Humanity only just arrived on Earth. But its future is in the cosmos.
Thirteen point eight billion years after its birth, our universe has awoken and become aware of itself. From a small blue planet, tiny conscious parts of our universe have begun gazing out into the cosmos with telescopes, repeatedly discovering that everything they thought existed is merely a small part of something grander: a solar system, a galaxy and a universe with over a hundred billion other galaxies arranged into a ...read more
It sounds crazy. In recent years, scientists have confirmed a remarkable link between two kinds of objects that should, by all rights, have nothing to do with each other: black holes and strange metals. The former are the famous guzzlers of deep space, able to swallow anything — including stars, planets and even light itself — that gets too close. The latter are closer at hand, though less familiar: the stuff left behind when so-called high-temperature superconductors, materials with ...read more
1. For centuries, academics thought colored light was modified white, or “pure,” light. (We’ll get back to how wrong they were in a bit.)
2. And color sometimes is a modifier. For example, coloring foods goes back at least 3,500 years, when ancient Egyptians added wine and other colorants to candy to increase its visual appeal.
3. The history of coloring food is stained with nefarious deeds. Toxic lead- and mercury-based compounds were once pervasive in Asia and Europe to add c ...read more
An adult female Lord Howe Island insect. (Credit: Rohan Cleave, Melbourne Zoo)
Lord Howe Island stick insects are back for good. Nearly a century ago, they were exiled from their homeland by invasive rats and thought extinct, only to be rediscovered in 2001, confined to a lonely rock spire in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The insects looked different though. They were skinnier and had lost some of their spines, raising questions about their origins.
Now, a new genetic analysis confirms that ...read more
(Credit: Shutterstock)
Paying a higher price for something is typically associated with positive benefits. When you shell out more for a thing, you feel it’s faster, stronger, softer or cleaner. You know that premium you paid was worth it.
But when it comes to medication, the association between high price and added benefits is sort of flipped on its head: A medication perceived to be expensive was associated with more negative side effects. That, at least, is a key finding in a new stud ...read more
A view of the crater at Agung on September 27, 2017. The increased steam and gas emissions can be seen on the right side of the crater. The dark scar on the slopes of the volcano come from a forest fire earlier in the month. Image by Planet Labs.
We have likely entered the most dangerous period in the waiting game at Agung in Indonesia. It has been over 2 weeks since the volcano began to show signs of unrest and it has done very little other than shake and produce a small steam-and-gas plume. Up ...read more
Researchers have created the world’s most accurate clock by combining strontium atoms, a “quantum gas,” and various lasers. (Credit: G.E. Marti/JILA)
Time, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, is a fundamental part of the universe. Albert Einstein showed us it was inextricably linked to the “stuff” of the universe, so the better we can understand and measure it, the better we can study everything else. So how do you study time?
With better clocks! And re ...read more
(Credit: Simon Rowell Photography)
The bee population has it rough right now, and neonicotinoids are partially to blame. According to research, this class of insecticide is contributing to the population decline of bees, and even showing up in honey.
These pest control chemicals, which are chemically similar to nicotine, can cause growth disorders, neurological and cognitive disorders, impact the efficiency of the immune system, and more in bees — even at low concentrations. On top ...read more
Tiffany Poon dives with sharks. In fact, it’s one the biggest highlights of her diving year.
“As soon as the first one appears, usually in spring, I’ll be at La Jolla Cove spending as much time as possible with them,” Poon says. “Sometimes they’re shy and keep their distance, but often they’ll come by close enough for a nice photograph, and every now and then come in close to eyeball me with my strange camera.”
Poon is a citizen scientist for ...read more
A 3-D image of Mars’ massive volcano, Olympus Mons, which is the largest in the solar system. (Credit: NASA)
For millions of years, a group of tiny asteroids circled our solar system. Then, around 9 a.m. on June 28, 1911, one blazed into earthly skies near a village outside Cairo, Egypt. Locals watched the fireball, and they heard its explosion. A farmer even claimed a dog was killed by one meteorite fragment, making it—if true—the only known modern space rock casualty. Let&r ...read more
