A new study finds that an imbalance between one’s circadian rhythm and eating and sleeping habits may contribute to weight gain. (Credit: Pakula Piotr/Shutterstock) Our weight might not be controlled solely by what we eat. When we eat, and when we get to sleep, may be just as important. A small study published this week in Current Biology found people who had been thrown off their circadian rhythms burn more calories in the late afternoon and evening hours than in the morning, ...read more

Solar flares captured on sun. (Credit: NASA/SDO) On Aug. 4, 1972, the crew of a U.S. Task Force 77 aircraft flying near a naval minefield in the waters off Hon La observed 20 to 25 explosions over about 30 seconds. They also witnessed an additional 25 to 30 mud spots in the waters nearby. Destructor sea mines had been deployed here during Operation Pocket Money, a mining campaign launched in 1972 against principal North Vietnamese ports. There was no obvious reason why the mines should have de ...read more

Using a small lava cove as trap, a small number of bulls have learned to round up pelagic yellowfin tuna, driving them into shallow nooks, where the exhausted fish often leap ashore in a last ditch attempt to escape. The oldest bull eats his fill after dispatching the prey with bites to nape and throat, while younger bulls take the scraps. (Credit: Tui de Roy) The water churns in a chaotic flurry of fins and flippers. Hungry onlookers hover, swoop, and scurry, hoping to get in on at least the ...read more

(Credit: khlungcenter/Shutterstock) It’s one of the cardinal rules of shipping something fragile: The more tightly you pack your cargo, the better its chances of reaching its destination in one piece. It turns out, the same rule applies for mailing mosquitoes, according to a new study in the Journal of Insect Science. While your average Joe probably isn’t sending off boxes of the blood suckers (at least, let’s hope not), scientists sometimes need to ship live batches. Often, ...read more

Mid-September in Maine is a time when there is some relief from hot days, but there is no real sign of the leaves changing color just yet. On a beautiful Saturday morning in Brunswick (a small mid-coast town known for Bowdoin College), the Curtis Memorial Library held its annual How-To Festival, which brings together local businesses, organizations, and individuals. Attendees share their skills and knowledge of doing all things under the sun, ranging from every day activities to v ...read more

Last year, astronomers announced they’d detected a comet from another solar system: ‘Oumuamua. (Credit: NASA/ESA/STScI) On October 19, 2017, astronomers first saw an object from another solar system traveling through our own. Zipping into our solar system from above, the interloper, now known as 1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua), swung around the Sun and shot away again, never to return once it leaves our neck of the woods for interstellar space once more. What have we learned about thi ...read more

Skulls and other human remains from P.W. Lund’s Collection from Lagoa Santa, Brazil. Kept in the Natural History Museum of Denmark. (Credit: Natural History Museum of Denmark) A new report finds people spread through the Americas in multiple independent, relatively quick migrations. The discovery contrasts the notion that the peopling of the continents took the form of a slow expansion from the northern regions of modern day Alaska into South America as populations grew. &ldquo ...read more

Photo of the cranium of Burial 32 at the archaeological site of Lapa do Santo. DNA for the study was extracted from this individual. (Credit: Maurício de Paiva) When the Americas were first settled, sometime in the past 25,000 years, it happened from the top down. Eurasians made their way across the Beringian land bridge (or followed the coastline, what’s known as the Kelp Highway hypothesis) from Siberia to Alaska and spread throughout their new territory. Once they were her ...read more

[embedded content] It turns out that the sun’s magnetic field can shape and push the dust of a comet’s tail, according to a revelation made possible by one young scientist’s innovative new image-processing technique. Comet Dust In 2007, scientists were elated when NASA’s STEREO spacecraft laid its “eyes” on Comet C/2006 P1, also known as Comet McNaught — named after astronomer Robert McNaught, who discovered the comet a year prior. Comet McNaught, which ...read more

The newfound star is not only one of the oldest stars in the universe, but also one of the most metal-poor stars known. An artist’s concept of a small red dwarf star is shown above. (Credit:NASA/Walt Feimer) One of the oldest stars in the universe is quietly hiding out in the Milky Way some 2,000 light-years from Earth. According to a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal, the tiny, 13.5-billion-year-old red dwarf contains barely any heavy elements at all, suggesting it formed ...read more