A NASA satellite captured harrowing images of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere due to the wildfires that continue to rage in the Amazon rainforest. NASA collected new data from their Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument, measuring levels of carbon monoxide at an altitude of 18,000 feet (5,500 meters) from August 8 to 22, according to
Up to 800,000 hectares of the unique Chiquitano forest were burned to the ground in Bolivia between August 18 and August 23. That’s more forest than is usually destroyed across the country in two years. Experts say that it will take at least two centuries to repair the ecological damage done by the fires, while
Palm tree-like Cycads are flowering and could possibly reproduce in the UK for the first time in human history – and experts think that climate change could be the cause. While Cycads (or more specifically Cycas revoluta) flower in several parts of the world, they only bloom like this in very warm climates. Not, usually,
No matter how many images we see of our Solar System, we never get tired of gazing out into space, and the latest pictures of Jupiter are enough to make the jaws of even the most seasoned cosmic observers drop. What you’re looking at in the picture above is a new radio wave image made
A magnetar that recently erupted with a storm of activity may have given us a lead on the mystery of fast radio bursts (FRBs). According to a new analysis of the magnetar XTE J1810-197, millisecond bursts of low-frequency radio waves sputtered out by the dead star show an unusual similarity to FRB signals. It’s far from
The tiny Polish village of Miejsce Odrzanskie has become the unlikely source of international media attention over the past fortnight as a result of what the New York Times called “a strange population anomaly“. It has now been almost a decade since the last boy was born in this place, with the most recent 12
It’s not like the one in your car, but a team of physicists at Trinity College Dublin have built what they claim is the world’s smallest engine. The engine is the size of a single calcium ion – about ten billion times smaller than an automobile engine. Rather than powering your next road trip, the
The search for a habitable exoplanet has been a frustrating one. Although we’ve found a bunch of rocky planets orbiting at the right distance from their star, further investigation has so far mostly yielded nothing but barren poisonous rocks lashed with deadly stellar flares. But according to new research using computer modelling to explore the
No matter how good you think you look, there’s something about posting a selfie that might frame you in a bad light. An experiment on hundreds of real Instagram users has now found those who post a lot of selfies come across as less likeable, less successful, more insecure, and less outgoing. These negative perceptions
Rocks on the surface of Ryugu, the distant asteroid currently being explored by the Japanese space probe Hayabusa-2, bear a striking resemblance to rocks from meteorites that have crashed down on Earth. That’s according to a team of European and Japanese scientists who analyzed newly-released photos that Hayabusa-2’s robotic lander, MASCOT, took from the asteroid’s
Scientists have found evidence of superconductivity happening at temperatures and energy levels way above its normal boundaries – a finding which could one day go on to help revolutionise the design and workings of our electronics. A superconductor material is one that can transfer electricity without resistance. In turn, this means the electricity travels through
Underwhelming sound quality while listening to music on Spotify is most likely a result of poor quality headphones, but maybe the equaliser settings in Spotify can help, at least a little. Even with a high quality pair of headphones, using the equaliser settings in Spotify can help mould the sound to your preference. In fact,
A mother panther walks into frame and pauses. She looks around, ears alert. One of her cubs appears and looks healthy and strong. Then her other cub stumbles into the frame and falls to the ground. The young cat doesn’t have full control of its hind legs – as if a neurological disease, or even
How do you study the evolution of brains, without any ancient brains to study? It’s not a simple proposition, so it’s no surprise that scientists are excited to have scanned the very well-preserved skull of a 20-million-year-old monkey species, Chilecebus carrascoensis. “Human beings have exceptionally enlarged brains, but we know very little about how far back
The wreck of what may be the most famous and infamous sea vessel in history has been visited by humans for the first time in almost 15 years – revealing an incredible state of natural deterioration hidden deep within the Atlantic Ocean. Rusting in silent isolation at a depth of 3,810 metres (about 12,500 feet)
The “lungs of the planet” are burning. As thousands of fiery infernos rage across the Amazon rainforest, tropical vegetation, trees, and the fauna they house are being razed. Since August 15, more than 9,500 new forest fires have started across Brazil, primarily in the Amazon basin. This year so far, scientists have recorded more than
From where we stand here on Earth, it’s easy to forget our planet is in constant motion. Most traditional time lapses of the Milky Way make it look as though the night sky is rotating around us – but it’s actually the other way around. A dazzling video from astro-photographer Aryeh Nirenberg corrects that perspective, making
You might have heard the maxim that with 10,000 hours of practice you can become an expert at anything. Well, according to a new study of 39 violinists, that might be too optimistic. You see, that 10,000-hour ‘rule’ was first proposed by another study of musicians – including violinists – back in 1993. It concluded
Popular video platform YouTube took down a number of combat robotics videos – robot vs. robot competitions popularised by the show BattleBots – on the grounds that they include “deliberate infliction of animal suffering or the forcing of animals to fight”, including “cock fighting”. A recent video by YouTube channel Maker’s Muse brought the strange phenomenon
How do you weigh a ghost? If you’re a cosmologist, you could use… the Universe. Combine vast cosmological data with info from particle accelerators, and, it turns out, you have a pretty good scale for measuring the mass of a neutrino – also known as the ‘ghost particle’. This is how a team of scientists,
A vibrant pinkish-coloured seaweed that grows in temperate tropical waters could end up being a huge aid in reducing greenhouse gases, if scientists in Australia have their way. Researchers are currently looking into ways to sustainably mass-produce the crimson-hued algae – called Asparagopsis taxiformis – after a study five years ago demonstrated it almost completely
NASA’s 10-year plan involves billions of dollars and spans millions of miles. And much like the universe, it’s only expanding. Last year, the agency announced that it’s planning to send astronauts back to the Moon and eventually build a base there, with a Mars-bound mission to follow in the years after that. In June, the
America under President Trump might not own Greenland (yet), but decisions made by his administration will help determine the ice-covered island’s long-term fate and ours. US emissions of greenhouse gases, as well as emissions from other countries, have tipped the balance to make Greenland a major contributor to global sea-level rise. It’s no secret that
High in the Himalayas of India, amid the snow-capped peaks, nestles a mystery. Roopkund Lake is a shallow body of water filled with human bones – the skeletons of hundreds of individuals. It’s these that give the lake its other name, Skeleton Lake, and no one knows how the remains came to be there. One
Scientists have discovered evidence of a massive distributed reservoir of methane formed by chemical reactions deep inside the ocean floor. Abiotic methane – created in reactions that don’t involve organic matter or living creatures – has long been known to exist buried in the seabed and released via deep-sea vents, but the origins of the
Vulnerable spadefoot tadpoles eat their smaller competitors to speed towards toadhood as quickly as possible. Gulls and pelicans are among bird species that eat hatchlings for food or to prevent the spread of disease. In insect species such as the praying mantis or the Australian redback spider, males offer their bodies as a final gift
Deep in western Russia, if you know where to look, you’ll find a small collection of ragged scrap metal and crumbled concrete. Which isn’t that exciting. But if you rifle through the rubble, you will find a large metal disc bolted to the ground. This isn’t just any old disc – it’s the welded-shut cap
India’s Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft is now in orbit around the Moon. That means it’s on schedule to touch down on the lunar surface on September 7, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). If the mission continues as planned, India will become the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the Moon, following Russia, the US, and China
When it comes to harnessing renewable wind energy, the European Union is not even close to reaching its full potential, according to a new study. If a wind turbine was placed on every suitable spot of land, research shows it could provide more than 100 times the wind energy currently produced on shore. Calculated at
The simulations have been run, and it’s official: even today, a nuclear war between the US and Russia would plunge the planet into a nuclear winter, with clouds of soot and smoke covering the planet. Globally, temperatures would plunge by around 9 Kelvin (9 degrees Celsius or 16 degrees Fahrenheit) on average, due to the
When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped foot on the Moon in 1969, they helped to cement the idea of a “moonshot” – a goal or achievement that challenges what we thought was possible. While few moonshots measure up to the Apollo program, many of the world’s greatest inventions were once thought of as similarly
It’s one of the deepest unknowns in geophysics: the hidden movements of Earth’s innermost core. While we think of the ground beneath our feet as terra firma, that reassuring rigidity only extends so far. Deep below the planet’s surface, Earth’s super-hot inner core sits within a molten liquid outer core, detached from the overlying mantle
The Universe is expanding, and that expansion is speeding up over time. These two facts have been well established through observation, but we don’t know what’s causing that expansion. It seems to be some mysterious, unknown energy that acts like the opposite of gravity. We call this hypothetical energy “dark energy“, and it’s been calculated
A dramatically changing climate is going to have a lot of negative side effects we didn’t predict, and scientists have just found a new one: really cranky spiders. A heating climate may or may not increase the frequency of tropical storms, but it probably will make them more intense. Scientists are also predicting an increase
Scientists in the US have flown directly through an exceedingly rare atmospheric phenomenon known as a ‘fire cloud’ – and they captured the unique, “otherworldly” moment on camera. Researchers with NASA and the NOAA were investigating smoke produced by the Williams Flats wildfire in Washington when they seized the opportunity to fly inside the rare
Death came swiftly for Aldo Machado’s honey bees. Less than 48 hours after the first Apis mellifera showed signs of sickness, tens of thousands lay dead, their bodies piled in mounds. “As soon as the healthy bees began clearing the dying bees out of the hives, they became contaminated,” said Machado, vice president of Brazil’s Rio
In 1901, a geological map of Iceland’s Central Highlands depicted the Okjökull glacier as a large swathe of ice spanning 38 square kilometres. By 1945 it had shrunk to just 5 square kilometres. Not long after 2005, it was all but gone. In 2014, Okjökull lost its glacier status; now, it’s just a shield volcano
Scientists may have been looking for extraterrestrial life in all the wrong places. Astronomers may have just ruled out life on an entire class of exoplanets. The research, published Monday in the journal Nature, looked specifically at the exoplanet LHS 3844b – a small, rocky planet orbiting a star similar to our Sun. The study
Researchers have developed an electronics heat shield just 10 atoms thick, a shield that has the potential to make our gadgets both safer to use and more compact in the future. Heat and electronics don’t mix well, which is why you might find your laptop shutting down in protest if you use it in the
Plastic pollution has reached the Antarctic wilderness. It’s at Earth’s highest peak, and its deepest chasm. And yet, the extent of this insidious plague can still take us by surprise. According to new research, plastic has now turned up camouflaged as ordinary pebbles. These small chunks of plastic – called pyroplastics – are created when
Between its raging heat and intense gravity, the region really close to the Sun is a pretty hazardous place. And that has been spectacularly demonstrated in a new video of a comet, like the legendary Icarus, falling to its doom when it veered a little too close. The comet’s death dive was captured by the
Early Earth grew up in a chaotic time. As our planet tried to find its place in a relatively young Solar System about 4.5 billion years ago, it was under constant attack from waves of comets, whizzing asteroids, and even some failed proto-planets. The Late Heavy Bombardment period was the absolute zenith of all this
Our galaxy could be littered with warm, watery planets like Earth. That’s the conclusion of researchers at Penn State University, who used data from NASA’s Kepler telescope to estimate the number of Earth-like planets in the Milky Way. Their results, published in The Astronomical Journal this week, suggest that an Earth-like planet orbits one in
The eerie, hellish glow coming from the Moon may seem unreal in this image, since it’s invisible to our eyes. But instruments that detect gamma rays tell us it’s real. More than just a grainy, red picture, it’s a vivid reminder that there’s more going on than meets human eyes. It’s also a reminder that
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, still wants to drop nuclear bombs on Mars to transform it into a livable planet for humans — as evidenced by his latest tweet on Friday morning. Nuke Mars! — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 16, 2019 Musk believes that by hitting Mars with nuclear weapons, the planet’s polar
People around the world may be worried about nuclear tensions rising, but I think they’re missing the fact that a major cyberattack could be just as damaging – and hackers are already laying the groundwork. With the US and Russia pulling out of a key nuclear weapons pact – and beginning to develop new nuclear
The self-declared daredevil and Flat Earther “Mad” Mike Hughes is preparing for another launch in his homemade, steam-powered rocket in the Californian desert. His final goal is to reach the edge of space, but how likely is he to succeed and see that the Earth is actually spherical? Hughes’ first rocket launch was in 2014,
For quantum computing to become fully realised, we’re going to have to make a few huge scientific leaps along the way – including finding a superconductor that can act in the same way as silicon does in today’s computing. A team of researchers thinks that search might now be over. Introducing the compound uranium ditelluride
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