By Science News | Elie Dolgin | 11/19/2024 11:00 AM
Mineral crystals in heart cockles’ shells protect symbiotic algae from ultraviolet rays and could lead to innovations in internet infrastructure. ... Read full Story
Environmental DNA harvested from the ocean, land and air can help scientists monitor wildlife. The challenge is figuring out how to interpret this eDNA. ... Read full Story
The detailed structure of a misfolded protein from a diseased deer could help explain why the disease hasn’t made the leap to humans. ... Read full Story
By Science News | Amanda Heidt | 11/7/2024 1:00 PM
Scientists in Utah put sticky traps on car bumpers to tally how many bees get hit on a typical trip. The broader toll is immense, they estimate. ... Read full Story
By Science News | Susan Milius | 11/5/2024 7:01 PM
A bat gym shows that vampires are more like some insects, burning amino acids from blood proteins rather than the carbs or fats other mammals rely on. ... Read full Story
Swine can act as so-called “mixing vessels” for human and bird flus, giving avian viruses an opportunity to adapt for spreading in people. ... Read full Story
In addition to studying the world’s only nonmigratory blue whales, marine biologist Asha de Vos seeks to change her compatriots’ attitudes toward the ocean. ... Read full Story
By Science News | Susan Milius | 10/30/2024 8:00 AM
Vespa orientalis fed an 80-percent-ethanol brew still did hornet tasks and had normal life spans. This trick may be an adaptation to gut-dwelling yeast. ... Read full Story
African giant pouched rats can detect landmines and diseases. Now some have been trained to sense elephant ivory, pangolin scales and more. ... Read full Story
By Science News | Sujata Gupta | 10/25/2024 9:00 AM
A mid-1850s act let the United States seize islands rich in bird guano. Those strategic outposts fueled the U.S. rise to power, a researcher says. ... Read full Story
Rediscovery of giant salmon carp in Cambodia sparks hope for the rare fish’s survival and efforts to conserve one of the greatest diversity hot spots. ... Read full Story
By Science News | Jake Buehler | 10/23/2024 2:00 PM
Polar bears have been exposed to more viruses, bacteria and parasites in recent decades, a new study shows, possibly acquiring the germs in their diet. ... Read full Story
By Science News | Jake Buehler | 10/11/2024 11:00 AM
Genetic analysis of cavity crud from two famed man-eating lions suggests the method could re-create diets of predators that lived thousands of years ago. ... Read full Story
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 20, 2024 is:
snivel \SNIV-ul\ verb
To snivel is to speak or act in a whining, sniffling, tearful, or weakly emotional manner. The word snivel may also be used to mean "to run at the nose," "to snuffle," or "to cry or whine with snuffling."
// She was unmoved by the millionaires sniveling about their financial problems.
// My partner sniveled into the phone, describing the frustrations of the day.
"At first, he ran a highway stop with video gambling. 'To sit and do nothing for 10 to 12 hours drove me nuts,' he [Frank Nicolette] said. That's when he found art. 'I started making little faces, and they were selling so fast, I'll put pants and shirts on these guys,' he said, referring to his hand-carved sculptures. 'Then (people) whined and sniveled and wanted bears, and so I started carving some bears.'" — Benjamin Simon, The Post & Courier (Charleston, South Carolina), 5 Oct. 2024
Did you know?
There's never been anything pretty about sniveling. Snivel, which originally meant simply "to have a runny nose," has an Old English ancestor whose probable form was snyflan. Its lineage includes some other charming words of yore: an Old English word for mucus, snofl; the Middle Dutch word for a head cold, snof; the Old Norse word for snout, which is snoppa; and nan, a Greek verb meaning "to flow." Nowadays, we mostly use snivel as we have since the 1600s: when self-pitying whining is afoot, whether or not such sniveling is accompanied by unchecked nasal flow.