The most boring number, lab-leak intel is not scientific, colliding dwarf galaxies

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March 03, 2023

Mathematics The Most Boring Number in the World Is ... That prime numbers and powers of 2 fascinate many people comes as no surprise. In fact, all numbers split into two camps: interesting and boring By Manon Bischoff

Policy Lab-Leak Intelligence Reports Aren't Scientific Conclusions Intelligence reports supporting the lab-leak theory for COVID are not based in science By Cheryl Rofer

Black Holes Colliding Dwarf Galaxies Reveal a Glimpse of the Early Universe Scientists may have spotted two pairs of merging dwarf galaxies, each pair with a duo of soon-to-collide black holes By Meghan Bartels

Animals How the Woolly Bear Caterpillar Turns into a Popsicle to Survive the Winter Some caterpillars have evolved with antifreeze in their body cavity, allowing them to become cater-Popsicles to survive cold winters. But climate change could threaten that. By Kate Furby | 06:09

Climate Change Record-Breaking Boreal Fires May Be a Climate 'Time Bomb' Fires in North America and Eurasia spewed record-shattering amounts of CO2 in 2021 By Chelsea Harvey,E&E News

Anthropology Humans Started Riding Horses 5,000 Years Ago, New Evidence Suggests Archaeologists have found a handful of human skeletons with characteristics that have been linked to horseback riding and are a millennium older than early depictions of humans riding horses By Meghan Bartels

Ecology We Must Stop Treating Grasslands as Wastelands The grasslands of India and elsewhere do not need to have economic value to be worth studying and preserving By Sutirtha Lahiri

Epidemiology Vaccine Makers Are Preparing for Bird Flu Although most experts say bird flu is not an immediate threat to humans, efforts are underway to produce vaccines for H5N1 or another potential pandemic virus By Hannah Docter-Loeb

FROM THE ARCHIVE 6 Marvelous Math Stories from 2022 Math made a splash this year. Here's a look at the fascinating discoveries, mind-bending quests and important events in mathematics in 2022 By Clara Moskowitz | December 2022

WHAT WE'RE READING Moai Statue Discovered in a Dried-Up Lake on Easter Island A moai statue has been discovered on Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, at the bottom of a lake that has been shrinking for several years By James Dinneen | New Scientist | Mar. 2, 2023

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