“The world is full of obvious things that no one happens to ever notice.”
This quote from Sherlock Holmes in the book The Hound of the Baskervillesby Arthur Conan Doyle, delivered by the captivating Dustin Henderson in the new season of Stranger Things, reminded me of the quest to understand how life really works. It’s a bit of a never-ending story. No matter where and when we look, there is always something waiting to be discovered.
As we try to understand how a single mutation can cause rare genetic disorders, scientists are well on the way to the “era of human therapeutic gene editing” and even messing with reverse aging.
Contemplating missions to the Moon and Mars means explaining how the human body will survive long-term spaceflight – not just physically, but emotionally and mentally as well.
As humans, we cannot help it. The more we explore, the more challenges we discover along the way – including rare species that need our help.
Fortunately, the world is full of intrepid souls who keep climbing the hill of revelation.
fantastic creatures
One of the world’s most endangered penguin species has a reputation for being loud and cheeky.
The yellow-eyed penguin, which lives in New Zealand, is locally called hoiho, which means “noisy screamer” in Maori. But the population of this unique, solitary species has declined dramatically in recent years. Only about 3,000 of them remain in the wild.
These waterfowl suffer from starvation, rising temperatures, water pollution, toxic algal blooms, injuries and a mysterious disease called red lung, which scientists are still trying to understand.
New Zealand’s Penguin Place welcomes hundreds of hoiho into its rescue and rehabilitation center to ensure they have a chance to survive. It is a place for quarrelsome birds to rest, receive treatment and lots of delicious fish.
Conservationists are hopeful that refuges like Penguin Place will help hoiho recover.
other worlds
At first glance, Neptune and Uranus may be planetary twins. The distant and icy worlds are similar in size and atmospheric composition.
But as Voyager 2 revealed when it passed both planets in 1989, they are not the same color. Neptune has a bright blue appearance, while Uranus has a paler shade of cyan blue.
Now, scientists believe they have discovered the reason behind this difference: a thick layer of haze that accumulates in Uranus’ atmosphere, turning it a lighter shade of pale.
Speaking of planets, keep your eyes on the night sky to see the alignment of five planets this month.
the wonder
If you want to see the biggest living plant in the world, you will need a big boat. The marine plant, called Posidonia australis, stretches over 180 kilometers in Shark Bay off the coast of Western Australia.
To give you an idea, this seagrass expansion roughly covers the distance between San Diego and Los Angeles.
The researchers were shocked to discover that it is a single plant with an unexpected way to expand: seagrass clones themselves.
Long time
When paleontologists found a strange fossil in the Junggar Basin of northwest China, they weren’t sure what to make of the creature. According to a new analysis, Discokeryx xiezhi is a strange primitive relative of the giraffe that lived 17 million years ago.
Equipped with helmet-like protection and the most complex head-neck articulations ever seen in a mammal, the giraffe was perfectly suited for competitive headbutts in search of a mate.
Perhaps the most surprising part of the discovery, aside from the fact that the animal appeared to be wearing a jazz dancer’s hat, is that Discokeryx xiezhi shed light on why the modern giraffe evolved to have such a long neck.
unearthed
Ancient relics and colorful sarcophagi are some of the latest discoveries from the Saqqara necropolis in Egypt.
Revealed to the public this week, the collection includes the largest find of bronze statues in the region, dating back to the 5th century BC. The 150 statues were modeled after gods such as Anubis, Nefertem and Amun.
An Egyptian archaeological mission has been working on the royal cemeteries, 29 kilometers south of Cairo, since 2018. So far, researchers have also discovered hundreds of other well-preserved items, including jewelry, mummies, masks and figurines.
Take note
Don’t miss:
- The Hubble Space Telescope pointed directly at the center of a grand design spiral galaxy and shared a stunning front view.
- Energy experts warn that US states may not have enough energy to meet demand during a hotter-than-usual summer — and grid operators are not factoring extreme weather driven by the climate crisis into their planning.
- Fossilized teeth showed that great white sharks may have doomed megalodons to extinction, despite the fact that the animal was nearly four times larger.
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m Susan Karen, a professional writer and editor at World Stock Market. I specialize in Entertainment news, writing stories that keep readers informed on all the latest developments in the industry. With over five years of experience in creating engaging content and copywriting for various media outlets, I have grown to become an invaluable asset to any team.
