Australian blue tongue lizard ancestor was round-in-the-tooth

(Flinders University) Reconstruction of the most complete fossil lizard found in Australia, a 15 million year old relative of our modern blue tongues and social skinks named Egernia gillespieae, reveals the creature was equipped with a robust crushing jaw and was remarkably similar to modern lizards.

from EurekAlert! - Archaeology http://bit.ly/2vtC0eQ

Lure of the 'loot box' looks a lot like gambling

(University of British Columbia) An increasingly popular feature of modern video games is attracting gamers who share the beliefs and behaviours of problem gamblers, new UBC research has found. Gamers who are drawn to 'loot boxes' -- randomly generated prizes of undisclosed value that can be attained or purchased within a game--bear a closer resemblance to problem gamblers than they do to problem gamers.

from EurekAlert! - Social and Behavioral Science http://bit.ly/2vtC3Hy

Poor, crowded cities lack access to opioid reversal drug, Rutgers study finds

(Rutgers University) People living in the most populous, low-income areas in New Jersey with the highest risk for opioid overdoses have less access to the potentially life-saving opioid reversal drug naloxone, Rutgers researchers find.

from EurekAlert! - Social and Behavioral Science http://bit.ly/2PEt2ok

Storage beyond the cloud

(Harvard University) As the data boom continues to boom, more and more information gets filed in less and less space. Even the cloud will eventually run out of space, can't thwart all hackers, and gobbles up energy. Now, a new way to store information could stably house data for millions of years, lives outside the hackable internet, and, once written, uses no energy. All you need is a chemist, some cheap molecules, and your precious information.

from EurekAlert! - Social and Behavioral Science http://bit.ly/2LiiOLN

Environmental pollutants could impact cellular signs of aging

(American Chemical Society) Researchers have linked some environmental pollutants with diseases, a decreased life span and signs of premature aging, such as wrinkles and age spots. But can accelerated aging be detected at the cellular level in healthy people exposed to pollutants? Now, researchers in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology report that although pollutant exposure can affect two hallmarks of aging in people (mitochondrial DNA content and telomere length), the results are not so clear-cut.

from EurekAlert! - Social and Behavioral Science http://bit.ly/2VDazhh

Searching for lost WWII-era uranium cubes from Germany

(American Institute of Physics) In 2013, Timothy Koeth received an extraordinary gift: a heavy metal cube and a crumpled message that read, 'Taken from Germany, from the nuclear reactor Hitler tried to build. Gift of Ninninger.' Koeth accepted the cube and its note as an invitation to the adventure of a lifetime. In Physics Today, Koeth and Miriam Hiebert describe what they've discovered while exploring the German quest and failure to build a working nuclear reactor during WWII.

from EurekAlert! - Social and Behavioral Science http://bit.ly/2DIsDMK

How scientists traced a uranium cube to Nazi Germany’s nuclear reactor program

New research suggests that the Nazis had enough uranium to make a working nuclear reactor.

from Latest Headlines | Science News http://bit.ly/2IUp1vx