Kandice Tirado

Scientists Can Observe Oceanic Crust Forming In The East African Rift Valley As The Valley Continues To Mature, With Further Splits, From Its Relatively Early Stage Of A Plate Boundary Divergence. The Rift, In 5 -10 Myrs, Could Give Rise To Coastlines In Countries Like Kenya And Uganda, As Eastern Africa Separates From The Rest Of The African Continent.

French Bulldog, For The First Time In 31 Years, Has Been Ranked As The Most Favorite Dog In The USA, Surpassing The Labrador Retrievers. The Rank Was Done By The American Kennel Club Based On Data From 716,500 Voluntary Registrations From Dog Owners. The 3rd, 4th, And 5th Positions Went To Golden Retrievers, German Shepherds, And Poodles.

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The World’s First Cataract Surgery On Penguins Was Done, By Mandai Wildlife Group, On 6 Geriatric Penguins That Reside At Singapore’s Jurong Bird Park, A Popular Tourist Attraction That Houses Some 5,000 Birds. The Cloudy Lens, In A 2.5 Hours Surgery Per Penguin, Were Replaced With Lenses Manufactured In Germany To Fit Each Penguin’s Eye.

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Researchers Have Discovered That A Hydrogen Consuming Enzyme, Huc, Found In Soil Bacteria, Could Generate Electricity From Air. The Study Also Revealed That Huc Could Be Stored For A Long Time At Freezing Temperature Or Up To 80 oC Without Losing Its Electric Generating Power–Making It A Potential GroundBreaking Source Of Clean Energy.

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An Olympic Swimming Pool-Sized Asteroid, 2023 DW, Has A Small, 1 In 560, Chance Of Impacting Earth On Feb 14, 2046, According To Nasa. It Is Estimated To Fly Pass Earth At A Distance Of ~1.1m Miles, Making It The Only Space Rock On Nasa’s Risk List To Rank 1 On The Torino Impact Hazard Scale—Indicating An Unlikely Risk For An Impact.

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Researchers, Including NASA Scientists, Using Satellite Imagery And AI To Map ~10 Billion Trees, Carried Out The First Comprehensive Estimate Of Tree Carbon Density In The Drylands Of Africa. The Study Estimates ~0.84 Billion Metric Tons Of Carbon—A Data That Is Essential For, E.g., Understanding Global Carbon Cycle And Climate Change Projection.

Adiah And Adrial Nadarajah, According To The Guinness World Records, Are The World’s Most Premature Twins. The Canadian Siblings Were Born At 21.3 Wks– 126 Days Early, Overtaking The Previous Record Of 125 Days Early Birth Set In 2018 By Identical Twins Kambry and Keeley Ewoldt In Iowa, US. A Full-Term Pregnancy Is Usually 9 Months (39 Wks).

An Arctic Walrus, For The First Time In Over 25 Years, Was Spotted Along The W. Coast Of Scotland. Walrus Are Long Distance Travelers, And Some Experts Are Speculating This To Be The Same Walrus Seen In Netherlands, France, England, & Iceland. 2 Walrus Groups Are Thought To Exist In The Wild: ~25,000 Atlantic And ~ 200,000 Pacific Walruses.

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A Very Rare Insect, The Giant Lacewing, Or Polystoechotes Punctata, Of The Jurassic Era, Has Been Spotted For The First Time Since It Vanished In The 1950s From E. North America. The Bug, Found In 2012 At An Arkansas Walmart, Was Identified In 2022. Factors Like Pollution & Artificial Light Are Said To Have Caused Its Disappearance.

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The Biggest Living Frog On Earth, Said To Grow As Big As A Cat, Is Now Endangered As It Has Been Over-Hunted For Food And Pet Trade In Cameroon And Equatorial Guinea. A Conservative Group Is, However, Effectively Making Efforts To The Save The Frog By Working With Hunters And Setting Up Alternative Food Sources, Snail Farms, For The Locals.

Spain, Like Demark First Did In 2014, Has Passed A Law That Would Enable People Over 16 To Legally Identify As Another Gender Without Medical Evaluation, And Confirm It 3 Months Later. The Law Changes The Usual Process That Required A Medical Diagnosis Of Gender Dysphoria And To Be On Hormonal Treatment For 2 Yrs Before A Gender Change.

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María Branyas Morera, Following The Death Of 118-Year-Old Lucile Randon Of France, Is Now Said To Be The Oldest Living Woman And The Oldest Living Person By The Guinness World Records. Ms. Morera, Who Is 115 Years And 321 Days Old, As Of 1/19/2023, Was Born In California, USA, On 3/4/1907. But She Returned To Spain 8 Years After Her Birth.

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Scientists, For The First Time, Have Developed A Living Solar Cell From The Succulent Plant Corpuscularia Lehmannii. The Cell Works When Electron Is Transported, Via Water And Nutrients As Electrolytes, During Photosynthesis. The Plant’s Leaf Is Said To Generate 20 µA/cm2 of Photocurrent Density, For Over A Day, When Exposed To Light.

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EctoLife Is The First Artificial Womb (AW) Concept Facility, Which, In Theory, Could Grow About 30,000 Babies Per Year. Parents Can Engineer Their Embryos Before They Are Implanted In The AW. The Facility Is Said To Be A Solution For Countries With Depleting Populations, For Infertile Couples, Or For Women That Have Lost Their Wombs.

American Cancer Society Is Stating That Cancer Death Rates In The USA Have Fallen, From 1991 To 2019, By 33%–Implying 3.8 m Fewer Cancer Deaths. The Drop Was Attributed To The Prevention, Screening, Early Diagnosis, And Treatment Of Common Cancers. However, Cancer Is Still The 2nd Leading Cause Of Death In The US After Heart Disease.

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Researchers, Based On NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover Data, Have Found, In The Gale Crater, A Gemstone, Opal, Which Surrounds An Extensive Network Of Fractures That Could Have Been Water-Rich And Provided Habitable Conditions. Opal, Which Forms From Silica & Water, Could Act As A Proxy Or Be Used As A Water Source In Future Mars Exploration.

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The USDA Has Approved The First-Ever Vaccine For Honey Bees. The Vaccine License, Conditionally Issued To Diamond Animal Health On December 29th, 2020, Would Help Prevent And/Or Treat The American Foulbrood Disease In Honeybees. The Disease Is Said To Be One Of The Most Widespread And The Most Destructive Of The Honey Bee Brood Diseases

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Elon Musk Is Now the First Person In The World To Lose $200 Billion, After His Company, Tesla, Stocks Plunged 65%, In 2022, Due To Increasing Competition From Electric Automakers. This Loss Has Made Him The Second Richest Person In The World, Behind LVMH Chairman, Bernard Arnault. Musk Had A Peak Net Worth Of $340 Billion In Nov. 2021.

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A Woman, For The First Time, Has Been Sworn In As Peru’s First Female President. The Woman, Ms. Dina Boluarte, A 60-Year-Old Former Lawyer, Was The Vice-President To The Ousted President, Pedro Castillo, Who Was Impeached, On 12/07/22, By Peru’s Congress. Ms. Boluarte, Who Is The Youngest Of 14 Children, Was Born In The Southern Town Of Chalhuanca.

The First Drug Designed To Slow Brain Destruction In Early Stages Alzheimer’s Patients Has Been Developed. The Drug, Lecanemab, Is An Antibody Engineered To Tell The Immune System To Clear Amyloid From The Brain. Many Are Hailing The Drug As Momentous, Even Though The Benefit Is Small, With The Risk Of Brain Swelling And Bleeding.

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