NEW YORK (AP) — It was just another job for child actor Karolyn Grimes. She was 6 and had already done four movies by the summer of 1946 when filming began on “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The only thing she recalls about the biggest movie of her career was being delighted to play in snow on the set. That single job would become very memorable to a lot of other people. “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which marks its 75th…
With multiple rovers landed and a mission set to return samples to Earth, Mars has dominated the search for life in the solar system for decades. But Venus has some fresh attention coming its way. In a new report published today, a team led by MIT researchers lays out the scientific plan and rationale for a suite of scrappy, privately-funded missions set to hunt for signs of life among the ultra-acidic atmosphere of the second planet from the sun…….
The Gothic Cathedral of Saint Antolín in Palencia is sometimes known as “the unknown beauty.” It is the third-largest in Spain and also the one with the longest central nave. The cathedral’s exterior is lined with a number of striking gargoyles. Among the skeletons and mythical beasts, there is one that seems to be out of place: A curious character in a buttoned cassock juts out from one of the cornices, wearing a camera around his neck. The story……
The medieval church of St. Mary’s in the town of Fairford is notable for the menagerie of nightmarish demons that lurk among more conventional religious imagery in the stained glass windows. Goggle-eyed demons pout, cackle, drool, gnash their teeth, and loll their bloodthirsty tongues from fanged maws while wielding clubs and bladed weapons with menacing intent. In a number of the central window panes, red and blue-skinned apparitions are depicted gleefully swinging spiked maces or merrily poking tridents towards……
Completed in 2018, this record-holding 250-meter (820-ft) bridge spans 14 lanes of Highway 401, six live rail tracks, and a two-lane road. It can be seen clearly from planes flying overhead and provides a vital link between the regional commuter train station (Pickering GO) on the south side to Durham region’s largest shopping mall, local college, and regional bus service on the north side. The landmark bridge has a very distinct metal exoskeleton. It’s wrapped in Kalzip, a lightweight……
The human gut is home to thousands of species of bacteria, and some of those bacteria have the potential to treat a variety of gastrointestinal diseases. Some species may help to combat colon cancer, while others could help treat or prevent infections such as C. difficile. One of the obstacles to developing these “living biotherapeutics” is that many of the species that could be beneficial are harmed by oxygen, making it difficult to manufacture, store, and deliver them. MIT……
Decked out in a black silk saree and pearly white beads, my neighbor’s daughter Medha handed out tilgul and sought blessings from the elders. “Tilgul ghya goad goad bola,” she repeated to the youngsters of the family, telling them to “take this tilgul sweet, and talk as sweetly.” This was her first Sankranti festival celebration after marriage. The white beads she wore, though, weren’t pearls. Instead, the tiny spiked spheres threaded around her neck were the same candies that……
At a nighttime command conference convened on May 21, 1945, Lieutenant General Mitsuru Ushijima, commander of the 120,000-man Japanese 32nd Army in Okinawa, decided that his troops would have to evacuate their underground headquarters deep beneath historic Shuri Castle and retreat further south. The ferocious Battle of Okinawa had been raging for eight weeks, and Ushijima’s well dug-in Japanese fighters had made American forces pay dearly for every small gain thus far. But by late May, US army and……
Though many people with autism spectrum disorders also experience unusual gastrointestinal inflammation, scientists have not established how those conditions might be linked. Now MIT and Harvard Medical School researchers, working with mouse models, may have found the connection: When a mother experiences an infection during pregnancy and her immune system produces elevated levels of the molecule Interleukin-17a (IL-17a), this can not only alter brain development in her fetus, but also alter her microbiome such that after birth the newborn’s……
Travis Dillon, a graduate student in mathematics at MIT, has been awarded the 2022 AMS-MAA-SIAM Frank and Brennie Morgan Prize for Outstanding Research in Mathematics by an Undergraduate Student, and fellow math doctoral student Alex Cohen has received an honorable mention. Dillon earned this year’s honor for his significant work in number theory, combinatorics, discrete geometry, and symbolic dynamics as an undergraduate at Lawrence University, where he studied mathematics and music theory. Dillon has completed seven papers, six of……
On Midsummer’s Eve, the central square in Whalton, a small village in Northern England, glows red with fire. The Baal Fire tradition—locals build a bonfire and light it up—is intended to bless the season’s crops and has continued uninterrupted for centuries. The Mari Lwyd tradition in South Wales is so old that no one knows how or when it began. In the depths of winter each year, individuals wearing sheets or sacks carry mounted, decorated horse skulls door to……
Near the village of Mulkot Bazar, along a windy stretch of the BP Koirala Highway, a retaining wall is covered with thousands of small mirrors. The mirrors are offered up to the goddess Seti Devi Mata as prayers to avoid accidents. A nearby temple sells additional mirrors to any travelers who wish to add to the panoramic oblation. Also known as the Banepa Sindhuli Bardibas Road, this 98 mile-long highway connects the Kathmandu Valley with the Eastern Terai. Although……
On one of the main avenues of the city of Guadalajara stands a dazzling sculpture that is immediately recognizable as the Virgin of Guadalupe. But take a closer look and you may be surprised to see a garland of human skulls and fork-tongued and razor-fanged snakes adorning this strange monument. The sculpture Sincretismo was created by the artist Ismael Vargas, who was commissioned by the city to produce a monumental piece of public art reflecting the traditions of Mexico. As……
Rickwood Caverns were discovered around the 1950s by a band of boy scouts and their leader, Eddie Rickles. Although the property itself had been known by locals as a graffiti hotspot. Rickles decided to develop the caves into a public attraction with a friend of his, Sonny Arwood. The two combined their names and dubbed the caverns “Rickwood Caverns.” The caverns opened in 1954, but the caverns were sold to the state of Alabama to become a state park. ……
Sepsis claims the lives of nearly 270,000 people in the U.S. each year. The unpredictable medical condition can progress rapidly, leading to a swift drop in blood pressure, tissue damage, multiple organ failure, and death. Prompt interventions by medical professionals save lives, but some sepsis treatments can also contribute to a patient’s deterioration, so choosing the optimal therapy can be a difficult task. For instance, in the early hours of severe sepsis, administering too much fluid intravenously can increase……
