Science & Technology

Thirty-six million years ago, in the land of modern-day Peru, lived a five-foot tall penguin. Scientists announced on Friday the discovery of Inkayca paracacensis, a flightless seabird that makes today’s emperor penguins look shrimpy. Fossils of the giant penguin show that it had twice the body mass of an emperor penguin and a pointy beak about 23 centimeters long.

Could a bag of chicken scraps help protect an endangered species? The answer is yes.

The average cost of red Roma tomatoes at Safeway is $0.56 each. The average cost of a pack of 75 seeds to grow tomato plants – yielding bunches of tomatoes seasonally – is $1.59. For most college students, the latter, cheaper price holds more appeal. But how do you know if your backyard is suitable for growing tomatoes?

I stood six inches away from Abraham Lincoln’s DNA.

When non-native ants reached California in the 1800’s, co-operation between groups of ants led to a destructive “super-colony.” Today, scientists are searching for a solution.

The Greeks believed Poseidon caused earthquakes when he hit the ground with his trident. Legends in Siberia held that the earth shook when mythical dogs scratched at fleas. In Mexico, it was El Diablo who ripped the earth open from the inside. The lesson: earthquakes are beyond mortal control.

It started with a daring escape.

Cassandra Swett never expected that a field of corn would be her undoing. But there it was, her cornfield, ransacked by hungry crows. Her project destroyed.

A recent UC Davis Human Performance Laboratory study found that landing on the toes after a forward jump cuts forces on the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in half, potentially preventing the ACL from snapping.

Deep in the fleshly, pink center of the human brain is an odd structure. It’s a sort of bent-over “Y” shape that fires into action to form new memories. The structure is called a hippocampus, and without it, you’d have amnesia.

Back in the 1500s, chocolate wasn’t the stuff of Hershey’s, it was medicine. The Spanish colonists believed cocoa drinks could cure ailments from dirty teeth to excessive flatulence. But the Spanish also claimed cocoa could help with heart problems – and they were right.

According to a 2006 Centers for Disease Control report on HIV prevalence, more than a million people live with HIV in the United States. One in every five Americans with HIV is unaware of having the infection.