Byzantine church dedicated to unknown martyr unearthed in Israel

Huge, gold-standard study shows unequivocally that surgical masks work to reduce coronavirus spread | New 'mu' coronavirus variant could escape vaccine-induced immunity, WHO says | Byzantine church dedicated to unknown martyr unearthed in Israel Created for {EMAIL} | [Web Version]( September 2, 2021 CONNECT WITH LIVESCIENCE  [Facebook]( [Twitter](  [LIVESCIENCE]( [LIVESCIENCE]( Amazing science every day [SIGN UP]( ⋅ [WEBSITE]( [] Top Science News [] [Huge, gold-standard study shows unequivocally that surgical masks work to reduce coronavirus spread]( [Huge, gold-standard study shows unequivocally that surgical masks work to reduce coronavirus spread]( (Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Results from a massive study in Bangladesh unequivocally show that surgical masks reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2, scientists say. The results — from the highest-quality, gold-standard type of clinical trial, known as a randomized controlled trial — should "end any scientific debate" on whether masks are effective in battling the spread of COVID-19, Jason Abaluck, an economist at Yale and one of the authors who helped lead the study, told The Washington Post. "This is an incredibly challenging but important study to pull off," Megan Ranney, an emergency medicine physician and a professor at Brown University who was not part of the study, told the Post. "Anti-mask people keep saying, 'Where’s the randomized controlled trial?' Well, here you go." Full Story: [LiveScience]( (9/1) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] COVID-19 [] [New 'mu' coronavirus variant could escape vaccine-induced immunity, WHO says]( [New 'mu' coronavirus variant could escape vaccine-induced immunity, WHO says]( (Shutterstock) Health officials are watching another new coronavirus variant, dubbed "mu," which they say has concerning mutations that could allow it to escape vaccine-induced immunity. The variant, also known as B.1.621, was first detected in Colombia in January 2021, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). On Monday (Aug. 30), WHO classified it as a "variant of interest," or VOI, and named it mu. The mu variant "has a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape," WHO officials wrote in the agency's weekly epidemiological report on COVID-19, published Tuesday (Aug. 31). Full Story: [LiveScience]( (9/2) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] History & Archaeology [] [Byzantine church dedicated to unknown martyr unearthed in Israel]( [Byzantine church dedicated to unknown martyr unearthed in Israel]( (Assaf Peretz, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority) Archaeologists have discovered a 1,500-year-old church in Israel dedicated to an unknown martyr that had animal mosaics that had been erased. The sizable church has Greek inscriptions that say that it was dedicated to a "glorious martyr" but doesn't say who this martyr was. At the time the church was built, the Byzantine Empire controlled Israel, and an inscription in the church states that the church was expanded during the reign of Emperor Flavius Tiberius, who ruled from 578 to 582. Israel and neighboring areas were conquered by the Islamic Rashidun Caliphate between 634 and 638. But despite the growth of Islam in the area the church flourished, and it was not abandoned until the 10th century, archaeologists found. Full Story: [LiveScience]( (9/2) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Your Health [] [Is a 'fetal heartbeat' really a heartbeat at 6 weeks?]( [Is a 'fetal heartbeat' really a heartbeat at 6 weeks?]( (iStock / Getty Images Plus) So far this year, 11 states have enacted 90 laws meant to restrict abortion — the most in a single year since the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. Now, lawmakers in nine U.S. states have passed laws banning abortions when a fetal heartbeat can be detected, or at six weeks of pregnancy, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization for sexual and reproductive health research and advocacy. But what exactly do we mean when we talk about a "fetal heartbeat" at six weeks of pregnancy? Although some people might picture a heart-shaped organ beating inside a fetus, this is not the case. Full Story: [LiveScience]( (9/1) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Astronomy & Astrophysics [] [China wants to build a mega spaceship that’s nearly a mile long]( [China wants to build a mega spaceship that’s nearly a mile long]( (Shutterstock) China is investigating how to build ultra-large spacecraft that are up to 0.6 mile (1 kilometer) long. But how feasible is the idea, and what would be the use of such a massive spacecraft? The project is part of a wider call for research proposals from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, a funding agency managed by the country's Ministry of Science and Technology. A research outline posted on the foundation's website described such enormous spaceships as "major strategic aerospace equipment for the future use of space resources, exploration of the mysteries of the universe, and long-term living in orbit." The foundation wants scientists to conduct research into new, lightweight design methods that could limit the amount of construction material that has to be lofted into orbit, and new techniques for safely assembling such massive structures in space. If funded, the feasibility study would run for five years and have a budget of 15 million yuan ($2.3 million). Full Story: [LiveScience]( (9/2) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] [World's largest Martian meteorite goes on display]( [World's largest Martian meteorite goes on display]( (Maine Mineral and Gem Museum) The largest piece of Mars ever to fall to Earth is being displayed for the first time. The hefty chunk of Mars weighs 32 pounds (14.5 kilograms) and measures 10 inches (25 centimeters) across at its widest point. It was unveiled Wednesday (Sept. 1) at the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum in Bethel, which also houses approximately 6,000 extraterrestrial rocks, including the largest piece of moon rock and the oldest igneous rock, formed from volcanic activity, in the solar system. The lump of rock wound up on Earth after a large asteroid or comet blasted it off the Martian surface. Full Story: [LiveScience]( (9/2) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Curious Creatures [] [Scientists discover on-off switch for bacteria that breathe electricity]( [Scientists discover on-off switch for bacteria that breathe electricity]( (NIKHIL MALVANKAR / YALE UNIVERSITY) Deep beneath the seabed, teensy bacteria "exhale" electricity through long, skinny snorkels, and now, scientists have discovered how to switch these microbes' electric breath on and off. These bizarre bacteria rely on two proteins, which band together in a single hair-like structure called a pilus, the researchers reported in a new study, published Wednesday (Sept. 1) in the journal Nature. Many of these pili lie just beneath the bacterial membrane and help push the snorkels out of the cell and into the surrounding environment, thus allowing the microbe to breathe. This discovery not only reveals something unexpected about the bacteria's biology but could also pave the way for new technologies, from powerful microbe-powered batteries to new medical treatments for bacterial infections, senior author Nikhil Malvankar, an assistant professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale University's Microbial Sciences Institute, told Live Science. Full Story: [LiveScience]( (9/2) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] ['What the heck is that?' Florida angler catches 'tortilla fish.']( ['What the heck is that?' Florida angler catches 'tortilla fish.']( (Tom Bosworth) When people go fishing, they expect to catch fish, not tortillas. One Florida angler, however, caught a little bit of both: a fish that looks just like a flour tortilla (albeit, an oblong one). "What the heck is that?" Tom Bosworth, an angler and retiree who lives near Tampa Bay, remembered thinking. "There's 200 species of fish out in Tampa Bay and that's one of the stranger ones I ever caught." Bosworth caught the fish on March 31, while fishing with two friends. However, the fish was identified publicly only recently — as an orange filefish (Aluterus schoepfii) — in an Aug. 27 Facebook post by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FFWCC). Full Story: [LiveScience]( (9/2) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] [Why tiny tardigrades walk like insects 500,000 times their size]( [Why tiny tardigrades walk like insects 500,000 times their size]( (Jasmine Nirody) Pudgy, ungainly tardigrades are among the smallest legged animals on Earth, and these microscopic water bears lumber around like chubby-thighed toddlers. But most creatures as small as tardigrades don't even have legs, so scientists recently analyzed tardigrades in motion to better understand how they use their limbs. Tardigrades, also known as moss piglets, have segmented bodies and four pairs of legs. They scoot through deep sea sediments and sandy river bottoms, and scurry over lichens and moss on land, scampering toward prospective mates and food or away from predators. Full Story: [LiveScience]( (9/1) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Daily Quiz [] POLL QUESTION: Do wolves wag their tails? 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