Passing electricity through a piece of quartz crystal generates a pulse you can literally set your watch by. Set a time crystal melting, on the other hand, and it just might pulse with the deepest secrets of the Universe. A team of researchers from institutions across Japan has shown the quantum underpinnings of particles arranged as
Titan, the already pretty weird moon of Saturn, just got a little bit weirder. Astronomers have detected cyclopropenylidene (C3H2) in its atmosphere – an extremely rare carbon-based molecule that’s so reactive, it can only exist on Earth in laboratory conditions. In fact, it’s so rare that it has never before been detected in an atmosphere,
The loss of billions of tonnes of ice from Earth’s frozen spaces is likely to increase global temperatures by an additional 0.4 degrees Celsius, according to research Tuesday highlighting the danger of a “vicious circle” of warming. Arctic summer sea ice levels have declined by more than 10 percent each decade since the late 1970s
Bats have long endured a bad reputation, even before COVID-19 emerged. These highly mobile creatures that live in clustered colonies are well-known reservoirs of viruses, including coronaviruses, that, as we’ve seen, can spill over into humans. But these innocent animals are unfairly maligned. They are important pollinators and pest controllers. And when bats are feeling
To help defeat – or at least contain – COVID-19, people all over the world have been told to stay at home this year, to lower transmission of the pervasive pathogen that has so drastically altered the course of 2020. Depending on the severity of outbreaks, sometimes being advised to ‘shelter in place’ is just
Roughly two to three times Earth’s distance from the Sun, in the Asteroid Belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter, 16 Psyche makes its home. This giant metal asteroid is one of the most massive objects in the Asteroid Belt, categorised as a minor planet. Astronomers think that 16 Psyche is the exposed core of
What has two brains, no legs and the best profile pic on Facebook? That would be this rare, two-headed racer snake recently discovered by a house cat in Palm Harbor, Florida. The cat’s family was rudely introduced to the supernatural serpent about a month ago, when their cat, Olive, dropped the critter on their living room floor, according
The discovery of the extraordinary exoplanet LTT 9779b was first announced a month ago. Just 260 light-years away, the planet was immediately pegged as an excellent candidate for follow-up study of its curious atmosphere. But it turns out we didn’t even have to wait too long to learn more. LTT 9779b is a little bigger than
For more than two decades, astronomers have been systematically tracing mystery sources of high-energy gamma rays to their sources. One, however, remained stubborn – the brightest unidentified source of gamma rays in the Milky Way. It seemed to be coming from a binary system 2,740 light-years away, but only one of the stars could be found.
It’s official. There’s water on the Moon. We’ve thought that there was for over a decade, based on detections described back in 2009, but there was room for interpretation in the wavelengths used. Now, using a different wavelength unique to water, scientists report the first unambiguous detection. Those 2009 conclusions were apparently on the money.
In 2005 astronomers found a dense grouping of stars in the Virgo constellation. It looked like a star cluster, except further surveys showed that some of the stars are moving towards us, and some are moving away. That finding was unexpected and suggested the stream was no simple star cluster. A 2019 study showed that
The discovery of two small dinosaurs with bat-like wings a few years ago was a palaeontologist’s dream. Just how flight evolved in birds is something we’re still trying to nail down, and looking at this early evolution of bat-like wings in dinosaurs could give us a clue. But a team of researchers has now
Agricultural department workers wearing protective suits have eradicated the first nest of giant “murder hornets” discovered in the United States, vacuuming them out of a tree in Washington state. The nest of Asian giant hornets was found on Thursday by Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) entomologists on a property in Blaine, near the border
The quality and complexity of dreams appear to change with our stages of sleep, according to a new analysis. Before the twenty-first century, we used to think dreams only occurred during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, but more recent research shows people sometimes recall dreams even when they are woken from non-REM stages of sleep.
Monkeys, much like humans, could be engaged in the process of self-domesticating themselves, altering the course of their own evolution and physiology through the way they behave with one another, new research suggests. It’s long been recognised that domestication in animals promotes certain physical features that aren’t observed in their wild counterparts. This phenomenon –
There comes a time in everyone’s life when the brain and the body reach their peak before age begins to take its toll. While muscle mass, strength, and function start to deteriorate around age 30, new research on professional chess players suggests the brain actually ages in a slower and more gradual way. Analysing 125
Two years after it left Earth, Mercury probe BepiColombo has completed the first of its first flybys of Venus. The manoeuvre is designed to give the spacecraft a boost on its journey – but it’s also too good an opportunity to pass up for a little science. As it swung around the planet on a
People thrive all across the globe, at every temperature, altitude, and landscape. How did human beings become so successful at adapting to whatever environment we wind up in? Human origins researchers like me are interested in how this quintessential human trait, adaptability, evolved. At a site in Kenya, my colleagues and I have been working
A new psychology study investigating the best way to say ‘thank you’ has now offered a few preliminary tips for those looking to strengthen their romantic relationships. In both diary entries and conversation studies, psychologists found the best way to express gratitude is to elaborate on how responsive your loved one was to your needs.
NASA said Friday that its robotic spacecraft OSIRIS-REx had succeeded in collecting a large sample of particles from the Bennu asteroid this week – but so much that it was leaking. The team in charge of the probe is now working to quickly stow the remaining samples that would eventually be delivered back to Earth
Water is essential for basic human survival. But it can also be dangerous; contaminated water can spread deadly diseases that have the potential to eradicate whole communities. Safe, clean water offers humanity one of its best chances to thrive. Several ancient civilisations, including the Greeks, Egyptians, and Romans, filtered their water. Sanskrit writings dating back
Naked mole rats are beloved for having some of the strangest mammalian superpowers. They can resist cancers, defy the usual mammalian ageing process, survive almost 20 minutes without oxygen, and tolerate surprisingly high levels of pain. But it turns out these highly social freaks of nature have a nasty little secret that makes them more
Learning no lessons from horror films of yore, Britain has plans for a high-speed rail project that will lay tracks over the ruins of a medieval church. And, apparently, the project has run into some trouble with witches and dark spirits. According to archaeologists working at Stoke Mandeville, a village that lies in the path
When it comes to friendships, people are known to become more selective with age. It turns out the same is true of male chimps, who have fewer yet more genuine pals to ape around with as they get older, according to a study published in the journal Science on October 22. The research, which was
Owls are one of the rare avian predators that catch their prey by night, and new research suggests that there’s something special in the way the DNA molecules in their eyes are packaged, giving them a powerful visual advantage in the dark. Through the process of natural selection, the new study proposes that the DNA
For the first time, astronomers have seen clear evidence of plumes of toxic volcanic gas erupting forth from the volcanoes of Io. New radio images of the Jovian moon have finally provided some answers to long-standing questions about its atmosphere. Io is the most volcanic place in the Solar System. More than 400 active volcanoes
Our love of pandas has helped these cute and fuzzy giants bounce back from dwindling numbers. But despite all the attention we’ve showered them with and the intense research and effort to get them to breed, no one had ever managed to film how this happens in the wild. Until now. It took a three year
Scientists have created a super white paint that is the yin to Vantablack’s yang. While ultra black materials can today absorb more than 99.96 percent of sunlight, this new super white coat can reflect 95.5 percent of all the photons that hit it. Instead of warming up under direct light, objects painted with this new
Escape artist and magician James Randi, who spent decades investigating and debunking faith healers, mind readers, psychics and other fraudsters and charlatans who claimed paranormal powers has died, his foundation said. He was 92. “We are very sad to say that James Randi passed away yesterday, due to age-related causes. He had an Amazing life. We will
Astronomers are working hard to catalogue all of the exoplanets visible from Earth, but now two researchers have turned the idea around, to look at which exoplanets are getting a good view of Earth in return. It turns out there are 1,004 (and counting) main sequence stars, similar to the Sun, with orbiting Earth-like planets
A little dead star that dazzled us earlier this year is not done with its shenanigans. Magnetar SGR 1935+2154, which in April emitted the first known fast radio burst from inside the Milky Way, has flared up once more, giving astronomers yet another chance to solve more than one major cosmic mystery. On 8 October
A major renewable energy project in Australia billed as the world’s largest solar farm in development has had its proposed location revealed. The AUD$20 billion facility – the heart of an ambitious electricity network called the Australia–ASEAN Power Link – will be built at a remote cattle station in the Northern Territory, roughly halfway between
Want a little reminder of how amazingly clever we humans can be? Yesterday, from a distance of more than 320 million kilometres (200 million miles) away, NASA scientists piloted a spacecraft to gently touch down on a spinning asteroid, collecting a sample of surface rubble to bring back home to Earth. At 6:08 PM EDT,
Matthew Kasson usually studies fungi that sicken trees and wipe out crops. But lately, he’s gotten into moldy desserts. A plant pathologist and mycologist at West Virginia University, Kasson tested how various types of fungi grow on marshmallow Peeps last year. So when he saw photos of strange-looking Twinkies on the Twitter account of former biology professor
According to the latest dispatch from NASA, the space agency has an “exciting new discovery about the Moon” coming on Monday 26 October. Curiously, the new results are courtesy of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). It’s the world’s largest airborne observatory, and is actually a Boeing 747SP plane with a hole cut out
Geologists agree that some 60 million years ago, the Farallon and Kula tectonic plates covered a vast area of Earth’s surface across the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of North America. However, there’s debate about whether a third plate existed, called Resurrection. Now researchers at the University of Houston think they might have found the remains
Scientists think they’ve finally come closer to identifying the cause of Earth’s worst mass extinction, by tracking down the geochemical trigger that may have started it all. Known as the Great Dying, the Permian-Triassic extinction event happened around 252 million years ago. The new research is based on a study of fossil shells left behind by clam-like
The diabolical ironclad beetle (Phloeodes diabolicus) of North America doesn’t have the visual pizzazz of some of its more shiny beetle cousins, looking more like a small piece of gnarly bark or stone. But what it lacks in dazzle, it makes up for in durability: its exoskeleton is one of the toughest materials in the
The Orionids meteor shower is peaking this week, bringing about 15 to 20 shooting stars per hour. The meteors barrel into Earth’s atmosphere with unusual speed, travelling roughly 41 miles per second – about 148,000 mph (240,000 km/h). In their rush, they often leave behind glowing trails of debris that shine in the sky for several seconds
With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging, a 14-year-old from Texas has won a national science competition for identifying a molecule that can bind to the virus and potentially disable it. Anika Chebrolu, who hails from Frisco, used computer modeling to search for a compound that binds tightly to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein — a structure
The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica has expanded to one of its greatest recorded sizes in recent years. In 2019, scientists revealed that the Antarctic ozone hole had hit its smallest annual peak since tracking began in 1982, but the 2020 update on this atmospheric anomaly – like other things this year –
NASA just landed a spacecraft on an asteroid and, if everything went as planned, sucked up a sample of dust and rock from the surface. From 200 million miles away, NASA and its engineering partner, Lockheed Martin, instructed the spacecraft to descend to the surface of a space rock called Bennu. In just 5 to
An object identified earlier this year as the closest black hole we’ve ever discovered may have just been demoted. After reanalysing the data, separate teams of scientists have concluded that the system in question, named HR 6819, does not include a black hole after all. Instead, they have found that it’s likely just two stars
About 24 million years ago, baby shark ancestors of the giant beast called megalodon needed a place to grow big before heading into the open ocean, so they swam around a coastal spot replete with easy-to-catch prey – a nursery in what is now South Carolina, according to new research. Until now, scientists knew of just two
Imagine parallel parking a 15-passenger van into just two to three parking spaces surrounded by two-story boulders. On October 20, a University of Arizona-led NASA mission 16 years in the making will attempt the astronomical equivalent more than 200 million miles (320 million kilometres) away. A NASA mission called OSIRIS-REx will soon attempt to touch
A cat lies in the Sun in Peru, its ears up and alert, its belly exposed, and tail stretched out. The cat is 37 metres (120 feet) long, and around 2,000 years old. It’s a geoglyph recently discovered in the famous Nazca desert in Peru. After authorities began improving access to a lookout point called
The International Space Station has been leaking an unusual amount of air since September 2019. At first, crew members held off on troubleshooting the issue, since the leak wasn’t major. But in August, the leak rate increased, prompting astronauts and cosmonauts on board the orbiting laboratory to start trying to locate its source in earnest. Roscosmos,
Zooming in on a small corner of cloud 7,500 light-years away, the Hubble Space Telescope has caught a fascinating stage in the development of baby stars. It’s called J025157.5+600606, and it’s just a (relatively) tiny bulge in the colossal Soul Nebula (also known as Westerhout 5) in the constellation of Cassiopeia. But, while the section
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