Uncategorized
- Space
50 years ago, NASA’s space shuttle program got the green light
For over 30 years, space shuttles helped revolutionize science. Now, NASA is tackling new frontiers with help from commercial spaceflight companies.
- Astronomy
An early outburst portends a star’s imminent death
An eruption before a stellar explosion was the first early warning sign for a standard type of supernova.
- Quantum Physics
Quantum particles can feel the influence of gravitational fields they never touch
A quantum phenomenon predicted in 1959, the Aharonov-Bohm effect, also applies to gravity.
- Planetary Science
Organic molecules in an ancient Mars meteorite formed via geology, not alien life
Analysis of an ancient Martian meteorite reveals that organic molecules within it were formed by geologic processes rather than alien life.
By Nikk Ogasa - Astronomy
Astronomers identified a second possible exomoon
Kepler 1708 b i, a newly discovered candidate for an exoplanet moon, has a radius about 2.6 times that of Earth, a new study suggests.
By Sid Perkins - Animals
The largest group of nesting fish ever found lives beneath Antarctic ice
Researchers stumbled upon a fish breeding colony of unprecedented size, spanning a territory slightly larger than Baltimore.
By Jake Buehler - Anthropology
Homo sapiens bones in East Africa are at least 36,000 years older than once thought
Analyses of remnants of a volcanic blast push the age of East Africa’s oldest known H. sapiens fossils at Ethiopia’s Omo site to 233,000 years or more.
By Bruce Bower - Quantum Physics
A century of quantum mechanics questions the fundamental nature of reality
A century after the quantum revolution, a lot of uncertainty remains.
- Health & Medicine
Omicron forces us to rethink COVID-19 testing and treatments
At-home rapid tests may miss the speedy variant early on, and some treatments, such as some monoclonal antibodies, no longer work.
By Tina Hesman Saey and Laura Sanders - Climate
Climate change communication should focus less on specific numbers
Even if nations don’t meet goals to curb global climate change, any progress is better than none.
- Archaeology
Clovis hunters’ reputation as mammoth killers takes a hit
Early Americans’ stone points were best suited to butchering the huge beasts’ carcasses, scientists contend.
By Bruce Bower - Animals
Female dolphins have a clitoris much like humans’
The similarities suggest female dolphins experience sexual pleasure, which may explain why the species is so randy all the time.