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☆ Opinion | Why Conservative and Liberal Catholics Can’t Escape One Another
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-08 | by ( Ross Douthat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

A college of supposedly conservative cardinals elected a surprisingly liberal pope. It seemed as though liberal Catholicism had been merely hibernating, awaiting a new pope, a new spring. But lately, in both Rome and the United States, I’ve had conversations with well-informed Catholics in which the old conservative confidence has made a comeback. The fear that the next pope might be another liberalizer, younger and more ambitious than Francis, has largely receded. This new confidence reflects a specific reading of the waning years (or what are probably the waning years) of the Francis pontificate.

Persons: Pope Francis, Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, I’ve, Francis Locations: Rome, United States

☆ Fossil found on a beach by tween reveals massive marine reptile
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-20 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. CNN —As Earth Day approaches and the Wonder Theory newsletter celebrates three years of arriving in your inboxes, I look to the future with hope. “And it’s up to you to choose what sort of impact you make.”Ocean secretsDr. Dean Lomax, (from left) Ruby Reynolds, Justin Reynolds and Paul de la Salle are shown with the fossil discovery in 2020. Dean LomaxIn May 2020, Ruby Reynolds, then 11, and her father, Justin, were searching for fossils on a Somerset beach along the English coast when she spotted something unusual. And when it came to sheer size, the marine reptile likely rivaled the blue whale, currently the largest living animal.

Persons: Jane Goodall, Goodall nurtures, Goodall, ” Goodall, Dean Lomax, Ruby Reynolds, Justin Reynolds, Paul de, Justin, ”, Gaia BH3, Nigel Raine, Dr, Matt Kasson, Ashley Strickland, Katie Hunt Organizations: CNN, Paul de la Salle, Indian Institute of Technology, ESA, West Virginia University, Explorations, NASA, International, CNN Space, Science Locations: Somerset, India, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Guatemala, France, Australia, Naples , Florida, what’s, Canada

☆ Some bumblebees can survive underwater for up to a week, new study shows
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( Jack Guy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —An experimental error led a team of scientists researching bumblebees to make a startling discovery: the insects’ remarkable ability to survive underwater for up to a week. Scientists believed that these conditions provide protection from flooding, which would be fatal to many terrestrial organisms, but the study shows that eastern common bumblebees can survive for at least a week. “These bees are effectively on energy-saver mode,” said Raine, who added that they most likely wouldn’t survive underwater if they were active. Understanding the mechanisms behind this resilience is a key question for future research, said Raine, who also plans to test whether hibernating queens could survive for longer than a week underwater. “Understanding wild pollinators is really, really important,” he said, emphasizing the insects’ importance for food security and terrestrial ecosystems.

Persons: bumblebees, Nigel Raine Study, Nigel Raine, ”, “, ” Raine, Raine, “ We’re Organizations: CNN, Canada’s University of Guelph Locations: diapause

☆ Now Hibernating: Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-15 | by ( Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Her husband, Mark, 68, has long been a fan of chocolate chip, but he doesn’t see it around much anymore. “In the small container.” Then she corrected herself: “Oh, that’s chocolate chocolate chip.”Vanilla chocolate chip ice cream, once a staple of the ice cream world and one of the top sellers of all time, has fallen out of favor. The flavor can still be found (a closer inspection of the Safeway aisle in this university mountain town revealed pints of Baskin Robbins’s chocolate chip), but it has been losing ground to flavors with more stuff, like cookies and cream and chocolate chip cookie dough. Those two flavors are among the nation’s top five best sellers, according to the International Dairy Foods Association, while chocolate chip no longer makes the top 10. “Chocolate chip used to be a flavor we produced constantly,” said Christine Crowley, communications specialist for Babcock Dairy Plant, which has 75 years of ice-cream making under its belt, in Madison, Wis. Chocolate chip hasn’t been a staple for a decade, she said: “Now it’s seasonal.”

Persons: Cherry Garcia, Dr Pepper, Robin Sawyer, Mark, Ms, Sawyer, “, ”, Christine Crowley Organizations: Safeway, International Dairy Foods Association, Babcock Dairy Plant Locations: Baskin, Madison, Wis

TOKYO (AP) — An unmanned lunar spacecraft has captured and transmitted data analyzing 10 lunar rocks, a greater-than-expected achievement that could help provide clues about the origin of the moon, a Japan space agency official said Wednesday. A black-and-white photo transmitted soon after SLIM was reactivated showed the bumpy lunar surface, including six rocks. By comparing the mineral compositions of moon rocks and those of Earth, they could find out if the rocks have common elements, he said. SLIM carried two autonomous probes which were released just before touchdown, recording the landing, surroundings and other lunar data. The landing made Japan the world's fifth country to reach the moon, after the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India.

Persons: SLIM, —, Shinichiro Sakai, ”, ” Sakai Organizations: TOKYO, Smart, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA Locations: Japan, United States, Soviet Union, China, India

☆ What old bones reveal about the earliest Europeans
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Modern humans, or homo sapiens, weren’t previously known to have lived as far north as the region where the tools were made. “The Ranis cave site provides evidence for the first dispersal of Homo sapiens across the higher latitudes of Europe. It also shows that Homo sapiens, our species, crossed the Alps into the cold climes of northern and central Europe earlier than thought. Using the same technique, the team also managed to identify human remains among bones excavated during the 1930s. However, the protein analysis was only able to identify the bones as belonging to hominins — a category that includes Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis, or Neanderthals.

Persons: weren’t, ”, Jean, Jacques Hublin, Max Planck, Marcel Weiss, Friedrich, “, hominins, neanderthalensis, Elena Zavala, ” Zavala, denning, Dorothea Mylopotamitaki “, Sarah Pederzani, William E, Banks, ” Banks, wasn’t Organizations: CNN, Max, Max Planck Institute, Alexander University Erlangen, Evolutionary Anthropology, University of California, University of La, University of Bordeaux Locations: Europe, Ranis, Germany, France, Paris, Leipzig, Moravia, Poland, British, Nürnberg, Berkeley, Siberia, Eurasia, University of La Laguna, Spain, “

☆ We moved to Austin for the tech jobs, but finding a home was defeating. We kept getting outbid by people making cash offers sight-unseen.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-15 | by ( Jordan Pandy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

AdvertisementAdvertisementThis as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sarah Hollingsworth, 35, about her experience moving from San Antonio to Austin in 2019. My six-month-old daughter, Amelia; my husband, Scott; and I moved to Austin in August 2019 from San Antonio — literally an hour and a half away. There really just aren't that many high-paying tech jobs in San Antonio and we both loved that industry and wanted to stay in it. Austin, being the next-closest tech city, had an abundant amount of high-paying tech jobs. I enrolled in the Entrepreneur Center of Austin, which San Antonio doesn't have.

Persons: Sarah Hollingsworth, —, Austin, Hollingsworth, Poppylist, Amelia, Scott, San Antonio —, Hollingsworth's, Zoey, Antonio doesn't, Techstars Austin, Sarah Hollingsworth San, it's Organizations: Service, Entrepreneur Center of Austin, Capital Factory Locations: Austin, San Antonio, Scott's, West Austin, Lake Austin, Sarah Hollingsworth San Antonio, There's

☆ Canada grizzly bear attack victims were on permitted hike, carrying bear spray
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Park staff found two cans of bear spray at the scene and that the individuals' food had been hung appropriately to avoid attracting animals, Parks Canada said in a statement. The deaths were the first from a grizzly bear in Banff National Park in decades and involved a bear that was not collared, tagged or previously known to park staff, according to the statement. Parks Canada was alerted about the bear attack late Friday and the response team shot and killed the animal when it charged at them. Banff National Park, which attracts more than 4 million tourists every year, is home to both grizzly and black bears. There are about 60 grizzly bears in Banff National Park and are considered to be a threatened population in Alberta.

Persons: Kim Titchener, Ismail Shakil, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: Park, Parks, Parks Canada, Bear Safety, Thomson Locations: Banff, Parks Canada, Canadian, hibernating, Alberta, Ottawa

☆ Couple Killed in Grizzly Bear Attack in Canada's Banff National Park
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-01 | by ( Oct. | At P.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +2 min

By Nivedita BaluTORONTO (Reuters) - A grizzly bear attacked and killed two people and their dog in Alberta's Banff National Park, according to Canadian park officials and a friend of the victims. The victims were a Canadian couple and their dog, according to Kim Titchener, the founder of Bear Safety and More and also a friend of the family. Titchener, who provides training on bear safety and bear assessments, said such encounters are increasing as more people head outdoors but fatal attacks are extremely rare. Banff National Park, which attracts more than four million tourists every year, is home to both grizzly and black bears. There are about 60 grizzly bears in Banff National Park and are considered to be a threatened population in the Alberta, Titchener noted.

Persons: Balu TORONTO, Kim Titchener, It's, Titchener, Nivedita Balu, Aurora Ellis, Lincoln Organizations: Parks Canada, Park, Bear Safety, Parks Locations: Banff, Ya Ha, Canadian, hibernating, Alberta, Red Deer, Parks Canada, Toronto

☆ Ambrose Akinmusire Learned to Let Go (With Help From Joni Mitchell)
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-10 | by ( Giovanni Russonello | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

A product of the academic age in jazz, Akinmusire’s creative life has been intertwined with the Hancock institute nearly from the start. “I don’t want any part of this.” So he moved to Los Angeles, where the jazz scene is smaller and more spread out, and did some hibernating. She told him she’d made everyone in the dressing room stop talking during his set; she’d loved his playing. They started spending afternoons together, taking rides in his Honda Civic to pick up Italian food or playing music at her place. Akinmusire began to see a future for himself that might exist both in and outside of jazz.

Persons: Hancock, Steve Coleman’s, Fats Navarro, Lee Morgan, Terence Blanchard, “, Herbie Hancock, Akinmusire, ambassadorship, Glistening ”, ”, Mitchell, he’d, she’d, ” Akinmusire, ” Mitchell, Joni, Michelle Mercer’s, Joni Mitchell’s, Dylan ”, Friedrich Nietzsche Organizations: Monk Institute of Jazz, “, Honda Civic Locations: New York, Los Angeles, “ Jericho

☆ Zapping a rodent's brain can put it into suspended animation. Scientists want to one day use the same technique for humans traveling to Mars.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The rats' body temperatures also dropped, though to a lesser level, up to 3.57 F (2 C). If they were able to crack the science of suspended animation, it could make space travel safer and cheaper, especially for long-haul flights like the 16-month-long round trip to Mars. A single astronaut eats about 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of food and water a week, but their consumption could drop by 75% in suspended animation, per the BBC. One avenue to induce suspended animation is to cool the body down dramatically. Nevertheless, most of the research into long-ranging suspended animation is still only being done on animals, and we're likely still a long way away from testing it on humans.

Persons: —, Hong Chen, Chen, Yang, Yuan, Nat Metab, John Bradford, Spaceworks, Kaisa, Vyazovskiy Organizations: Service, Privacy, NASA, European Space Agency, ESA, Washington University, BBC, Astronauts, SpaceWorks Enterprises, CNET, University of Oxford Locations: et, Mars, torpor

☆ Ultrasound Pulses to Brain Send Mice Into a Hibernation-Like State
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-25 | by ( Veronique Greenwood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Hibernating creatures curl up underground in winter, slowing their metabolism so they can make it to spring without food. Even laboratory mice, if deprived of food, can enter a state called torpor, a kind of standby mode that economizes energy. But as scientists work to understand states like torpor and hibernation, tantalizing details about how the brain controls metabolism have emerged. Researchers reported in the journal Nature Metabolism on Thursday that they’ve been able to send mice into a torpor-like state by targeting a specific part of the brain with short bursts of ultrasound. A growing body of work is exploring ultrasound as a treatment for disorders like depression and anxiety.

Persons: they’ve, neuroscientists, Hong Chen, Louis, William Tyler Organizations: Washington University, University of Alabama Locations: St, Birmingham

☆ World Bee Day 2023: 6 surprising things about bees
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Unfortunately, many bee species are under threat as a result of changes in land use, pesticides, intensive agriculture and climate change — but there are steps you can take to help them thrive. In honor of World Bee Day on May 20, here are six surprising things you might not know about nature’s hardest-working pollinators. “It marks the first report of honey bees of any species foraging for materials that are not derived from plants or water-based fluids. It is also the first clear-cut example of honey bees using a tool in nature.”Honeybees also signal an imminent attack by making a chilling warning noise. Bees are seen on a honeycomb cell at the Urban Bee Hive rooftop site in Woolloomooloo, a suburb of Sydney.

☆ The search for 100,000 new species in Earth’s oceans
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —In some ways, Earth’s oceans are as alien to us as distant moons in the solar system. When scientists dived to the twilight zone and the mesophotic zone directly above it in recent years, they found colorful fish and sprawling pristine coral reefs. The global initiative seeks to find 100,000 unknown species over the next 10 years. While scientists believe 2.2 million marine species exist in Earth’s oceans, they estimate that they’ve only found 240,000, according to Ocean Census. Identifying new species also enables conservationists to find ways to protect them as Earth changes due to the climate crisis.

☆ Groundhog Day 2023: Punxsutawney Phil Sees His Shadow, but How Often Are His Predictions Right?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Joseph De Avila | Ginger Adams Otis | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Punxsutawney Phil, the most famous groundhog in the U.S., saw his shadow on Thursday, forecasting that it’s going to be a long, cold winter. The tradition dates back to the days of the ancient Romans, when people used hibernating animals, like hedgehogs, to predict when the weather would get warmer.

☆ On Groundhog Day, How Often Has Punxsutawney Phil Been Right?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Joseph De Avila | Ginger Adams Otis | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Punxsutawney Phil, the most famous groundhog in the U.S., will forecast on Thursday when winter will end. The tradition dates back to the days of the ancient Romans, when people used hibernating animals, like hedgehogs, to predict when the weather would get warmer.

☆ Groundhog Day 2023: When It Is and How the Tradition Began
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Joseph De Avila | Ginger Adams Otis | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Credit Deals Are Going Private, Leaving Wall Street in the Cold
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Telis Demos | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Most private equity-style deals late in the year used financing by private credit, including the deal to take Coupa Software private. While some investors were hibernating in the fourth quarter, the private market for deal financing has been roaming free. The overwhelming majority of private equity-style deals late in the year have used financing by so-called private credit rather than by the marketing and selling of loans to a wide group of investors by banks. PitchBook LCD tracked 46 leveraged buyouts financed by private credit in the fourth quarter through Dec. 8, versus just one financed by the broadly syndicated loan market. For the recently announced take-private of Coupa Software for instance, the top lending spot went to investment firm Sixth Street Partners, the Journal has reported.

☆ Lin-Manuel Miranda's first songbook is out, from 'In the Heights' to 'Hamilton' and 'Encanto'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +11 min

So even for Grammy, Emmy, Tony and Pulitzer winner Lin-Manuel Miranda, his first songbook, containing 27 songs from “Hamilton,” “Encanto,” “In the Heights” and more, was a big deal. At the event, his nephew Alejandro performed “Dos Oruguitas” (from “Encanto”) on the piano, and was joined by his own teacher for “You’ll Be Back” (from “Hamilton”). You grew up with musical theater and piano lessons — how does it feel to have your own songbook? And it really was a teacher who brought me out of just writing songs about girls in the back of the classroom. That’s a really fun thing about the whole process: When you’re there early enough, your songs can really be a part of a give-and-take.

☆ Scientists shot tardigrades out of a gun at more than 2,000 mph to see if the critters could survive
▼ + stars: | 2021-05-22 | by ( Aylin Woodward | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Tardigrades can survive in extreme environments, but a new study shows they're not indestructible. Scientists found these creatures couldn't survive speeds above 2,000 mph when shot out of a gun. The researchers shot canisters full of tardigrades out of a high-speed gun at various speeds to see whether the creatures could survive the pressure of each resulting impact. After being shot out at speeds under 900 meters per second (about 2,000 mph) — that's faster than your average bullet — the tardigrades could be revived. But if tardigrades can't survive the pressures of a collision with our moon, it's unlikely they could survive a meteorite impact with another planet, the study authors wrote.

Persons: Alejandra Traspas, Traspas, Megumu Tsujimoto, tardigrades Organizations: Service, Queen Mary University, of, NASA Locations: Wall, Silicon, London, Israeli

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