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Do scary movies thrill you…or make you want to hide under a blanket? Whether you love them or hate them, horror movies have been a thing pretty much since film was invented. Why are so many people willing to be terrified? Researchers have a few theories.

Fight or Flight

Our ancestors had to be on the lookout for animals that could kill them. So, when we’re faced with a threat, our bodies release adrenaline, a hormone that increases the oxygen supply to our brains and can cause things like an increased heart rate. A rush of adrenaline gets us ready to escape a source of danger. When that threat isn’t real (it’s just on screen), this can make us feel a sense of excitement that a lot of people like.

But not everyone enjoys that feeling, which may be why some people shy away from scary movies (as well as roller coasters and other thrills and chills).

A threat can also cause our bodies to release other chemicals, including endorphins, which can lessen pain and make us feel good. Endorphins are also released when we laugh or exercise.

What a Relief!

Some researchers believe that people get a sense of relief from scary movies. Viewers are thankful that the monster on the screen isn’t chasing them—instead, the fictional characters are the ones in danger. They’re also thankful when the movie is over because, well, they were scared for about two hours!

Safe and Sound

Oddly, watching a scary movie can make us feel safe. We know the monster on the screen can’t hurt us and that the monster’s victims are just actors. Looked at like this, a scary movie can be pure entertainment.

There’s one other reason for our love of horror. When groups of people experience a scary movie together, it can make them feel closer to one another.

So see if your friends and family want to get together for a fright fest. Or don’t!

Fourteen-year-old Heman Bekele has just been named America’s Top Young Scientist! The 9th grader from Annandale, Virginia, won the 2023 3M Young Scientist Challenge for developing soap that’s designed to treat skin cancer.

The 3M Young Scientist Challenge invites students in 5th through 8th grade to “create an original solution to an existing problem,” according to its website. Heman, who was in 8th grade when he entered the competition, chose the problem of melanoma, a common type of skin cancer. The soap he developed contains ingredients that have been shown to slow the growth of certain types of cancer cells and boost cells in the body that protect the skin.

Cancer treatment can be very expensive, but Heman says a bar of his soap would cost about 50 cents. This would make it far more accessible for people around the world who cannot afford to treat their skin cancer any other way. 

“Imagine a world where skin cancer treatment isn’t a privilege for a few but a right for all,” Heman said in a YouTube video he created for the competition. “Our soap has the potential to reach corners of the globe where skin cancer treatment has been out of reach for far too long.”

As part of the competition, Heman and nine other finalists worked with a mentor—a scientist who helped them turn their idea into a real prototype, or example of their invention. The experience will serve Heman well—he wants to become an electrical engineer, helping to develop new forms of technology. 

Anyone who has a bike or car knows how annoying it is to get a flat tire. Now, a U.S. company called The SMART Tire Company is selling an airless tire that it says will make flats a thing of the past. It’s designed for both terrestrial and extraterrestrial travelers.

The tire is based on a technology that was developed by NASA (the U.S. space agency) for use on its Mars rovers, the uncrewed vehicles that have been sent to explore the Red Planet. Rover wheels, which are aluminum cylinders containing springs, have worn down quickly because the Martian surface can be rough and the planet is extremely cold. So NASA created new wheels, covering them with a material called a shape memory alloy, which is strong but flexible. When the material is put under pressure, it collapses but then returns to its original shape.

Simone Biles is back. The 26-year-old gymnast returned from a two-year break to win the individual all-around on October 6 at the 2023 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships. She’s now the most decorated gymnast ever.

Biles scored the individual all-around title two days after leading the U.S. team to their seventh gold medal in a row. She later won three more medals in individual events: gold medals in the floor exercise and balance beam and a silver medal in vault. Biles now has 30 world medals (including 23 gold medals), plus seven Olympic medals—more than anyone else in her sport. Biles is known for attempting some of the most difficult maneuvers ever. In fact, five gymnastics skills are named after her.

Multiple victories may not be the only reason Biles cried happy tears as she stood on the podium. This year’s event took place in Antwerp, Belgium, where Biles won her first world championship a decade ago.

“Ten years ago, I won my first worlds. Now we’re back here. So it was emotional,” Biles told reporters. “It means everything to me, the fight, everything that I’ve put in to get back to this place, feel comfortable and confident enough to compete.”

It’s been only a few months since Biles returned to gymnastics after stepping away in 2021. That year, at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, she decided not to compete. Biles said that the pressure of the sport was affecting her mental health and she needed a break. Since then, she has worked with mental health experts to learn ways to manage stress.

Biles has now reestablished her dominance in the sport. Earlier this year, she won gold at the U.S. Championship. Next, she’s looking to compete at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.

On October 14, 2023, parts of the Western Hemisphere will experience an annular solar eclipse. The sky won’t go dark. Instead, the Sun and the Moon will align to form a “ring of fire.”

An annular eclipse is different from a total solar eclipse. During a total eclipse, the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, blocking the Sun and causing the sky to go dark for a brief time. An annular eclipse happens when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun but is at or near its farthest point from Earth. (Remember, the Moon’s orbit is elliptical, or oval shaped.) Since the Moon is a bit smaller in the sky, it doesn’t block the Sun completely, and a thin ring of light is visible—what some people call a ring of fire.

Annular eclipses are visible only in a zone called the path of annularity. The October 14 event will be visible in parts of Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. It can also be seen in parts of Mexico, Central America, and South America.

A partial solar eclipse will be visible in other places. Because less of the Sun will be blocked, people in those locations won’t see the ring of fire.

In the United States, the annular eclipse will first be visible in part of Oregon at 9:13 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time and last be visible in part of Texas at 12:03 p.m. Central Daylight Time. The eclipse will then move over Mexico and Central America and, finally, South America.

If you have the opportunity to view the annular or partial eclipse, be safe. Don’t look at the Sun unless you’re wearing eclipse glasses or solar viewers. Regular sunglasses are not safe for viewing an eclipse.

Scientists were exploring a mangrove forest in Thailand when they came across a bright blue tarantula. The species has been named Chilobrachys natanicharum.

Scientists say the species can live on the ground or in trees. But in mangrove forests, which are wetlands, the tarantulas are limited to living in hollow trees. Hoping to study the blue spiders, the team of researchers climbed the trees and tried to lure some out. They were able to catch only two.

C. natanicharum, also called the electric blue tarantula, had been sold in commercial markets before but is just now being documented by scientists. Its color is one reason the species is so special.

“Blue is one of the rarest colors to appear in nature, which makes blue coloration in animals particularly fascinating,” entomologist Narin Chomphuphuang told CNN.

The blue tarantula’s color doesn’t come from pigment, which is what produces the color of human skin or hair. Instead, it’s caused by the makeup of tiny hairs on the tarantula’s body. Tiny structures in the hair manipulate the light that shines on them. In addition to the blue, the spiders can also have some violet coloring.

Scientists say C. natanicharum is one of the world’s rarest tarantulas, and they’re concerned about its future. The mangrove forests where the species was found are rapidly being cut down.

Indigenous people are among the most heavily affected by climate change. That is why, since 2016, American Indians from more than 70 nations have come together at climate camps to share solutions and support one another.

People from at least 28 American Indian nations and intertribal organizations gathered at a camp in Port Angeles, Washington, in August 2023. They discussed the many ways in which the effects of climate change are harming their livelihoods—plants have died due to excessive heat, a landslide has damaged a fish habitat (and food source for one community), and much more. Climate change affects everyone but particularly American Indians. Indigenous peoples rely on fish and other wildlife for food, medicine, and the survival of their cultures.

One of the topics of discussion was how to use millions of dollars the U.S. government set aside for Indigenous people in 2022 so that they can fund ways to adapt to climate change. Scientists presented information, and people from different groups shared projects they are working on. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in Montana has already developed a climate response plan. Michael Durglo, Jr., head of this group’s climate change advisory committee, shared the details of the plan at the camp and invited others to use it. 

“You don’t have to steal it. It’s yours,” Durglo said. “Everything I have is yours.”

“[What] this camp has done for us is to help us know that there is the network, there is a supporting web out there, that we can help one another,” Jonny Bearcub Stiffarm told the Associated Press. Bearcub Stiffarm, of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes in Montana, attended the Port Angeles camp. “So we make new songs. We make new stories. We make new visions that we embrace for the positive outcome of our people. We make new warrior societies, new climate warrior societies.”

Check out the slideshow for more photos from the Port Angeles conference.

A teen was looking for fossils in Alabama when she found the fossilized remains of a whale that died millions of years ago. Experts say the fossil may be of a species that was previously unknown.

Sixteen-year-old Lindsey Stallworth and her teacher, Drew Gentry, were digging on the Stallworth family’s property when they came across some fossilized bones. At first it wasn’t clear what they’d found. But as they continued to unearth their discovery and found that it included teeth, they realized it was a very large skull—about 4 or 5 feet (1 or 2 meters) long. Gentry, who is a paleontologist, later found information to suggest that the skull is about 34 million years old.

“It’s really hard to comprehend something that’s that many millions of years old, but it started to make more sense once we started getting the dirt away and saw what the skull might have looked like,” Stallworth told the Washington Post.

Starbucks says it’s changing the way people get their coffee. The popular chain plans to stop providing disposable cups at any of its locations by 2030.

The plan is part of Starbucks’s effort to be more environmentally friendly, which includes a goal to reduce waste, water use, and carbon emissions in half by 2030. Each year, the company uses about seven billion disposable cups at its locations worldwide. Those cups, which bear the famous green Starbucks logo, have become iconic. But they’re also terrible for the planet. Water and energy are used to produce the cups, and the cups end up in landfills when thrown away.

Some Starbucks locations have already stopped using disposable cups. At these stores, customers can either bring their own mugs from home or get their beverage in a “borrowed” reusable cup. Cups can be returned to Starbucks, where they’re cleaned and used again.

Thousands of people from all over the world traveled to Buñol, Spain, in August for La Tomatina, the biggest food fight on the planet. There was only one weapon in this friendly war: tomatoes.

La Tomatina takes place every year on the last Wednesday in August. Buñol officials are totally in on the fun. On the morning of the event, 120 tons of overripe tomatoes are brought into town by truck. Meanwhile, shop owners cover their storefronts with plastic. Participants put on old clothes and often don eye goggles. Everyone knows things are about to get messy.

The fight begins at noon. For safety reasons, there are a few rules. No one is allowed to carry or throw hard objects. Tomatoes must be squashed and softened before they are thrown. Also, everyone must stop throwing tomatoes when they hear the boom of a water cannon at the one-hour mark. Beyond that, the fight is a free-for-all. It’s crowded, chaotic, and extremely messy. But that’s what people love about it. After it’s all over, officials hose down the town, and it’s business as usual until August rolls around again!