For the better part of a century, the world’s greatest minds have struggled with the mathematical certainty that objects can be in multiple positions at the same time before something causes them to snap into place. A number of physicists have wondered if good old gravity is responsible for forcing the particle equivalent of a
Month: September 2020
There are competing hypotheses around the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization in South Asia some 3,000 years ago, but a new mathematical proof has identified that climate change could have been responsible. Mathematical scientist Nishant Malik from the Rochester Institute of Technology crunched the numbers and found new evidence to back up the idea
Jupiter’s moons are hotter than they really should be, some 778 million kilometres (483 million miles) away from the Sun. It had been thought that most of this extra warmth was provided by Jupiter itself, but now there’s a new hypothesis: they’re heating each other. Jupiter isn’t acting as a roaring campfire for its surrounding
Picking the kids up from school takes on a different meaning for crocodylian parents. In this photo, taken by India-based photographer Dhritiman Mukherjee, a male freshwater gharial shows us why. Bobbing in the waters of northern India’s National Chambal Sanctuary, the croc waits as more than 100 of his month-old children clamber onto his back for safe
In the salt water marshes of southern California, a splashing killifish is easy prey for a hungry shorebird. Like a jerking marionette, the helpless creature shimmies and flashes on the surface of the water. And all the while, hiding deep in its brain, an invisible other quietly pulls the strings. The puppeteer in question is
According to ancient legend, a beautiful maiden named Ashima drowned in a river, and turned into stone. This, it has been said for centuries, is how China’s stunning Stone Forest of Shilin first took shape. According to new research, however, there’s another explanation for the phenomenon that gives stone forests their surreal and otherworldly forms,
NASA on Thursday announced it was in the market for Moon rocks, and wants to pay companies to scoop out the dirt, take a photo, and then have it ready for collection by a future mission. The contract doesn’t actually involve getting to the Moon itself – a feat only achieved by the national space
It would be extremely optimistic to suggest that we have a good handle on dark matter. But even the slight grasp we do have may be missing something important. New observations from the Hubble Space Telescope have found much higher concentrations of dark matter than expected in some galaxies, by over an order of magnitude.
Often it’s the most minute scientific measurements that are the most important, and researchers have developed a new, super-small device that’s capable of detecting magnetic fields even when they’re extremely faint. The device, a new kind of superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID), is just 10 nanometres high, or around a thousandth of the thickness of a human
Jupiter, thick with chaotic clouds and raging with wild winds, is famous and beloved for its gloriously stormy atmosphere. Ever since the Juno space probe arrived there in 2016, we’ve had unprecedented access that’s been helping us understand what drives the gas giant’s insane weather. But Juno has delivered not just answers, but also more questions.
Sixty-six million years ago, after a massive asteroid hit Earth with the explosive energy of roughly 1 billion nuclear bombs, a shroud of ash, dust and vaporized rock covered the sky and slowly rained down on the planet. As plant and animal species died en masse, tiny undersea amoebas called forams continued to reproduce, building sturdy shells out of
Like Jörmungandr encircling Earth, so too is the entire galaxy ringed. A huge, high-velocity stream of gas is wrapped most of the way around the Milky Way, at a distance of around 200,000 light-years. We know where it comes from, more or less. It’s been linked pretty conclusively with the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds,
Our cells still hold tightly onto many secrets about their origins. But recently discovered giant viruses may hold clues to one such secret – the mysterious emergence of a cell’s main store of instructions, the nucleus. The presence of a nucleus distinguishes our eukaryotic cells from other cellular life forms. Bacteria and archaea tend to
For tens of thousands of years, a Neanderthal molar rested in a shallow grave on the floor of the Stajnia Cave in what is now Poland. For all that time, viable mitochondrial DNA remained locked inside – and now, finally, scientists are discovering its secrets. Labelled Stajnia S5000, the tooth belonged to a Neanderthal who
Global animal, bird and fish populations have plummeted more than two-thirds in less than 50 years due to rampant over-consumption, experts said Thursday in a stark warning to save nature in order to save ourselves. Human activity has severely degraded three quarters of all land and 40 percent of Earth’s oceans, and our quickening destruction
San Francisco residents awoke on Wednesday to discover a glowing orange sky. Smoke from wildfires has been covering San Francisco for weeks, but the layer that blew in on Wednesday morning was much thicker. And as the day wore on, the sky took on a darker hue of orange, making life in the city at
New research shows that around a fifth of all carbon emissions in recent years has come from the assets and suppliers of multinational corporations – and the flow of money indicates that pollution is effectively being outsourced from the developed to the developing world. The team behind the study wants to highlight how much of
Last year, the astronomical community achieved an absolute wonder. For the very first time, the world collectively laid eyes on an actual image of the shadow of a black hole. It was the culmination of years of work, a magnificent achievement in both human collaboration and technical ingenuity. And, like the best scientific breakthroughs, it
Archaeologists in hard hats and face masks carefully remove earth from around enormous bones at the site of Mexico City’s new airport, where construction work has uncovered a huge trove of mammoth skeletons. The remains of dozens of the extinct giants and other prehistoric creatures have been found in Zumpango on the northern edge of
Microgravity is pretty rough on us ground-dwellers – with bodies no longer constantly acting against gravity, muscle mass and bone density withers away. Even with two hours of exercise daily, it can take months for astronauts to recover their muscle density after a six-month stint on the International Space Station. Bone density can take years
The Nancy Roman Telescope has reached another milestone in its development. NASA has announced that the space telescope’s primary mirror is now complete. The 2.4 meter (7.9 foot) mirror took less time to develop than other mirrors because it wasn’t built from scratch. It’s a re-shaped and re-surfaced mirror that came from the National Reconnaissance Office.
Trees that grow quickly die younger, risking a release of carbon dioxide that challenges forecasts that forests will continue to be a “sink” for planet-warming emissions, scientists said Tuesday. Tree cover absorbs a significant proportion of carbon dioxide emitted by burning fossil fuels and plays a crucial role in projections for our ability to wrestle
In a comprehensive search of a patch of the Southern sky, not even a hint of alien technology has been detected at low radio frequencies. Across at least 10 million stars that populate the Vela region – the deepest and widest survey for extraterrestrial intelligence yet – the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) in Australia found
Living at higher altitudes in the US may shape your psychology in strange ways, a new study reveals, showing a distinct link between living in elevated, mountainous regions and certain personality traits. Not only that, but the kinds of traits mountain-dwellers demonstrate are quite specific, researchers say, rooted in the pioneer history of the Old
An unusual cache of at least 13 wooden coffins dating back to 2,500 years ago has been discovered in the desert necropolis of Saqqara in Egypt. What makes these coffins so special among the thousands interred in the tomb complex is the fact they have remained intact for millennia, and are still completely sealed –
“Zombie” wildfires that were smoldering beneath the Arctic ice all winter suddenly flared to life this summer when the snow and ice above it melted, new monitoring data reveal. And this year has been the worst for Arctic wildfires on record, since reliable monitoring began 17 years ago. Arctic fires this summer released as much carbon in the first
A growing body of drug research has shown that experiences with psychedelic drugs can be both positive and negative – scary and uncomfortable for some, but leading to improvements in well-being and relationships for others. These substances also show promising early results for treating mental disorders, in controlled doses. So why the disparity between the
To the innocent eyes of animals, the appearance of humans on the horizon represents more of an existential threat than the vast environmental upheaval of previous climate change up until now, new research suggests. According to a new study, mammal extinctions tracing back as far as 126,000 years ago have had more to do with
The moons of Mars are not quite like our Earth’s Moon. Phobos, the larger of the two, is much closer to its planet; compared to the Moon’s 27-day orbit, Phobos swings around Mars in line with the planet’s equator thrice every Martian day (sol). Solar eclipses, therefore, are much more frequent than those here on
It often seems impossible to know what’s going on in Fido’s head as he lounges on his dog bed. But a handful of new studies offer surprising insights about how our canine companions age, perceive human speech, and find their way home. A study published last month showed that dogs understand verbal communication just like we
A little baby horse named Kurt is a symbol of renewed hope for the survival of his kind. Born on 6 August 2020, he is the world’s first ever successfully cloned Przewalski’s horse, an endangered wild horse native to the steppes of central Asia. What makes Kurt even more exciting is that he was cloned
The Chinese government has announced a first – they have successfully landed a reusable spacecraft safely back on Earth after it spent two days in orbit. The spacecraft – called Chongfu Shiyong Shiyan Hangtian Qi (CSSHQ) – was launched September 4 on a Long March-2F carrier from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China. It
How do you study something invisible? This is a challenge that faces astronomers who study dark matter. Although dark matter comprises 85 percent of all matter in the Universe, it doesn’t interact with light. It can only be seen through the gravitational influence it has on light and other matter. To make matters worse, efforts
Two hundred ancient mammoth skeletons have been discovered beneath an airport construction site north of Mexico City – the largest collection of mammoth bones ever found. Archaeologists at Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History first realised the area might hide mammoth remains after they found two human-dug mammoth traps in November as part of
If you’re a Star Trek fan, you may think the above image portrays the “Nexus” from the movie Star Trek: Generations. In the film, the Nexus was a ribbon-like extra-dimensional realm that exists outside of normal space-time. But this is actually a real image from the venerable Hubble Space Telescope, of the Cygnus Loop. This stunning picture from
All around the world, people honour their dead in myriad ways. In Vietnam, families burn cash, clothes, shoes, even luxury items, all made from paper to bid their loved ones well in the afterlife. In India, mourners carry bodies wrapped in coloured cloths to the banks of the River Ganges where they are cremated on
Our natural inclination to help others in need runs extremely deep within our mammalian heritage – there’s many examples of altruism in primates and it’s even been demonstrated in mice. This generosity, prevalent across human cultures, has psychological and health benefits for us all as individuals. Now researchers have also found evidence that generosity helps people in societies live
Imagine you could throw the perfect bullseye, but you’d have to wear glasses to do it. That’s a trade-off some space travellers may unwittingly make when they venture off the planet. A study published Friday examined the brains of eight male Russian cosmonauts roughly seven months after they returned from lengthy missions to the International
Hearing loss in humans can make life challenging in our hustle-bustle landscape. But when your world is literally as silent as a grave, being hard of hearing just might be something of a superpower. For naked mole rats and their cousins, the loss of genes that would usually amplify noises is another extraordinary adaptation in
Humans wouldn’t survive two minutes in space, but in 2007, two species of tardigrades were released into space and then collected again – still alive. Tardigrades are a group of tiny invertebrate species that live all over the world – you can probably find one yourself on a piece of moss in your back garden
Scientists have unveiled a new printing process that can turn just about any piece of paper or cardboard into a waterproof keyboard that you can fold up and put in your pocket – and it doesn’t require a power source. The tech makes use of a special coating that’s repellent to liquids and dust, which allows
The laws that govern the use of tear gas are downright illogical, argue human rights advocates. The very same “riot control agents” recently deployed against citizens in Hong Kong, the United States, Chile, Turkey, Nepal, Greece, France, India, Lebanon and South Africa (not to mention many more) have been banned from international warfare under the
SpaceX says early tests of its rapidly growing fleet of internet-providing satellites are yielding promising results. Internal tests of a beta version of internet service from the company’s Starlink project show “super low latency and download speeds greater than 100” megabits per second, Kate Tice, a SpaceX senior certification engineer, said during a live broadcast
You’d think a plant scientist would feel at home on a farm, but Neil Stewart was used to working with potatoes, not human cadavers. Fascinated by environmental contaminants, Stewart was on tour at the University of Tennessee’s ‘body farm’ – more formally known as the Anthropology Research Facility – where forensic anthropologists study the effects
Modern-day drone sensors can sometimes detect what’s invisible to the human eye, such as the remains of a historical city called Etzanoa or the ‘Great Settlement’ in the fields of Wichita, Kansas – remains that have been buried for hundreds of years. Researchers think they’ve found what’s known as a ‘council circle’ monument in Etzanoa, and while
One of the most powerful solar observatories in the world has just completed a major upgrade. And now, the GREGOR solar telescope in Spain has taken some of the most high-resolution images of our Sun ever obtained in Europe. In the upgraded telescope’s new images, details as small as 50 kilometres (31 miles) across can
A shark with teeth as big as your hand has to be huge. But when teeth are all you have to go on, you’ll need to think outside the box to work out what the rest of the long-extinct monster looked like. It turns out the pelagic terror referred to as Megalodon might have looked
A cloud of dust and gas swirling around an infant star system 1,300 light-years away is like no planet-forming disc we’ve seen yet. It consists of three rings, wrapped around three stars – and all three rings have different orientations, with the innermost wildly misaligned from the other two. It’s the first direct evidence that