A jogger in Santa Cruz, California was in for a big surprise when she discovered a gigantic molar tooth belonging to an ancient mastodon that lived on earth during the Ice Age. The woman posted a photo of the one-foot fossil on her social media over the memorial day weekend, and an employee at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History later confirmed the tooth belonged to a Pacific mastodon. That's a giant elephant-like creature that went extinct 10,000 years ago. Remains of the mastodon have been found in Santa Cruz before.
NEW ASTEROID DISCOVERED
Scientists have discovered a new asteroid that's been tagging along with Earth for the past 2,000 years. The space rock is called a "quasi-moon," since it's only slightly influenced by the Earth's gravitational pull, but it still makes the journey around the sun much like the earth does. The asteroid is only about 50 feet in diameter and was first observed by the Pan-STARRS Observatory in Hawaii earlier this year. Quasi-moons tend to trail Earth for just a few decades but this one has been with the earth since about 100 BC.
The National Institutes of Health is beginning a handful of studies to test possible treatments for long COVID, an anxiously awaited step in U.S. efforts against the mysterious condition that afflicts millions.
More than 70 years after doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took Henrietta Lacks’ cervical cells without her knowledge, a lawyer for her descendants said they have reached a settlement with a biotechnology company that they accused of reaping billions of dollars from a racist medical system.
