Eerie albino alligator babies hatched at Florida animal park

1,500-year-old burial in China holds lovers locked in eternal embrace | 'Shredder' enzyme might tear cells apart in severe COVID-19 | COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness dropped to 66% against delta, CDC finds Created for {EMAIL} | [Web Version]( August 25, 2021 CONNECT WITH LIVESCIENCE  [Facebook]( [Twitter](  [LIVESCIENCE]( [LIVESCIENCE]( Amazing science every day [SIGN UP]( ⋅ [WEBSITE]( [] Top Science News [] [1,500-year-old burial in China holds lovers locked in eternal embrace]( [1,500-year-old burial in China holds lovers locked in eternal embrace]( (Photo by Qian Wang; Illustration by Anqi Wang) The skeletal remains of two lovers, buried together more than 1,500 years ago in northern China, were recently discovered locked in an eternal embrace, a new study finds. It's possible that the woman, who wore a metal ring on her left ring finger, sacrificed herself so that she could be buried with her husband, the researchers said. While joint male-female burials are not uncommon in China, this entwined burial "with two skeletons locked in an embrace with a bold display of love" is the first of its kind in the country, and may reflect changing attitudes toward love in Chinese society at that time, the researchers wrote in the study. Full Story: [LiveScience]( (8/24) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] COVID-19 [] ['Shredder' enzyme might tear cells apart in severe COVID-19]( ['Shredder' enzyme might tear cells apart in severe COVID-19]( (Getty / ADRIAN DENNIS / AFP) An enzyme that can tear cell membranes to shreds may contribute to the organ damage that ultimately kills some people with severe COVID-19, a new study hints. The enzyme, called "secreted phospholipase A2 Group IIA" (sPLA2-IIA), normally protects the body from invaders, such as bacteria, by grabbing hold of specific fats in the microbes' membranes and tearing them apart, said senior author Floyd Chilton, a biochemist and director of the Precision Nutrition and Wellness Initiative at the University of Arizona. Human cells also contain these fats, but unlike bacteria, human cells carry these fat molecules on the inner lining of their cell membranes, rather than on the outer surface. Full Story: [LiveScience]( (8/24) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] [COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness dropped to 66% against delta, CDC finds]( [COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness dropped to 66% against delta, CDC finds]( (REDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images) The delta variant has dealt a blow to COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness, which has dropped by about 25 percentage points since the variant became the dominant strain of coronavirus in the U.S., a new study among healthcare workers finds. The study, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), found that the vaccines' effectiveness against COVID-19 infections declined from 91% prior to the delta variant's emergence, to 66% after the rise of the delta variant in the summer. Despite this "moderate reduction," health officials stressed that "the sustained two-thirds reduction in infection risk underscores the continued importance and benefits of COVID-19 vaccination," the authors wrote in the study, published Tuesday (Aug. 24) in the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). Full Story: [LiveScience]( (8/24) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] History & Archaeology [] [Walking whale ancestor named after Egyptian god of death]( [Walking whale ancestor named after Egyptian god of death]( (Illustration by Robert W. Boessenecker) A semiaquatic whale that lived 43 million years ago was so fearsome, paleontologists have named it after Anubis, the ancient Egyptian god of death. The newly discovered 10-foot-long (3 meters) species, dubbed Phiomicetus anubis, was a beast; When it was alive more than 43 million years ago, it both walked on land and swam in the water and had powerful jaw muscles that would have allowed it to easily chomp down on prey, such as crocodiles and small mammals, including the calves of other whale species. Full Story: [LiveScience]( (8/25) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] [Lost 'Heisenberg cubes' tied to Nazi bomb plot could finally be identified]( [Lost 'Heisenberg cubes' tied to Nazi bomb plot could finally be identified]( (John T. Consoli/University of Maryland) Scientists have developed a new method to identify and trace the origins of hundreds of uranium cubes that went missing from the Nazi atomic weapons program. More than 600 "Heisenberg cubes" — vital components of the Nazis' plans to build both a nuclear reactor and an atomic bomb and named after Werner Heisenberg, one of the German physicists who created them — were seized from a secret underground laboratory at the end of World War II and brought to the United States. Over 1,200 uranium cubes were believed to be created across Nazi Germany. But today, researchers only know the locations of roughly a dozen. Full Story: [LiveScience]( (8/25) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Astronomy & Astrophysics [] [Scientists' 1st-ever view of sun's middle corona could sharpen space weather forecasts]( [Scientists' 1st-ever view of sun's middle corona could sharpen space weather forecasts]( (Dan Seaton/NCEI/CIRES) Recent telescope views shed new light on the sun's elusive middle corona that could prove beneficial to space weather forecasts. Using the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) GOES-17 satellite, researchers from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) captured the first-ever images of the sun's middle corona — also known as the sun's outer atmosphere — and the dynamics that trigger solar wind and the big eruptions dubbed coronal mass ejections, according to a statement from the NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). Full Story: [LiveScience]( (8/25) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Curious Creatures [] [Eerie albino alligator babies hatched at Florida animal park]( [Eerie albino alligator babies hatched at Florida animal park]( (Wild Florida) What's tiny, toothy and devoid of pigment? Two new baby albino alligators born at a wildlife attraction in Florida. The rare reptiles hatched this summer at Wild Florida in Kenansville, Florida. They're the babies of 27-year-old Snowflake and 16-year-old Blizzard, a pair of albino alligators the zoo and safari park purchased in 2017. This is the second set of hatchlings born to Snowflake and Blizzard, who also had a pair of babies last year according to Wild Florida. Full Story: [LiveScience]( (8/25) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] ['Unimaginable' video shows great white sharks ripping humpback whale carcass to shreds]( ['Unimaginable' video shows great white sharks ripping humpback whale carcass to shreds]( (NOAA/Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary) In mid-August, a team of Massachusetts-based marine biologists set out on the waters of Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, just east of Boston. Their mission: to tag some basking sharks — the second-biggest shark species on Earth, and a predator still considered highly mysterious to scientists. But soon after the team hit open water, another marine mammoth caught their attention: A young humpback whale, floating dead on the ocean's surface. Then, the sharks came. Full Story: [LiveScience]( (8/24) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Daily Quiz [] POLL QUESTION: Are birds dinosaurs? 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