All Stories by Maria Temming
- Earth
To understand how ‘night-shining’ clouds form, scientists made one themselves
A rocket, a bathtub’s worth of water and a high-altitude explosion reveal how water vapor cools the air to form shiny ice-crystal clouds.
- Tech
A new laser-based random number generator is the fastest of its kind
A new laser’s chaotic light beam lets the device generate multiple number sequences at once, similar to throwing multiple dice at a time.
- Astronomy
The first black hole ever discovered is more massive than previously thought
New observations of Cygnus X-1 are leading astronomers to rethink what they know about stars that turn into black holes.
- Physics
50 years ago, scientists were on a quest for quarks
In the 1970s, physicists confirmed particles called quarks existed. Fifty years later, many kinds of quarks in many combinations have been discovered.
- Science & Society
Black, Hispanic and female police use force less often than white male officers
A case study of Chicago policing suggests that diversifying to include more Black, Hispanic and female officers may improve how civilians are treated.
- Earth
A drop in CFC emissions puts the hole in the ozone layer back on track to closing
After a recent bump in illicit CFC-11 pollution, emissions of the ozone-destroying chemical are back down to pre-2013 levels.
- Earth
The birth of a lightning bolt was caught on video
High-speed imagery shows the formation of an electrical connection between opposing currents, offering new insight into how these flashes form.
- Earth
An upwelling of rock beneath the Atlantic may drive continents apart
Rock rising from more than 600 kilometers deep at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge may play a more active role in plate tectonics than thought.
- Archaeology
An ancient Egyptian mummy was wrapped in an unusual mud shell
Commoners in ancient Egypt may have used mud in place of expensive resin to imitate royal mummification techniques.
- Chemistry
Chemists are reimagining recycling to keep plastics out of landfills
Recycling plastics is really hard, and usually creates low-quality materials that aren’t good for much. Chemists are trying to change that.
- Earth
Space station detectors found the source of weird ‘blue jet’ lightning
The origins of an enigmatic type of lightning in the upper atmosphere has been traced to a 10-microsecond flash of bright blue light.
- Space
The most ancient supermassive black hole is bafflingly big
The farthest known quasar challenges ideas about how the first supermassive black holes in the universe formed.
