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What’s Happening to All Our Giraffes? The Disappearing Species Faces Silent Extinction

Medicine & Technology In what perhaps may be the most shocking upset in the news this week, ecologist revealed last Friday, Dec. 5, that giraffes may be headed towards extinction – and it’s in part due to a lack of awareness of dangers facing the African species. While contemporary studies in Africa’s central savannahs have revealed the collected threats that human encroachment , habitat loss and black market poaching has posed to wildlife communities, researchers say that giraffes are amongst some of the hardest hit populations in the long list of black market species. And without significant change in the way giraffes are protected, they may disappear all together within a matter years.

E=MC^2 Wasn’t His Only Thought—New Archive Reveals Einstein’s Love and Laughter

Albert Einstein was undoubtedly a scientist not of his era. But in spite of his very public persona, living his life in the limelight, many are still not exactly sure who the man was behind the science. Living a life as exciting as his discoveries in the field of physics, Einstein is a man of many mysteries. And who better to divulge the secrets than the mad scientist himself?

Dwindling Ice in Antarctica Spurs Questions Over Climate Change and The Point of No Return

As impending threats of “climate change” and “ecological disaster” have loomed over international affairs this year, to the point that even the United Nations spearheaded a campaign and led a summit to discuss future changes that may amend for some of humanity’s grave mistakes, new research published this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters looks to a place much colder than our metropolises for evidence of a rapidly shifting climate.

NATURE Says Mammals Developed 3D Neural Compass to Better Navigate Terrain

Ever wonder how you could lose your way on the freeway, and still find your destination without Google Maps or MapQuest as an aid? Or how a dog with an attention span of only mere minutes can recall the path least travelled, and find its way home, in spite of the baffling sounds and smells around it? Well as it so happens, researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel believe that new research reveals that mammals have developed an internal compass that guides our way. And it’s not just dogs and humans that have evolved the nifty trick deep within the brain.

A Bit of Mediterranean Lifestyle Could Help You Live Longer

As if we didn’t already know that life on the Mediterranean is much better for our health, than the hectic city life and fast food of metropolises, it turns out that new research published this week in the British Medical Journal reveals that a Mediterranean Diet is amongst the healthiest out there. But while you may imagine strolls on the beach and kilos of gelato to take home, like many trips to Italy undoubtedly have, the diet that Harvard researchers investigated for the study was the trademark diet known of the Mediterranean – rich in olive oils, fish, vegetables, legumes and low in sugar. With a little added touch; a glass of wine traditional with every meal. And what the researchers found is that women who follow the strictly healthy fat diet have significantly longer life spans than women who don’t have a healthy diet – keeping them younger and in better health for years more than the global average.

Earth’s Warm Streak Could Peak in a Decade, If Policymakers Don’t Change

Speed up the models and cut down on your carbon footprints, because a bit of change today could spell better weather and a better Earth only a decade away. While climatologists and researchers across all of science have in recent years discussed the long-term goals of climate change and the effects of carbon emissions, a new study published today, Dec. 2, in the journal Environmental Research Letters reveals that reductions in carbon emissions today will help shape the planet’s atmosphere in as little as 10 years, versus the 30 to 50 year models used by researchers and policymakers until now.

CDC Asks What’s Worse—Occasional Binging or Full-Blown Alcoholism?

Here in the U.S., with peaking numbers of DUI’s and staggering alcohol-related deaths, the government and the general public realizes that we’re facing a problem with alcohol and its effects on society. But many are left wondering, what’s worse: an occasional binge when out for a night on the town, or full-blown alcoholism? You may be surprised to find out that a new study conducted by the U.S. government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that while excessive drinking is responsible for over 88,000 deaths a year, nine out of ten Americans who drink excessively do not meet the criteria to be classified as “alcoholics”. So it’s binge drinking that’s the main culprit for these deaths.

Could Binge Drinking Lead To A Solution for Alcoholism? CDC Thinks So

For those Americans who have spent some time in the south of France, or gazing at the crystal azure waters at Mediterranean shores, they know that European nations are far more into vineyards and nights out on the town than any metropolis this side of the Atlantic. But while wine and aperitivos may run free in every European meal, the U.S. on the contrary is a place of sugary sweets, where binge drinking on a holiday weekend is far more common than a daily glass of sangria. And while binge drinking in the long run is far more detrimental to one’s health, researchers now say that excess drinking and rates of alcoholism may be curbed by a new set of taxes.

How Early Man Survived at the ‘Roof of the World’—And Found the Secret to Beer Too

For early man, surviving and conquering niche environments, like that of the Tibetan Plateau of Asia, was a difficult task that required the perfect combination of conditions. Tribes needed to learn how to work together, to traverse harsh terrain, to find/build shelter, and above all they had to learn how to feed themselves year-round. And while the surmounting odds of surviving the domain known as the “Roof of the World” were stacked against them, with extreme altitudes, relentless winds, frigid temperatures and low-oxygen conditions complicating the living conditions they had in their new home, researchers now say that early men were able to conquer this uninhabited ecosystem thanks to a cold-hardy crop used to make beer – barley.

CERN May Not Have Found Higgs Boson, But They Found A New Director-General

While earlier this week news surrounded a presumptuous theory that researchers at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider in fact had not discovered the elusive Higgs Boson particle as they claimed in 2012, news from the people behind the discovery announced that the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) anticipates an even brighter future with a new Director-General at its helm. Selected at the 173rd closed session held earlier this month, Italian physicist Dr. Fabiola Gianotti will begin her five-year mandate starting on January 1st, 2016.

The Man Behind the Theorem—CERN Artwork Pays Homage to John Stuart Bell

Coming off the toes of Nov. 10 World Science Day for Peace and Development, established by UNESCO in 2001, CERN announced this week that an exhibition held in Belfast, Ireland may reveal another view of famed physicist John Stewart Bell’s extraordinary career. The exhibition entitled Action at a Distance: The Life and Legacy of John Stuart Bell celebrates the 50th anniversary of Bell’s famous theorem that revolutionized the field of quantum theory, and reveals much more than the numbers and variables in the head of the man.

What the Taurus Constellation Can Teach Us About Our Solar System’s Birth

There are creationist theories, Big Bang theories, and even more temporarily defined hypotheses about how the planets of our solar system came to be, but modern research has yet to find conclusive empirical evidence to show us exactly how our solar system’s birth happened, 4.5 billion years ago. That is, until now!

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