About 10 minutes with a therapy dog soothed kids who felt anxious about being emergency room patients. A clinical trial found that after spending time with a dog, young patients reported a significantly larger decrease in their anxiety than kids who didn’t have dog time. The patients’ parents also perceived significantly reduced anxiety in their…
The privately-owned Blue Ghost moon lander, built by Texas-based company Firefly Aerospace, has captured a rare view of a lunar eclipse from the moon’s surface. The lander, which touched down March 2 in a volcanic plain on the moon’s nearside, has spent its time deploying instruments and collecting data. On the night of March 13,…
Zebra stripes? Leopard print? Neither were in vogue among the earliest mammals during the Age of Dinosaurs. Early mammals and their close relatives probably sported dark, drab coats from snout to tail, researchers report in the March 14 Science. The monochrome ensembles may have helped ancient mammals blend into their nighttime surroundings and evade predators….
Five oddly expressive clay figurines, made on the edge of the Maya world about 2,400 years ago, were probably used as puppets in public rituals to commemorate mythical or real events. “They would have either represented actual personages, or they were generic ‘media’ for rituals connected to rulers,” says archaeologist Jan Szymański of the University…
Scientists have coaxed one of the universe’s most stubborn elements into a new compound. Formed under intense pressures, the newly discovered compound packs helium atoms into crystalline iron, researchers report February 25 in Physical Review Letters. The compound joins a short list of materials that incorporate the normally unreactive element and suggests that helium from…