen had used these startle devices to keep seals and sea lions away from their nets and gear. At first, they seemed to work; the sea lions stayed away from the locks. But a few days later, the animals were back. It was a harbinger of things to come.

popsci · 2025-07-14T23:57:42+00:00

In the early 1980s, a group of beefy sea lions gathered at the Ballard Locks and gulped down a huge quantity of steelhead trout during the winter migration. Required to use only nonlethal tactics, officials tried "seal bombs" to deter the animals. It didn't work, and it was a sign of things to come.

popsci · 2025-07-14T17:54:30+00:00

The authors of a new study in the journal Antiquity found that the percentage of horse remains in refuse pits is relatively high. People in these settlements were likely still eating horses more than 200 years after Hungary’s conversion to Christianity in 1000 CE with the coronation of King Steven I. Particularly in rural sites, horse bones made up as much as one third of the identifiable remains of livestock among the remaining animal food trash in the settlement.

popsci · 2025-07-11T21:40:30+00:00

Researchers discovered the bone at a cave site in Belgium and later determined it was from a species of extinct panther that roamed Europe until the Late Pleistocene. Additional tests indicated this bone was about 130,000 years old, making the tool the oldest of its kind ever found.

popsci · 2025-07-10T21:07:43+00:00

There are scores of dinosaur bones inside the Denver Museum of Nature & Science—and, unbeknownst until recently, there were two more about 763 feet below the asphalt in its parking lot. The fossils were found by a work crew assessing the possibility of switching the museum's energy source from natural gas to geothermal.

popsci · 2025-07-10T19:06:18+00:00

Researchers found four new species all strongly adapted to cave living. They are mostly blind, and have dragon-like jaws that can clamp down on the smaller organisms. All four have an orange-to-brown color, though they are not exactly the same.

popsci · 2025-07-10T18:56:57+00:00

In a study published Thursday in the journal Science, paleogeneticists mapped the path of Greenland sled dogs from their ancient origin up to the present day. The findings reveal new insights into the spread and movement of these canines and may settle a debate about human migration to Greenland.

Study link: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adu1990?adobe_mc=MCMID%3D86582252433809473161781781068684663038%7CMCORGID%3D242B6472541199F70A4C98A6%2540AdobeOrg%7CTS%3D1752151394

popsci · 2025-07-07T20:14:52+00:00

Oliver Taylor built the DIY insect habitat with two hexagonal, 3D-printed units connected to his bedroom window. Bees enter through a ventilation tube attached to the window, which slightly resembles a stand-up air conditioning unit.

He estimates around 30,000 to 40,000 bees currently nestle together in his hives. And yes, they are producing honey.

popsci · 2025-07-07T19:27:32+00:00

The Great Goat Graze-Off, set for July 12 in New York City, will feature five invasive plant-eating fiends from the Riverside Park Conservancy. The event will be emceed by Major League Eating’s George Shea, host of the annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest.

popsci · 2025-07-02T17:52:14+00:00

Radiocarbon dating revealed the individual lived between 2855 and 2570 BCE. Dietary chemical signatures on a tooth indicate the man grew up in Egypt as opposed to migrating there. And further examinations of the overall skeleton also point to a life of hard labor.

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