On Thursday, NASA released a stunning photo of a sea of dunes on Mars. It also shows wind-sculpted lines surrounding Mars’ frosty northern polar cap. The section captured in the shot represents an area that is 31 kilometers (19 miles) wide, NASA said. The sea of dunes, however, actually covers an area as large as Texas. The
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This may come as a bit of a shocker, but technically speaking, not all water on Earth is made up of H2O molecules. Less than a century ago, the discovery of the hydrogen isotope deuterium – 2H, but often simplified to D – revealed the existence of another kind of water with the chemical formula 2H2O or
A confluence of warm water is threatening to topple the very pillars that keep the ‘Doomsday Glacier’ afloat. The first measurements ever performed below the icy tongue of Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier have now revealed a previously underestimated flow of warm water from the east. This inflow of heat is mixing with other waters below the
We encounter artificial intelligence (AI) every day. AI describes computer systems that are able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence. When you search something on the internet, the top results you see are decided by AI. Any recommendations you get from your favorite shopping or streaming websites will also be based on an AI algorithm.
Nearly 4 in 5 dog owners report instances of jealousy from their pooches, and new research suggests those behaviors can be triggered even if a supposed rival for affection and attention is out of sight. In other words, dogs appear to have the mental capacity to imagine a situation that would make them feel jealous,
NASA has delayed the first flight of its Ingenuity Mars helicopter after a crucial test-spin of the drone’s rotor blades abruptly stopped. This was the last major test to make sure the helicopter would be ready for its first flight, which was originally scheduled for early Monday. Now NASA has delayed the historic liftoff —
Trees are the Earth’s lungs – it’s well understood they drawdown and lock up vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But emerging research is showing trees can also emit methane, and it’s currently unknown just how much. This could be a major problem, given methane is a greenhouse gas about 45 times more
It’s easy to focus on all the negatives amid a traumatic global pandemic, but there are some positives, too. A new online survey has found the psychological outcomes of New Zealand’s super strict lockdown were not all bad. The study mirrors other mental health studies on COVID-19 in New Zealand, which had one of the
Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are basically everywhere, powering everything from smartphones to notebooks, earbuds to gaming devices, and so much more. But while the convenience of this ubiquitous (and Nobel Prize-winning) battery chemistry has radically changed the way we use and charge portable technology, lithium-ion is far from perfect. The performance of lithium-ion batteries degrades over
The tropical water at the equator is renowned for having the richest diversity of marine life on Earth, with vibrant coral reefs and large aggregations of tunas, sea turtles, manta rays, and whale sharks. The number of marine species naturally tapers off as you head towards the poles. Ecologists have assumed this global pattern has
Archaeologists have found a “Lost Golden City” that’s been buried under the ancient Egyptian capital of Luxor for the past 3,000 years, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced Thursday (April 8). The city, historically known as “The Rise of Aten,” was founded by Amenhotep III (ruled 1391-1353 BCE), the grandfather of Tutankhamun, or King Tut. People
Whiskers on cats and other mammals aren’t covered with sensors. Instead, the sensing is done at the base of the whisker, hidden inside a small follicle, and scientists just discovered a lot more about how this biological transmission works. Getting into the follicle to take a look at the base of whiskers would interfere with
Astrophysicists have found a new region of the Milky Way, and it’s filled with searingly hot, bright-blue stars that are about to explode. The researchers were creating the most detailed map yet of the star-flecked spiral arms of our galactic neighborhood with the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Gaia telescope when they discovered the region, which
Have you ever noticed how we usually try and solve problems by adding more, rather than taking away? More meetings, more forms, more buttons, more shelves, more systems, more code, and so on. Now scientists think they might know the reason why. A study of 1,585 people across 8 different experiments showed that our brains
A bacterium that dwells deep underground, living off chemical reactions triggered by radioactive decay, has been doing so unchanged for millions of years, new research has found. A genetic analysis of microbes of the species Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator (CDA) collected from three different continents has revealed that the bacterium has barely evolved since they were last
Some of the oldest human art in Europe is entirely hidden from sight, tucked away in the narrow crawl spaces of deep, dark, and winding caves. To even see the walls, let alone decorate them, stone age artists would have needed to crawl around with several torches, and archaeologists now suspect all that smoke induced
We’ve known for a while that Earth is under a constant rain of space dust, and that it’s copious. Given its microscopic size, however, it’s been very hard to obtain an accurate estimate of the quantity. Such micrometeorites are no bigger than a fraction of a millimeter, shed like space dander from passing comets and asteroids.
If you’ve ever gotten your phone wet in the rain, dropped it in water or spilt liquid over it, you’re not alone. One study suggests 25 percent of smartphone users have damaged their smartphone with water or some other kind of liquid. Liquid penetrating a smartphone can affect the device in several ways. It could
Earth’s transition to permanently hosting an oxygenated atmosphere was a halting process that took 100 million years longer than previously believed, according to a new study. When Earth first formed 4.5 billion years ago, the atmosphere contained almost no oxygen. But 2.43 billion years ago, something happened: Oxygen levels started rising, then falling, accompanied by massive
Modern brains are younger than originally thought, possibly developing as recently as 1.5 million years ago, according to a study published Thursday – after the earliest humans had already begun walking on two feet and had even started fanning out from Africa. Our first ancestors from the genus Homo emerged on the continent about 2.5
Scientists have isolated and harnessed that rarest of things – an organic blue food coloring found in nature – and figured out a way to produce it at scale. The discovery, made by an international team of scientists working across different fields, means that for the first time blue and other-colored foods may not have
Radio pulsars could be spitting way more powerful bursts of radiation into space than we knew. According to a new survey of the Crab pulsar some 6,500 light-years away, a type of event known as “giant radio pulses” are accompanied by an increase in X-ray emission. This means that these events are much more energetic
Bishop of Lund Peder Pedersen Winstrup, of the Churches of Sweden and Denmark, died in 1679. An important and well-respected man, his body was mummified and laid to rest in a family vault in Lund Cathedral. Apart from the exceptional preservation of his remains, nothing seemed unusual about his death or burial. In 2012, when
Even after a year of coronavirus lockdowns and shutdowns, global emissions of greenhouse gases are still increasing at an unrelenting rate. Today, according to initial measurements from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), global levels of carbon dioxide emissions are higher than they have been at any given time in the past 3.6 million years.
Genetic sequencing of human remains dating back 45,000 years has revealed a previously unknown migration into Europe and showed intermixing with Neanderthals in that period was more common than previously thought. The research is based on analysis of several ancient human remains – including a whole tooth and bone fragments – found in a cave
The results from one of the most hotly-anticipated experiments in particle physics are in, and they could be about to fulfill every researcher’s wildest dreams: They maybe, perhaps, could break physics as we know it. Evidence taken from the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago appears to point to a minuscule subatomic particle known as the muon wobbling far
The markings are unfamiliar: carved contours that now only hint at a lost landscape from long ago. Nonetheless, a large, mysterious slab of stone recently rediscovered in France looks like it might just be the oldest known map in Europe. In a new study, researchers re-examined the Saint-Bélec slab – an intricately carved, partly broken
Trekking out to my research sites near North Carolina’s Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, I slog through knee-deep water on a section of trail that is completely submerged. Permanent flooding has become commonplace on this low-lying peninsula, nestled behind North Carolina’s Outer Banks. The trees growing in the water are small and stunted. Many are
Paleolithic cuisine was anything but lean and green, according to a recent study on the diets of our Pleistocene ancestors. For a good 2 million years, Homo sapiens ditched the salad and dined heavily on meat, putting them at the top of the food chain. It’s not quite the balanced diet of berries, grains, and
Perseverance hasn’t even been on Mars for two months, and already the latest in red planet rovers is picking up some of Curiosity’s excellent habits. No, not science; well, at least not just science. Percy is proving just as adept as her predecessor at snapping brilliant selfies, as the most recently sent images show. As
A cosmic gamma ray detected zipping across the Milky Way has broken the record for the most energetic we’ve found yet, clocking in at a whopping 957 trillion electronvolts (teraelectronvolts, or TeV). This not only more than doubles the previous record, it brings us close to the range of petaelectronvolts (that’s a quadrillion electronvolts) –
While some blue-green algae (or more accurately – cyanobacteria) are critical to us for their nitrogen-fixing abilities, others can also become dangerous pests of our own making. Climate change and agricultural run-off are causing a once normal environmental process to spiral out of control more often, and a new study has shown that a particularly dangerous toxin produced
China’s Mars probe, Tianwen-1, has been hanging around Mars in a parking orbit for nearly two whole months now, preparing for its rover landing in May. But it’s not just sitting there in orbit twiddling its antennae. The probe is surveying the planet, orbiting closer, checking out the mission’s chosen rover landing site – and
NASA’s InSight lander felt the distant rumble of two major ‘marsquakes’ in March, originating from a region near the Martian equator known as the Cerberus Fossae. Registering magnitudes of 3.1 and 3.3 on March 7 and March 18 respectively, the quakes cement the Cerberus Fossae’s reputation as one of the most geologically active places on
A possible second leak has been found in a Florida wastewater reservoir that risks flooding nearby communities with millions of gallons of contaminated water, authorities said Monday. “An infrared drone identified a signature that could indicate a second breach” at the Piney Point reservoir on Tampa Bay, said Jake Saur, public safety director in Manatee
The mesmerizing red algal species Phymatolithon calcareum clumps together to form habitats called maerl beds in coastal regions across the northeast Atlantic, but researchers have discovered a pocket of the algae near Cornwall in the UK that’s genetically distinct from the rest of the region. It’s been dubbed ‘falgae‘, likely because of its location in the
The EM Drive is a hypothetical rocket that proponents claim can generate thrust with no exhaust. This would violate all known physics. In 2016, a team at NASA’s Eagleworks lab claimed to measure thrust from an EM Drive device, the news of which caused quite a stir. The latest attempt to replicate the shocking results has
If star-hopping aliens ever visited our solar system, Saturn is probably the planet they’d remember. The seven giant rings circling its equator make Saturn the most distinct planet orbiting the Sun. It may not be obvious in images of the hula-hoop planet, but the ice and rock chunks that make up those rings are circling
A procession of floats carried the mummified remains of 22 pharaohs, including Egypt’s most powerful ancient queen, through Cairo Saturday evening, in an eye-catching parade to a new resting place. Under hefty security, the mummies were driven on floats seven kilometers (four miles) across the capital from the iconic Egyptian Museum to the new National
NASA’s Ingenuity mini-helicopter has been dropped on the surface of Mars in preparation for its first flight, the US space agency said. The ultra-light aircraft had been fixed to the belly of the Perseverance rover, which touched down on the Red Planet on February 18. “MarsHelicopter touchdown confirmed!” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory tweeted Saturday. “Its
Ever wondered if you can cook a chicken solely from the heat generated by slapping it? So did YouTuber Louis Weisz, and the verdict is… yes. Yes, you can. As you can see from the video embedded below, the endeavor took plenty of work – two months’ worth in total – from testing out the
It is no exaggeration to say that the study of extrasolar planets has exploded in recent decades. To date, 4,375 exoplanets have been confirmed in 3,247 systems, with another 5,856 candidates awaiting confirmation. In recent years, exoplanet studies have started to transition from the process of discovery to one of characterization. This process is expected to accelerate
Globally, only one in 50 new cars were fully electric in 2020, and one in 14 in the UK. Sounds impressive, but even if all new cars were electric now, it would still take 15-20 years to replace the world’s fossil fuel car fleet. The emission savings from replacing all those internal combustion engines with
Nobody ever said parenting was easy, but depending on circumstances, some people can find it much harder than others. In recent years researchers have begun to recognize ‘parental burnout‘ – a condition in which exhausted parents become overwhelmed by their role as primary carers, potentially leading to emotional distance from their children, parental ineffectiveness, neglect,
Life was trying, but it wasn’t working out. As the Late Devonian period dragged on, more and more living things died out, culminating in one of the greatest mass extinction events our planet has ever witnessed, approximately 359 million years ago. The culprit responsible for so much death may not have been local, scientists say.
Diamonds that formed hundreds of kilometers deep below Earth’s surface contain traces of chemical reactions that took place on the bottom of the ocean. Given that the bottom of the ocean is just 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) down at its deepest point, this may seem rather odd – but those diamonds are a really valuable
It was August 13, 1945, and the ‘demon core’ was poised, waiting to be unleashed onto a stunned Japan still reeling in fresh chaos from the deadliest attacks anyone had ever seen. A week earlier, ‘Little Boy’ had detonated over Hiroshima, followed swiftly by ‘Fat Man’ in Nagasaki. These were the first and only nuclear
Several years ago, divers exploring the western coast of Norway encountered an object they couldn’t explain: An enormous, jelly-like orb, more than 3 feet (1 meter) wide, was hovering in place partway between the seafloor and the surface. A dark streak cut through the center of the orb, but the object was otherwise translucent and totally