What’s so bad about wetlands? These mucky, sometimes mosquito-ridden landscapes have a bad reputation, but they offer benefits to their neighborhoods too. Researchers say “accidental” wetlands—pockets of cities that have turned into swamps through flooding and neglect—might be a valuable resource to both the environment and the humans around them.
It’s hard to guess exactly how many accidental wetlands there are, say Monica Palta of Arizona State University an ...read more
(Credit: Kai Gradert/Unsplash)
Recent weather conditions in Europe have been a boon to the renewable energy grid there, pushing prices briefly negative overnight as high winds forced turbines into overdrive.
Energy prices in the U.K. dipped into the negatives for five hours on June 7, according to Argus, an industry analytics firm, and Danish wind farms supplied more than 100 percent of the country’s needs, both situations indicating a need for utility companies to sell off excess p ...read more
You probably haven’t eaten this fruit before, but you may have one of its ancestors in your house right now. (Credit: petrOlly/Flickr)
In the wilds of Kazakhstan, there’s an unassuming tree that bears an unassuming fruit. Like many plant species, development encroaches on its usual territory while climate change makes it harder for the tree to thrive and bear healthy yields of fruit.
You probably haven’t eaten this fruit before, but you may have one of its ancestors in your h ...read more
Ohio State University’s Big Ear Observatory caught one of the most promising SETI signals ever back in 1977. Astronomers are still debating if it came from aliens, or something closer to home. (Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF)
In 1977, Ohio State University math professor Jerry Ehman walked into the Big Ear Observatory and looked over the past few nights’ observations. At the time, the radio telescope was the only observatory exclusively devoted to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence ...read more
The white dwarf Stein 2051 B, and the background star, visible as a small dot, that allowed its mass to be measured. (Credit: NASA, ESA, and K. Sahu (STScI))
For the first time, astronomers have measured the mass of a star by observing the way its mass deforms light passing by it.
It’s an observation that Einstein predicted but thought could never actually happen, due to the incredibly precise alignment between distant astronomical objects it entails. But using modern observing tools, re ...read more
One of the earliest known members of Homo sapiens was this guy. The composite image, based on micro-CT scans of fossils from a site in Morocco, shows that the modern human face had already evolved by 300,000 years ago, smashing conventional thinking about our evolutionary timeframe. (Credit PhilippGunz, MPI EVA Leipzig)
For decades, based on both the fossil record and, more recently, paleogenomic modeling, researchers have generally put the start date for Homo sapiens around 200,000 years ...read more
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope assembled a comprehensive view of the evolving universe. (Credit: NASA/ESA)
For many, science is nothing more than that class you were required to take in school. However, whether you realize it or not, science is all around us, and it impacts every aspect of our lives. And, the stories behind key scientific discoveries, though not commonly known, are truly inspiring.
So, if you want a quick refresher on how the universe works, focus on these four f ...read more
Feathered tyrannosaurs? No, thank you. These dinosaurs didn’t need no stinkin’ feathers, and a new study backs me up on that. (Credit David Monniaux/Wikimedia Commons)
It’s a good day here at Dead Things: A new study provides a nice big nail in the coffin of the notion that T. rex and its kin ran around all kitted out in feathers. Lovers of old-school, scaly dinosaur renderings, rejoice!
Maybe I’m showing my age, but when I was learning about dinosaurs they were ta ...read more
Cook Pines line a walkway in Sri Lanka (Credit: eFesenko/Shutterstock)
In a world of upright trees, one species dares to be different.
Cook pines, a type of tall, slim evergreen native to a remote island in the South Pacific, at first glance appear to be falling over. Many tilt precariously to the side as if caught in a heavy wind, though no breeze ruffles their foliage. Though it may seem the result of chance, observe a stand of Cook pines, especially in locations far from their native habita ...read more
