You probably didn’t notice but the last time you talked with a colleague or chatted with a friend, you blinked. A lot. Blinks are a conversational cue akin to nodding one's head, according to a new study published today in the journal PLOS One.
As such, the unconscious reflex changes how people talk to each other. Even the subtlest non-verbal clues impact our conversations, the finding suggests.
“Our findings indicate that even visually subtle behavior such as listener blinking is ...read more
Virgin Galactic, one of the companies aiming to become the first to send astronauts into space, is planning to put its SpaceShipTwo vehicle through its next phase of testing starting as early as Thursday, December 13. It will be the fourth powered flight for the vehicle, named VSS Unity, and the first since its successful July 26 flight, which reached a peak altitude of 32 miles (52 kilometers).
Now, the company is aiming higher, further, and faster — this next round of tests wi ...read more
Seagrass meadows cover an area roughly the size of Switzerland in the deep waters of the Great Barrier Reef lagoon. Now, a new study shows the coastal ecosystems store significant amounts of carbon. The finding suggests deep water seagrass meadows could help mitigate climate change.
“If we are to help regain control of our planet’s thermostat and limit global warming, we must capitalize on the powerful ability of natural ecosystems to sequester and store carbon,” Peter Macread ...read more
The 2018 eruption at Kīlaeau was the largest in the United States since 1980. Between 0.8 and 1 cubic kilometers of lava poured out onto the surface of the Big Island of Hawai'i over the course of a few months, leading to massive destruction of property and infrastructure, but happily no loss of life. Much of that can be pinned on the excellent work done by the US Geological Survey and the Emergency Management teams in Hawai'i.
Although it has only been a few months since the eruption cea ...read more
Ready, set…CHOMP! With mandibles that snap at up to 200mph (90 meters per second) Mystrium camillae, otherwise known as a Dracula ant, now holds the new speed record for fastest known animal appendage, beating out the trap-jaw ant’s impressive 140mph bite.
University of Illinois animal biology and entomology professor Andrew Suarez led the study that uncovered the new record, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science. High-speed video was used to record the mandibles ...read more
Imagine an archaeological dig far in the future. Scientists are excavating a site somewhere in what was once North America, peeling back layers of dirt in search of the remnants of a vanished civilization. Millions of years having passed, there's not much left, and the archaeologists must be diligent. But, as they scrape and sift, clues to this vanished people emerge, a peephole into a bygone culture.
What objects would these future archaeologists find? What specimens would they ...read more
Organics on Ceres
Data from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft show that there is an abundance of carbon on Ceres.
Dawn ended its mission on November 1, 2018. However, the spacecraft has remained in orbit around Ceres 257 million miles from Earth. Propelled by an ion engine, the craft was the first to ever visit a dwarf planet. And, in its orbit around Ceres, Dawn has now collected data that provides evidence of organic matter on the planet's surface.
In a new study detailing these findings, a team ...read more
The dark, high-pressure depths of Earth's interior is an unexpected place to find life. Now, an international group of scientists report there’s 16.5 to 25 billion tons of micro-organisms beneath the planet's surface. The team’s work is redefining what a habitable environment is.
The discoveries “force us to reimagine what the boundaries are that life can exist in,” said Karen Lloyd, a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
Deep Discovery
Lloyd is a ...read more
If you find yourself swooning over urbanites more than country boys, you’re not alone.
A new study found that female túngara frogs were more attracted to the mating calls of males living in cities than those residing in forests. Researchers found that male túngara frogs in urban areas have more prominent, complex calls than those in the wilderness — a possible adaptation to noisy city life that's enabled by a lack of predators.
A study outlining th ...read more
On Tuesday, two Russian cosmonauts are spending some six hours in space, working to solve the mystery of who or what poked a hole in the Soyuz spacecraft.
Back in August, astronauts noticed a slight drop in pressure on the International Space Station. While not an immediate risk, the astronauts investigated and found a hole on the inside of the Soyuz habitation module, which is currently docked at the space station. Astronauts Sergey Prokopyev and Alexander Gerst repaired the two-millimet ...read more
