Saskatchewan seeding delayed by cold temperatures, wet soil but farmers undeterred

When you ask Brett Halstead what challenges he expects to see with seeding at his farm in Saskatchewan, his answer is simple.

"Everything."

Seeding in Saskatchewan has been delayed because of cold temperatures and stubborn spring snow, particularly in the north and east of the province.

On top of the common issue of moisture, farmers in Canada's breadbasket are dealing with war-driven commodity pricing.

Health advice is all over social media. Here’s how to vet claims

Health and wellness advice is available in abundance on social media — from trendy to informative to straight-up disinformation — and you're far from alone in seeing it.

A new survey by the Pew Research Center finds that about 4 in 10 U.S. adults — and around half of those under 50 — get health information from social media or podcasts.

Researchers also looked at the social media profiles of 6,828 health and wellness influencers with at least 100,000 followers. Only about 4 in 10 list a background as a health professional. About one-third called themselves coaches, about 3 in 10 described themselves as entrepreneurs and about 1 in 10 cited their own life experience, like being a parent.

Despite the wide range of expertise, about half of people who get health and wellness information from influencers said the influencers help them better understand their own health, while about one-third said it hasn't made much difference. About 1 in 10 said it made them more confused.

Parade of ghostly icebergs brings joy and wonder to Newfoundland and Labrador

ST. JOHN'S -

At the top of Signal Hill in St. John's, N.L., on Tuesday afternoon, a steady stream of people walked around a rocky cliff and gasped.

Some cheered, some took out their phones to capture the moment — a rush of awe as an iceberg floated in the ocean below, cleaved off from a Greenland glacier and delivered by the Labrador current on a cloudless spring day.

It's a banner year for icebergs in Newfoundland and Labrador, where tourists and residents alike are gathering on shores across the province to welcome the ancient visitors.

AI smart glasses will help visually impaired runners take on the London Marathon

LONDON (AP) — Running past Buckingham Palace during training, Tilly Dowler is closing in on a goal she once thought out of reach.

Dowler, who has Stargardt disease and says she has about 10% useful vision, only began running last year, starting with a couch to 5K program before building up to marathon distance. She is now preparing to run the London Marathon with her boyfriend as her guide, using AI powered Oakley Meta Vanguard smart glasses to help her navigate and track her progress.

“They are AI assisted,” she said. “While running, I can ask for live cues, such as what landmarks are around me and how far I have run.”

She said the glasses allow her to combine audio feedback with guidance from her running partner.

What to do with inconvenient wildlife

Their flocks darkened the skies, over a mile wide and hundreds of miles long. It would take hours or even days for them to pass over a fixed spot. They were a common Manitoba resident, nesting as far north as York Factory. In the 1860s, one hunter trapped 80 dozen in a net near St. Andrews.

B.C. ‘chemical fingerprint’ scheme to track illicit drugs is likened to DNA tests

VANCOUVER - Tucked in the basement of the chemistry building at the University of British Columbia, an arm-sized robot carries out the repetitive task of collecting and weighing colourful vials as machinery whirrs in the background.

It's part of a unique blend of robotics, chemistry and artificial intelligence aimed at helping police and health officials trace the path of batches of illicit drugs.

Police hope the "chemical fingerprinting" program is a game-changer in B.C.'s battle against toxic illicit drugs, with one senior officer likening it to DNA testing.

The provincially funded program will use technology developed at UBC by Aidos Innovations that looks at the chemical makeup of drugs and calculates their method of production, which police say could help them learn how drugs move over time.

Why claims of sentience can’t guide black bear policy

The modern debate over sustainable-use bear hunting often hinges on a few claims including bears are sentient, therefore humans have no moral right to hunt them.

It’s a powerful emotional argument, but it collapses under scientific scrutiny and ecological reality. Sentience is real. Bears and other animals do feel.

But the leap from “animals feel” to “humans must never hunt” is not supported by biology, ethics or conservation science. If we want wildlife policy that protects species and ecosystems, we need to separate what sentience is from what animal rights activists want it to mean.

In scientific terms, sentience refers to the capacity to feel or perceive, not the ability to make moral judgments.

Colombia approves plan to cull roaming hippos linked to Pablo Escobar

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombian officials on Monday authorized a plan to cull dozens of hippos roaming freely through a region in the center of the country, where they threaten villagers and displace native species years after notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar brought in the first ones.

Environment Minister Irene Vélez said previous methods to control their population have been expensive and unsuccessful, including neutering some of the animals or moving them to zoos. Vélez said up to 80 hippos would be affected by the measure. She did not say when hunting would begin.

“If we don’t do this we will not be able to control the population,” Vélez said. “We have to take this action to preserve our ecosystems.”

Colombia is the only country outside of Africa with a wild hippo population. The hippos are the descendants of four brought to the country in the 1980s by Escobar as he built a private zoo in Hacienda Nápoles, a gigantic ranch in the Magdalena River valley with a private landing strip that served as his rural abode.

Manitoba students’ science projects aimed at eye health, wildfire prevention take top marks

More than 350 students in grades 4 to 12 took part in MSSS, the province’s largest annual science event, at the University of Manitoba.

Not consulted on Clear Lake motorboating: Chief

The chief of Keeseekoowenin Ojibway First Nation says he did not consent to the return of motorboats at Clear Lake.

Artemis II astronauts make long-distance call to the space station as they head home from the moon

HOUSTON (AP) — Still aglow from their triumphant lunar flyby, the Artemis II astronauts made more history Tuesday: calling their friends aboard the International Space Station hundreds of thousands of miles away as they headed home from the moon.

It was the first moonship-to-spaceship radio linkup ever. NASA's Apollo crews had no off-the-planet company back in the 1960s and 1970s, the last time humanity set sail for deep space.

"We have been waiting for this like you can’t imagine,” Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman called out.

For Christina Koch on Artemis II and Jessica Meir aboard the space station, it marked a joyous space reunion despite being 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometers) apart. The two teamed up for the world's first all-female spacewalk in 2019 outside the orbiting lab.

In pictures: Artemis II crew captures eclipse, Earthrise, far side of moon during lunar flyby

NASA released new photos Tuesday captured by the Artemis II astronauts.

Artemis II’s lunar fly-around and intense observation period lasted seven hours.

A total solar eclipse greeted the three Americans and one Canadian as the moon temporarily blocked the sun from their perspective.

Venturing as close as 4,067 miles (6,545 kilometers) to the gray dusty surface, the astronauts zipped through a list of more than two dozen photo targets, using powerful Nikon cameras as well as their iPhones to zoom in on impact craters and other intriguing lunar features.

Winnipeg dad, young son captivated by first mission to moon in more than a half-century

Father hopes witnessing the launch might leave an impression on his son who has developed a budding interest in astronomy.

The Latest: Artemis II astronauts reach orbit on historic mission to the moon and back

Four astronauts embarked on a high-stakes flight around the moon Wednesday, humanity’s first lunar voyage in more than half a century and the thrilling leadoff in NASA’s push toward a landing in two years.

NASA's launch team loaded more than 700,000 gallons of fuel into the 32-story Space Launch System rocket early Wednesday, setting the stage for blast off in the evening at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Artemis astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen are on board. They’ll hurtle several thousand miles beyond the moon, hang a U-turn and then come straight back. No circling around the moon, no stopping for a moonwalk — just a quick out-and-back lasting less than 10 days. NASA promises more boot prints in the gray lunar dust, but not before a couple practice missions.

Unlike the Apollo missions that sent astronauts to the moon from 1968 through 1972, Artemis’ debut crew includes a woman, a person of color and a Canadian citizen.

New studies of old dogs help scientists understand where they came from

Using the oldest dog genes studied so far, scientists are finding more evidence that our furry friends have been our companions for thousands of years.

After 15 years of building North American brand, Winnipeg-based XiteBio Technologies Inc. eyes overseas markets

Out of the laboratory and into farmers’ fields.

If you had to describe Manas Banerjee’s career trajectory in fewer than 10 words, you could do a lot worse than that.

Banerjee is the CEO and founder of XiteBio Technologies Inc., an agricultural biotechnology company based in south Winnipeg, but before that, he was a researcher, scientist and professor at a number of institutions.

After earning a PhD in soil microbiology from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, Banerjee moved to Canada. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Saskatchewan, a research associate at the University of Manitoba and an adjunct professor at Western University (Ontario), publishing numerous papers and book chapters related to soil science.

Endometriosis painful, lack of research shameful

Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory disease that causes debilitating pain, heavy bleeding, extreme fatigue, brain fog and other symptoms. It affects one in 10 women. I am one of them.

Oldest known whale recording could unlock mysteries of the ocean

A haunting whale song discovered on decades-old audio equipment could open up a new understanding of how the huge animals communicate, according to researchers who say it’s the oldest such recording known.

King penguins are the rare species benefiting from a warming world. But that could change

WASHINGTON (AP) — The warming world has disrupted the timing for plant and animal reproduction, and it's usually bad news for species that depend on each other — like flowers blooming too early and pollinating bees arriving too late. But researchers have found the rare critter that's getting a boost from the change: King penguins.

A new study of 19,000 king penguins in a sub-Antarctic island chain found their breeding is starting 19 days earlier than it did in 2000. Mating earlier has increased the breeding success rate by 40%, according to a study in Wednesday's journal Science Advances.

The study of timing in nature is called phenology. It's been a major concern for biologists because predators and prey and pollinators and plants are mostly adapting to warmer climates at different rates. And that means crucial mismatches in timing.

It's especially common in birds and pollinating species such as bees. Most birds, especially in North America, aren't keeping pace with changes in phenology, according to Clemson University biological sciences professor Casey Youngflesh, who wasn't part of the study.

Transfer program adds to Manitoba First Nation’s bison population

The herd of bison that calls Chitek Lake Anishinaabe Provincial Park in Manitoba home just grew a little larger.

Spacecraft’s impact changed asteroid’s orbit around the sun in a save-the-Earth test, study finds

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An asteroid that NASA used for target practice a few years ago was nudged into a slightly different route around the sun, findings that could help divert a future incoming killer space rock, scientists reported Friday.

It’s the first time that a celestial body’s orbit around the sun was deliberately changed. The asteroid that NASA's Dart spacecraft slammed into was never a threat to Earth.

“This study marks a notable step forward in our ability to prevent future asteroid impacts on Earth,” the international research team wrote in Science Advances.

The changes were slight — reductions of just one-tenth of a second and one-half of a mile (720 meters) to a solar lap spanning two years and hundreds of millions of miles (kilometers), according to the scientists.

Infrequent lunar eclipse performs Copper Side of the Moon early Tuesday morning

Stargazers in Manitoba have the chance Tuesday to watch the last total lunar eclipse on this side of the world until 2029.

The surprising complexity behind the squeak of basketball shoes on hardwood floors

NEW YORK (AP) — As he watched the Boston Celtics play from the stands of TD Garden, one noise kept catching Adel Djellouli's ear.

“This squeaking sound when players are sliding on the floor is omnipresent,” he said. “It’s always there, right?”

Squeaky shoes are part of the symphony of a basketball game, when rubber soles rasp against the hardwood floors as players jab step, cut and pivot and defenders move their feet to stay in front of their assignment.

Returning home from the game, Djellouli wondered how that sound was produced. And as a materials scientist at Harvard University, he had a way to find out.

Fossilized vomit provides insight on predator that lived 290 million years ago

BRANDON — A Brandon University paleontologist has helped identify prehistoric barf that’s nearly 290 million years old — and could be the oldest known example of fossilized vomit from a land-dwelling predator.

Mark MacDougall, an assistant biology professor, was part of a research team that identified 41 bones from at least three animals inside the regurgitated cluster by using CT scans and chemical analysis, the university said in a news release.

Signs point to the vomit coming from a top predator — likely an early relative of mammals — that gulped down a mixed meal that included a small reptile, a fast-moving lizard-like animal and part of a much larger plant-eater, and later coughed it back up.

“It’s rare to get such direct evidence of who was eating whom nearly 300 million years ago,” said MacDougall, co-author of the international study published last month in the journal Scientific Reports.