Page Type: Middle

In the 15th century, a powerful duke abandoned his castle, leaving it to slowly decay. Archaeologists recently found the remains of this castle—along with artifacts its residents left behind.

The castle, known as the Château de l’Hermine, was built in the village of Vannes by John IV, Duke of Brittany, in 1381. Brittany is now part of France, but between the 10th and 16th centuries it was a feudal state, sort of like its own small country. Brittany was ruled by a series of dukes, and Vannes was its capital. The castle was used for about 100 years until it was abandoned by John’s grandson Francis II, also a duke. Another building was constructed on top of the castle ruins in the 1700s.

Parents often worry that kids and teens focus too much on their phones. But in a recent survey, many teens said they value time away from their devices.

Conducted in late 2023, the Pew Research Center survey gathered data from 1,453 U.S. teens aged 13 to 17, along with one parent or guardian per teen. Pew’s website says the survey aimed to get a sense of a generation in which teens are constantly online by seeking an answer to the question, “How are young people navigating this ‘always on’ environment?” Pew also wanted answers from parents, who are often concerned that spending too much time online might be harmful to kids.

Teen survey participants said they value their phones for many reasons. Sixty-nine percent of teens said their phones make it easier for them to pursue hobbies and interests, while 30 percent said the devices help them improve their social skills.

But the participants value time away from devices as well. Seventy-two percent of them said they often or sometimes feel peaceful without their phones, 44 percent said they sometimes feel anxious without them. Only 38 percent of the teens believe they spend too much time on their phones, while a little more than half said they think they strike a good balance between time spent on and away from their phones.

Meanwhile, some parents are keeping a close eye on their teens’ phone use, though this is mostly true for parents of younger teens. Almost 64 percent of parents of teens aged 13 to 14 look through their teens’ phones, while 41 percent of parents of teens aged 15 to 17 do so. Just under half the parents in the survey said they limit the amount of time their teens can be on their phones. 

Interestingly, parents and teens have different views of adult phone use. Thirty-one percent of parents said they often or sometimes get distracted by their phones while talking to their teens. But when teens were asked if their parents get distracted by their phones, 46 percent said yes.

Imagine being able to travel as fast as an airplane without ever taking flight. That’s the idea behind the hyperloop, a super speedy form of transportation technology that people have been hyping for years. Could the opening of a new test track mean the hyperloop is in our future?

Like a train, a hyperloop carries passengers in a pod, or car, along a track. But there are some key differences. Unlike train cars, hyperloop pods aren’t connected to one another, so a single pod can go in its own direction. Hyperloops are designed to travel much faster than a traditional train by moving with as little friction from the ground or the air as possible. This is achieved in a couple of ways. With help from electromagnets, the pods hover over the tracks. Also, technology sucks almost all the air out of the tubes. Some experts claim that hyperloop pods will be able to travel over 600 miles per hour (970 kilometers per hour).

Located at the Hyperloop Center in the Netherlands, the new test track is Europe’s longest so far, consisting of a 420-meter (1,400-foot) tube. There’s also a fork in the tube—a section where it splits into two directions. Experts say this is important if they hope to build tubes going to many places.

“[The fork] really creates a network effect where you sort of have a highway of tubes, and vehicles can take an on and offramp or they can take a lane switch to go to a different part of Europe or to a different destination,” Marinus van der Meijs, the technology and engineering director at Hardt Hyperloop, which built the test pod, told the Associated Press.

This isn’t the first time hyperloop hopes have been raised. In 2013, Elon Musk touted plans to open a hyperloop in California, but nothing has materialized so far. And in 2023, after spending several years developing technology, a U.S. company called Hyperloop One shut down. The new test track has revived the dream.

“I expect by 2030 you will have the first hyperloop route, maybe 5 kilometers (3 miles) in which people will actually be transporting passengers,” the Hyperloop Center’s director, Sascha Lamme, told the Associated Press.

Doubters say there’s not much chance the hyperloop will be successful. It would require governments to agree to build a network of tubes within countries and across borders. And that would cost a lot of money.

But Lamme is more optimistic.

“If you look at how highways were developed over time, it goes exponentially when the technology is ready,” he told the Guardian.

On April 8, North America will experience a rare event: a total solar eclipse. In some parts of Mexico, the United States, and Canada, the daytime sky will briefly go completely dark.

During a total solar eclipse, the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, blocking sunlight from reaching some areas of Earth. Along a narrow band on the surface of our planet, called the path of totality, the sky goes completely dark for a short time and only the outer edge of the Sun (called the corona) can be seen.

On April 8, totality, or complete darkness, will begin over the Pacific Ocean and pass over Mazatlán, a city on the west coast of Mexico at about 2:07 p.m. Eastern time. From there, the Moon’s shadow will move over Mexico and into the U.S. and then Canada. Totality in the United States begins in Texas just before 2:30 p.m. Eastern time and ends in Maine at just after 3:30 p.m. Eastern time. Each location in the path of totality will be completely dark for only a few minutes or even seconds. But things won’t go back to normal right away. Before and after totality, each location will experience a partial solar eclipse—a period when the Moon is partially blocking the Sun.

A high school student has invented a device that can detect and kill a harmful invasive species called the spotted lanternfly. Eighteen-year-old Selina Zhang’s invention, ArTreeficial, is a fake tree that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and electricity.

Zhang is from New Jersey, one of the 17 U.S. states where the spotted lanternfly has been damaging trees and crops since it arrived in the country aboard a ship from China a little over a decade ago. When Zhang learned about the insect, she began thinking about ways to get rid of it. She’s not the only one. Officials have tried battling the lanternfly with insecticides and other measures, but these solutions are harmful to the planet.

Could life beyond Earth exist in our own solar system?

Scientists have discovered that there’s an ocean hidden beneath the icy surface of Mimas, one of Saturn’s moons. The finding suggests there may be more liquid water—which is needed to support life as we know it—beyond Earth than scientists had previously thought.

Until recently, Mimas’s biggest claim to fame may have been that a large crater on its surface makes it look like the Death Star from the Star Wars movies. Other than that, astronomers thought it was just a ball of ice. But when scientists studied images and data collected by a spacecraft called Cassini, they learned that Mimas’s orbit around Saturn is affected by something in the moon’s interior. Further calculations revealed the existence of an ocean.

Scientists believe that the ocean is 12 to 18 miles (20 to 30 kilometers) under the icy surface of Mimas, and that the water is about 45 miles (72 kilometers) deep. With a diameter just under 250 miles (400 kilometers), Mimas is tiny. The ocean makes up about half of its volume.

Cole Brauer just became the first American woman to sail around the globe alone. Brauer placed second out of 16 competitors in the Global Solo Challenge, a 30,000-mile (48,000-kilometer) race around the world.

Brauer’s boat arrived at A Coruña, Spain, on March 7, 2024, after 130 days at sea. Setting out on October 29, Brauer sailed south along the west coast of Africa and rounded the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of the continent. She then headed east to Australia and on to South America’s Cape Horn, where frequent storms make the waters notoriously rough and boats must steer clear of icebergs. Finally, Brauer sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to Spain.

Schools in New Jersey may soon be playing host to some new, four-legged visitors. The state legislature is considering a bill to help bring more therapy dogs into public elementary schools.

The bill is bipartisan, meaning that it has support from both a Democratic and a Republican lawmaker. If passed, the bill would allow the New Jersey Department of Education to pick two school districts in each of the state’s three regions—northern, central, and southern New Jersey—for a three-year pilot (test) program. During this time, officials would study the effect of the program on students’ mental health and academic performance.

“[If the results are positive], then we hope we’ll be able to allow this program to be part of the curriculum and work throughout the state of New Jersey for every school district,” state senator Anthony Bucco, a Republican, told PIX11 News. Bucco is sponsoring the bill with Democratic state senator James Beach.

School therapy dogs are already used in many states, at the elementary school level all the way up through college. Researchers have evidence that spending time with animals can reduce levels of cortisol, a chemical the body produces in response to stress. Therapy dogs might also help students improve their academic performance.

“Research demonstrates that the use of therapy dogs in a school setting can improve confidence, motivation, and even school attendance,” Senator Beach said in a statement. 

Is it curtains for Camembert? A recent report seemed to suggest that a type of gooey, pungent cheese called Camembert could be headed for extinction. But what does that even mean?

To understand what’s going on, let’s start with fungus. Fungus is a part of many cheeses, such as the soft, stinky ones. Along with bacteria, fungi break down the molecules in ripening cheese, giving it a strong flavor and creamy texture.

The problem with Camembert, Brie, and some other kinds of cheese is that they’re made with a type of fungus called Penicillium camemberti. P. camemberti gives Camembert the white rind that helps make it recognizable to buyers. Scientists say this fungus doesn’t reproduce well, a situation that could lead to problems down the road.

P. camemberti wasn’t always used in the production of Camembert. Until about 1900, cheesemakers in France, the birthplace of Camembert, would place newly made Camembert in caves, where it would grow fungus naturally. But it takes a while for fungus to grow. To speed up production, cheesemakers began adding P. camemberti instead.

But P. camemberti can reproduce only through cloning—making exact copies. And over time, this has caused it to lose its genetic diversity. Now the fungus needs to be cloned, which makes its long-term survival less certain.

Many people responded to this news with a possible solution. Why not add a different type of fungus to Camembert—one that can reproduce? So far, that hasn’t happened.

But scientists say it will be a while before Camembert is in any real danger of disappearing.

“We always make it clear to journalists that there is no short-term danger to Camembert production,” researcher Tatiana Giraud told CNN. “What our articles say is that there is a great homogenization of [fungi] and that this reduces their ability to adapt, nothing more.”

Many students across the United States ride to school in yellow buses, most of which run on diesel fuel. But a growing number of school districts have adopted a cleaner way to transport their students. They’re investing in electric school buses.

California was the first state to begin purchasing school buses that run on electricity, about 10 years ago. Three of the state’s school districts made the switch, citing numerous benefits. Unlike traditional diesel buses, electric vehicles don’t produce a high volume of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. They also produce fewer toxic fumes, which can cause health problems. Studies show that the switch to cleaner technology can even improve students’ academic performance.

The transition to electric has been slow to spread across the country, partly because electric vehicles are costly to buy. And, while they don’t require traditional fuel, their batteries do need to be charged, which means charging stations must be installed where they don’t already exist. That costs money, too.

But a 2021 U.S. law called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act included $5 billion to be distributed to school districts so they can replace their diesel buses with electric ones. Districts in 49 states have received funding, which is being distributed between 2022 and 2026. (Wyoming returned the money due to concerns about how well the buses would perform in the state’s cold climate.) Several states have passed laws requiring that their school districts increase the number of clean school buses they use.

So far, electric school buses make up a very small percentage of the nation’s total school bus fleet. But slowly, as more funding becomes available, changes are being set in motion.