Category: US

A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.

CNN
 — 

To pry open the mysteries of our planet’s past, scientists typically study rocks and fossilized bones.

Eggs are an often overlooked but extremely rich source of information, with birds, reptiles, dinosaurs and a few oddball mammals laying them on land for more than 200 million years.

Rare fossilized eggshells can illuminate the behavior and diet of ancient creatures, expose changes in climate, and shed light on how our prehistoric relatives lived and communicated.

And now, an “eggciting” discovery in India announced this week has revealed intimate details about the lives of some of the biggest dinosaurs to walk the Earth.

Paleontologists in central India have unearthed a fossilized dinosaur hatchery with 92 nests and 256 eggs belonging to colonies of giant plant-eating titanosaurs.

Judging by the nests’ proximity to one another, researchers inferred the dinosaurs laid eggs together in colonies or rookeries, as many birds do today.

However, unlike most bird species, titanosaurs weren’t doting parents. Researchers think these creatures likely laid their eggs and then left their offspring to fend for themselves.

“Since titanosaurs were huge in size, closely spaced nests would not have allowed them to visit the nests to maneuver and incubate the eggs or feed the hatchlings … as the parents would step on the eggs and trample them,” said lead study author Guntupalli Prasad, a paleontologist at the University of Delhi.

Planting a tree is a fitting memorial to a loved one, but how about “becoming” a tree after death?

Transcend, a New York-based green burial start-up, is one company offering a way for people to make a positive environmental impact when they shuffle off this mortal coil.

Customers will select a tree species to be planted over the body, which will be prepared with biodegradable flax linen and buried with wood chips, local soil and fungi to facilitate composting. The site is marked, and the tree left to grow.

Advocates hope green burials can help slow the climate crisis, but the industry is new — Transcend hasn’t planted any people yet — and there is little research on how much better human composting is for the environment compared with traditional burials.

Want more ideas on how to tackle the climate crisis and reduce your eco-anxiety? Sign up for CNN’s Life, But Greener limited newsletter series.

Australia’s echidna, like the platypus, belongs to an odd group of mammals that lay eggs, known as monotremes. But the spiky creature’s egg-laying ability isn’t its only unusual characteristic.

Despite being one of the world’s oldest surviving species, echidnas are also thought to be sensitive to heat. Researchers, however, have discovered the echidna uses a unique method to cool down and stay active at much higher temperatures than previously known.

Infrared footage of 124 echidnas shot over the space of a year revealed how they beat the heat of global warming: The creature blows mucus bubbles, which burst over its nose tip and wet it. As the moisture evaporates, it cools the echidna’s blood, with the nose tip acting as an “evaporative window.”

When the Artemis I mission lifted off in November, NASA’s Space Launch System performed as advertised. The most powerful rocket ever flown provided the propulsion needed to send the Orion spacecraft on a journey around the moon and back.

But SLS has long been considered controversial, and NASA and Boeing, which was responsible for the rocket’s core stage, have both received criticism for delays and whopping price tags.

The complicated history of SLS has left some industry insiders with conflicting feelings about the rocket and its place in the Artemis program, which is designed to land humans on the moon and eventually reach Mars.

Meanwhile, astronomers have now documented the cosmic drama that is the Milky Way in unprecedented detail during the Dark Energy Camera Plane Survey — and it produced a breathtaking image.

Runes are the oldest known form of writing in Scandinavia and are closely associated with the Viking Age between 793 and 1066 — a time from which thousands of stones with runic inscriptions have been found.

Older runestones are much rarer, and archaeologists in Norway have recently discovered the most ancient known example — thought to be around 2,000 years old.

Researchers at the University of Oslo’s Museum of Cultural History spotted the stone while investigating a burial ground in the municipality of Hole in eastern Norway in 2021.

Eight runes on the front face of the reddish-brown sandstone boulder spell “idiberug” when converted into Roman letters. According to one of the archaeologists, it could be the name of a woman.

Immerse yourself in these engrossing stories:

— Scientists have discovered a foot-long snake in the Ecuadorian Amazon. It shares a key trait with its much larger cousin — the boa constrictor.

— NASA and Boeing are teaming up to design a new type of emission-reducing, single-aisle aircraft. Air travelers could benefit in the 2030s.

— Analysis of DNA extracted from the skeletal remains of more than 100 individuals has revealed that, in ancient Greece, marrying your cousin was not just allowed — but encouraged.

(CNN) — Grab your favorite red shirt; it’s time to celebrate the Lunar New Year, also known as Spring Festival.

Saying goodbye to the Tiger, we enter the Year of the Rabbit on January 22, 2023.

Millions of families worldwide are preparing celebrations for one of the year’s biggest festivals.

If you’re a Lunar New Year newbie, here’s a quick guide to the most common traditions and superstitions associated with the occasion.

The Legend of Monster Nian

There are countless folktales attached to Lunar New Year, but the myth of “Nian” stands out as the most iconic and fun.

Legend has it Nian was a ferocious underwater beast with sharp teeth and horns. Every Lunar New Year’s Eve, it crawled onto the land and attacked a nearby village.

On one such occasion, as the villagers rushed into hiding, a mysterious old man showed up and insisted on staying in the village despite being warned of impending doom.

To the villagers’ surprise, the old man and the village survived utterly unscathed.

The man claimed to have scared Nian away by hanging red banners on the door, lighting firecrackers and wearing red clothes.

This is how wearing the fiery color — right down to undergarments — along with hanging red banners with auspicious phrases and lighting firecrackers or fireworks became Lunar New Year traditions, all of which are still followed today.

Fun aside, Lunar New Year can actually be a lot of work.

Festivities often last for 15 days — or even more — with different tasks and activities taking place over that period.

It all begins about a week ahead of the new year.

Before we get started, a quick note: while there are different ways to say “Happy new year!” depending on where you are, we’re sticking with Mandarin and Cantonese in this story. We have included the romanized versions of both languages in our descriptions of the various traditions.

January 15: The preparation

The week before Lunar New Year, festive cakes and puddings are made on the 24th day of the last lunar month.

The word for cakes and puddings is “gao” in Mandarin or “gou” in Cantonese, which sounds the same as the word for “tall.”

But no Lunar New Year preparation would be complete without hanging red banners bearing auspicious phrases and idioms (called fai chun in Cantonese, or chunlian, in Mandarin) at home — beginning with one’s front door.

January 19: The ultimate cleanup

A big cleanup is done in homes on the 28th day of the last lunar month, which fell on January 19 this year.

For instance, don’t wash or cut your hair on the first day of the new year.

Why? The Chinese character for hair is the first character in the word for prosper. Therefore washing or cutting it off is seen as washing your fortune away.

You’ll also want to avoid purchasing footwear for the entire lunar month, as the term for shoes (haai) sounds like losing and sighing in Cantonese.

January 21 (Lunar New Year’s Eve): The big feast

A big family reunion dinner is usually held on Lunar New Year’s Eve, which falls on January 21 this year.

The menu is carefully chosen to include dishes associated with luck, including fish (the Chinese word for it sounds like the word for “surplus”), puddings (symbolizes advancement) and foods that look like gold ingots (like dumplings).

In China, the foods served at these classic dinners vary from north to south. For instance, northern Chinese tend to have dumplings and noodles, whereas southern Chinese can’t live without steamed rice.

But no matter which dishes you prefer, Lunar New Year foods are a feast of wordplay.

January 22 (Lunar New Year): Family visits

The first few days of the Lunar New Year, especially the first two days, are often a test of one’s stamina, appetite and social skills, as many people have to travel and visit immediate family, other relatives and friends.

Bags are stocked with presents and fruits for each of the elders’ and friends’ homes visited, who will shower the visitor with gifts and snacks in return after exchanging conversations over Lunar New Year treats.

Married people also have to give out red packets to those who haven’t yet tied the knot — both children and unmarried juniors.

It’s believed these red envelopes could protect children from evil spirits called xie sui. The packets are known as yasui qian/Ngaat seoi cin and intended to ward off those spirits.

January 24: Chi kou/Cek hau, or Red Mouth

Day three of the Lunar New Year (which falls on January 24 this year) is named “chi kou/cek hau,” or red mouth. It’s believed that arguments are more likely to happen on this day, so people will visit temples and avoid social interactions.

Every year, certain Chinese zodiac signs clash with the stars negatively. A temple visit is a good way to resolve those conflicts and bring peace in the coming months.

January 28: The people’s birthday

The seventh day (January 28) of the Lunar New Year is said to be the day when the Chinese mother goddess, Nuwa, created humanity. Thus, it’s called renri/jan jat (the people’s birthday).

Different communities in Asia will serve various birthday foods on that day.

For instance, people in Malaysia enjoy yeesang, or a “Prosperity Toss” of raw fish and shredded vegetables, whereas Cantonese people will eat sweet rice balls.

February 5: Lantern festival

The highlight of the whole Spring Festival happens on the 15th and final day (February 5 in 2023).

In ancient Chinese society, it was the only day when young girls were allowed to go out to admire the lanterns and meet boys. As a result, it’s also been dubbed Chinese Valentine’s Day.

Nowadays, cities worldwide still put on massive lantern displays and fairs on the festival’s final day.

CNN
 — 

And you think you helped scarf down a really big pizza recently? You’ve got nothin’ on this one.

When Pizza Hut decided to bring back its “big New Yorker” pizza – a cheese and pepperoni pie with foldable slices designed to be eaten on the go in true Manhattan style – the company wanted to find a way to celebrate the news.

The idea: Take New York to Los Angeles and collaborate with YouTube star Airrack (aka Eric Decker).

So they went to the Los Angeles Convention Center, whose space would be big enough to hold a 13,990-square-foot pizza, with the aim of breaking Guinness World Record for the world’s biggest pizza.

They went to work on the gigantic pizza on Wednesday. And on Friday, Pizza Hut sent out the official word: An onsite Guinness rep said it was indeed the world’s biggest pizza.

Guinness confirmed the record-breaking designation with CNN Travel in an email late Friday afternoon.

To complete the enormous task, workers put down layers of dough first, tomato sauce were painted on, then toppings were added. Once everything was set, it was baked in pieces, according the the news release from Pizza Hut.

In total, 13,653 pounds (6,193 kilograms) of dough, 4,948 pounds of pizza sauce, more than 8,800 pounds of cheese and roughly 630,496 pieces of pepperoni went into making the record-breaking pie.

Pizza Hut’s CEO, David Graves, told Reuters that the pizza would not go to waste – as soon as the pizza was done and documented for Guinness, its 68,000 slices would be donated to local food banks.

The previous Guinness record for the world’s largest pizza was set in 2012 by a group of Italian chefs. Their pizza was 1,261.65 square meters, gluten-free, and given the name Ottavia.

Hong Kong
CNN
 — 

Eggs have soared in cost around the world over the past year as avian flu decimated chicken flocks and fallout from Russia’s war with Ukraine raised the prices of energy and animal feed.

In the United States, egg prices have far surpassed the increase in other grocery items, soaring nearly 60% in the 12 months to December compared to the year before. In Japan, wholesale prices have reached a record high.

In New Zealand, which consumes more eggs per person than most countries, the squeeze has been exacerbated by a change in farming regulations. And rising costs have sparked a frenzy, with people hunting for hens online so they can secure their own supplies of the pantry staple.

On Tuesday, popular local auction site Trade Me told CNN that searches for chickens, and equipment related to caring for them, had spiked 190% so far this month, compared to the same period a month ago.

“Since the start of January, we have seen over 65,000 searches for chickens and other chicken-related items, like feeders, coops and food,” said Millie Silvester, a spokesperson for the company.

The shortage has also caused a particularly acute headache for bakers in the country.

“All the public are now trying to buy chickens for home because they can’t get eggs,” said Ron van Til, a bakery owner near the city of Christchurch, who has had to adjust how he makes his cakes and muffins.

Van Til said his sister was selling “four brand new chickens” on auction through Trade Me, fetching more than double the usual price.

The trend has prompted animal welfare advocates to warn against making impulse buys.

“Chickens live for a long time,” said Gabby Clezy, CEO of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in New Zealand. “They live from eight to 10 years, sometimes even longer depending on the breed.”

Clezy also noted that hens do not produce eggs their entire lives, and their laying habits are dependent on factors including their age and local climate.

“So if people are getting chickens solely because [they think] they’ll have a permanent supply of eggs, that just isn’t the case,” she said. “We’re asking people to consider them as companion animals, which they are.”

Trade Me has also urged customers on its marketplace to think through any purchases.

“It’s important that our members are aware of the responsibilities that come with owning chickens, and are well set up to care for them,” Silvester said in a statement.

Health experts are weighing in, too. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), anyone signing up for a backyard coop should take special care when handling the animals and their eggs, particularly because of the risk of germs associated with salmonella.

New Zealand’s egg shortage has been linked to a long anticipated change in farming law, which took effect on January 1 this year.

The law prohibits the production of eggs from chickens kept in conventional or “battery cages” — typically cramped metal spaces that do not provide adequate welfare for hens, according to SPCA.

That’s why in 2012, the government announced a ban on such facilities.

But “a 10-year transition period away from conventional cages was introduced, to allow egg producers time to shift farming practices,” Peter Hyde, a representative for New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries, told CNN in a statement when asked about the current shortage.

 “Egg producers had the option to move to colony cages, barns and free-range systems,” added Hyde, the ministry’s acting national manager of animal welfare and national animal identification and tracing compliance.

Hyde said that over the last 18 months, the ministry had “been in regular contact with operators, and visited farms needing to transition.”

Even with the long lead time, however, the ban has caused supply snags, according to some businesses.

Foodstuffs, a New Zealand supermarket chain, recently placed temporary limits on how many eggs each customer can buy.

“It’s a significant change for the egg supply industry,” Emma Wooster, the company’s head of public relations, told CNN in a statement. “We’re working with egg suppliers to increase our offer in other types of eggs.”

Countdown, another major grocery retailer, said while it did not currently have limits on egg sales, it would encourage customers to “only buy what they need” to ensure enough supply for everyone.

Other businesses have been forced to switch things up.

Van Til, the bakery owner, said his team had swapped out fresh eggs in recipes for alternative ingredients.

The longtime owner of Rangiora Bakery has seen wholesale prices for fresh eggs shoot up about 50% compared to four months ago, leading him to buy more dried eggs instead.

Van Til also pointed to changes at other local eateries, saying some cafes had started taking certain dishes off their menus so “instead of having five breakfast items [with] eggs, you might only have two.”

“And the customer hopefully will pick up pancakes or waffles,” he added. “Or whatever other offerings you come up with.”

Seoul, South Korea
CNN
 — 

Royce Williams was a real life “Top Gun” 10 years before Tom Cruise was even born.

On a cold November day in 1952, Williams shot down four Soviet fighter jets – and became a legend no one would hear about for more than 50 years.

The now 97-year-old former naval aviator was presented with the Navy Cross, the service’s second-highest military honor at a ceremony Friday in California.

Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said on Friday that among the many proposals he has reviewed to upgrade sailors’ awards, Williams’ case “stood out above all others. It was very clear to me that his actions were truly extraordinary and more closely aligned with the criteria describing a higher medal.”

“Freedom does not come cheap,” Del Toro said. “It comes through the sacrifice of all those who have and continue to serve in today’s military. Your actions that day kept you free. They kept your shipmates free in Task Force 77. Indeed, they kept all of us free.”

Here’s what Williams did to earn that honor.

On November 18, 1952, Williams was flying the F9F Panther – the US Navy’s first jet fighter – on a mission during the Korean War.

He took off from the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany, which was operating with three other carriers in a task force in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, 100 miles off the coast of North Korea.

Williams, then age 27, and three other fighter pilots were ordered on a combat air patrol over the most northern part of the Korean Peninsula, near the Yalu River, which separates North Korea from China. To the northeast is Russia, then part of the Soviet Union, which supported North Korea in the conflict.

As the four US Navy jets flew their patrol, the group’s leader suffered mechanical problems and with his wingman, headed back to the task force off the coast.

That left Williams and his wingman alone on the mission.

Then, to their surprise, seven Soviet MiG-15 fighter jets were identified heading toward the US task force.

“They just didn’t come out of Russia and engage us in any way before,” Williams said in a 2021 interview with the American Veterans Center.

Wary commanders in the task force ordered the two US Navy jets to put themselves between the MiGs and the US warships.

While doing this, four of the Soviet MiGs turned toward Williams and opened fire, he recalled.

He said he fired on the tail MiG, which then dropped out of the four-plane Soviet formation, with Williams’ wingman following the Soviet jet down.

At that point, US commanders on the carrier ordered him not to engage the Soviets, he said.

“I said, ‘I am engaged,’” Williams recalled in the interview.

Williams said he also knew that because the Soviet jets were faster than his, if he tried to break off they’d catch and kill him.

“At that time the MiG-15 was the best fighter airplane in the world,” faster and able to climb and dive quicker than the American jets, he said in the interview.

His plane was suited to air-to-ground combat, not aerial dogfights, he said.

But now he was in one, with not just one, but six Soviet jets as the other three MiGs that broke off earlier returned.

What ensued was more than a half-hour of aerial combat, with Williams constantly turning and weaving – the one area where the F9F could compete with the Soviet aircraft – to not let the superior MiGs get their guns fixed on him.

“I was on automatic, I was doing as trained,” he said.

So were the Soviets.

“But on some occasions … they made mistakes,” Williams said.

One flew at him, but then stopped firing and dipped under him. Williams figured its pilot was killed by his gunfire.

And he described how another MiG got right in front of him, he hit it with his gunfire, and it disintegrated, causing Williams to maneuver sharply to avoid the wreckage and its pilot as the plane came apart.

Over the course of the fight, Williams fired all 760 rounds of 20mm cannon shells the F9F carried, according to an account of the engagement from the US Navy Memorial’s website.

But the Soviets scored hits on Williams, too, disabling his rudder and wing control surfaces, leaving only the elevators in the rear of the plane viable for him to move the jet up and down.

Luckily, he said, at this point he was heading in the direction of the US task force off the coast. But one of the remaining Soviet jets was still on his tail.

He said he flew in an up-and-down roller coaster pattern, with bullets flying above and below him as he moved, the Soviet pilot trying to get a clear shot.

Williams’ wingman rejoined the fight at this point, getting on the Soviet’s tail and scaring him off, according to the Navy Memorial account.

But Williams still had some difficult flying to do to get the damaged jet back on board the carrier.

First, with the task force wary of Soviet warplanes possibly attacking it, its heightened air defenses initially thought Williams’ F9F was a MiG, and destroyers guarding the American carriers opened fire on him.

Williams said his commander quickly put a stop to that, eliminating one danger.

Still, Williams had to get his jet on the deck on the carrier, something he’d usually do at an airspeed of 105 knots (120 mph). But he already knew if he went lower than 170 knots (195 mph), his aircraft would stall and plunge into the icy sea.

And he couldn’t turn to line up with the carrier. So the ship’s captain decided to take the extraordinary step of turning the carrier to line up with Williams.

It worked. He slammed onto the deck and caught the third and final arresting wire.

On the deck on the carrier, Navy crew counted 263 holes in Williams’ plane. It was in such poor shape, it was pushed off the ship into the sea, according to the Navy Memorial account.

But as the plane disappeared below the waves, something else had to also – the fact that the US-Soviet aerial combat happened at all.

News of Williams’ heroics went all the way to the top, with then-President Dwight Eisenhower among the senior US officials eager to speak to the pilot, according to the Navy Memorial’s website.

“Following the battle, Williams was personally interviewed by several high-ranking Navy admirals, the Secretary of Defense, and also the President, after which he was instructed to not talk about his engagement as officials feared the incident might cause a devastating increase of tensions between the US and Soviet Union, and possibly ignite World War Three,” the website says.

A US Defense Department account of the incident also notes that US forces were trying out new communications intercept equipment that day. It was feared that revealing the Soviet role in the combat would have compromised that US’ advantage.

The records of Williams’ dogfight were promptly classified by US officials and he was sworn to secrecy, meaning it would take more than five decades before his victories could be fully recognized.

In 1953, Williams was awarded a Silver Star, but the citation made no reference to Soviet aircraft, just “enemy” ones. And it only mentioned three kills. The fourth was not known until Russian records were released in the 1990s, the website says.

So it was not until 2002, when the records were declassified, that Williams could even tell those closest to him.

“For the rest of his accomplished Navy career, and for decades after retirement, the details of Williams’ dogfight with Soviet MiGs over North Korea remained a secret,” according to the US Defense Department.

“When he was finally contacted by the government and told his mission was declassified, the first person Williams said he told was his wife.”

In the following years, veterans groups who learned what he did said the Silver Star was insufficient reward for Williams, with some saying he should get the military’s highest award – the Medal of Honor.

In December last year, more than 70 years after the Korean War aerial battle, Del Toro said Williams’ Silver Star should be upgraded to the Navy Cross.

California Rep. Darrell Issa, who pushed for Williams to get the upgraded medal, called him “a Top Gun pilot like no other, and an American hero for all time.”

“It is to this day the most unique US-Soviet aerial combat dogfight in the history of the Cold War,” Issa said in a statement.

“The heroism and valor he demonstrated for 35 harrowing minutes 70 years ago in the skies over the North Pacific and the coast of North Korea saved the lives of his fellow pilots, shipmates, and crew. His story is one for the ages, but is now being fully told.”