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In this week's science news, we covered discoveries beneath Earth's crust, Artemis II's first scrub, an ape that plays pretend, using psychedelics for PTSD and some stunning wildlife photos.
(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images | Ape Initiative)
This week's science news was filled with incredible discoveries hidden deep inside our planet, including a potential answer to the long-standing mystery of how a tributary of the Colorado River appears to defy gravity.
When it formed millions of years ago, the Green River — which starts in Wyoming and joins the Colorado River in Utah — carved a path through the Uinta Mountains instead of flowing around them. Exactly how the river was able to flow "uphill" was unknown. But now, geologists say they may have found an explanation: A phenomenon called lithospheric drip dragged the mountains down, helping the river carve its path, before they rebounded upward into the topography we see today.
The wet dress rehearsal for NASA's Artemis II mission ended in a scrub this week, leading the space agency to delay its first attempt to send astronauts back to the moon from this weekend to early March.
If you've been following Artemis launches as long as we have, you can probably guess the cause of this week's scrub: hydrogen. The supercold liquid fuel, while clean-burning and highly efficient, is an amazing escape artist, leaking out of NASA's gigantic Space Launch System three times during the fueling rehearsal.
Once Artemis II clears the wet dress rehearsal and simulated launch stage, NASA will conduct a flight-readiness review before committing to a launch date. The next launch window includes March 6 to 9 and March 11. If Artemis II doesn't fly on one of those days, it will be delayed until April. The mission is meant to launch no later than April 30.
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Boogers are the caviar and oysters of children's worlds, their lack of visual appeal, salty flavor and squishy consistency enhancing their sense of delicacy — no matter what disgusted adults may say. But why do children, some adults and even other primates eat their own snot? It turns out, there may be some possible health benefits, although kids are likely better off eating their more traditional greens.
A bonobo who successfully played along with a pretend tea party staged by scientists may have revealed that apes have imaginations.
The ability to visualize the presence of objects that aren't there was believed to be a uniquely human trait. But now, an experiment conducted with the assistance of Kanzi — a bonobo who lived in a research center in Des Moines, Iowa, and died last year — may have shown that apes can play pretend, too.
In Kanzi's case, the imaginary object was juice that researchers pretended to pour into cups, which he picked out with 68% accuracy across the trials. If the study can be replicated in bonobos and other apes, it could reveal a broader capacity for imagination that has been anecdotally claimed yet never confirmed.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can rewire human brains so profoundly that traditional therapies, such as antidepressants and trauma-focused psychotherapies, often aren't enough. That's why researchers are exploring a new avenue: psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, using MDMA or psilocybin, to act on the brain systems disrupted in PTSD, instead of treating the symptoms.
If you're looking for something a little longer to read over the weekend, here are some of the best opinion pieces, crosswords and skywatching guides published this week.
Ben Turner is a U.K. based writer and editor at Live Science. He covers physics and astronomy, tech and climate change. He graduated from University College London with a degree in particle physics before training as a journalist. When he's not writing, Ben enjoys reading literature, playing the guitar and embarrassing himself with chess.
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