(Credit: Travelerpix/Shutterstock)
What are were your first words? Odds are, if you grew up in the United States speaking English, these words were nouns. Nouns like mama, dada, a favorite animal or food (or "lawnmower," if my father is to be believed). But in languages like Korean and Mandarin Chinese, babies’ first words are more often verbs like "go" and "want."
New research suggests these differences in early word learning might lead toddlers down different paths toward understan ...read more
Whitson during her time on the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)
Peggy Whitson’s career as an astronaut has been trailblazing: With a total of 665 days in space, Whitson not only currently holds the space endurance record in the U.S., she is eighth on that list overall. She was the first woman astronaut to hold NASA’s chief astronaut position, has completed a total of 10 spacewalks over the course of her career, and commanded the International Space Station twice.
On ...read more
(Credit: Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock)
Music is the language of feelings, the food of the soul. But could it also be a grade booster for high school students? Researchers think so — if students engage in actually playing the music (not just listening to it).
A new study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology reports high school students who play musical instruments score significantly higher in science, math, and English exams than their non-musical peers. The auth ...read more
From left: Expedition 58/59 astronaut Anne McClain, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques. (Credit: NASA)
After 204 days orbiting Earth on the International Space Station, three astronauts will return to Earth tonight. June 24 marks the end of their mission as Anne McClain, Oleg Kononenko, and David Saint-Jacques, undock from ISS and eventually land in Kazakhstan.
The three crew members are scheduled to depart the ISS at around 7:30 p. ...read more
Spacecraft have been both finding and not finding methane around Mars for years. (Credit: ESA/ATG medialab)
Last week, NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover detected a sudden spike in methane levels, which kickstarted excitement about the prospects of life on the Red Planet.
On Earth, the most common source of methane is biological organisms, from cows and humans down to single-celled creatures, making its detection on the Red Planet a reason for excitement and intrigue. But it’s quite ...read more
Kristin Butler dedicates her Scuba Series in remembrance of her beloved mother, Marilyn Butler, who passed along to Kristin a deep love for science and nature along with a pair of pink scuba diving fins.
Each year, the Long Beach Scuba Show brings together divers from around the world for seminars and exhibits on all things scuba, with topics ranging from dive gear to scuba vacations. Though the show mostly showcases the business side of diving, visitors can also learn about nonprofits that ...read more
A paper just out in eccentric medical journal Medical Hypotheses caught my eye yesterday:
Potential role of calcifying nanoparticles in the etiology of multiple sclerosis
Hmm, I thought, this looks interesting. I'd never heard of the idea that nanoparticles could cause neurological illness.
So I read the paper and quickly found myself falling down a (nano)rabbithole into a fascinating and little-known tale of strange science.
It turns out that the 'calcifying nanoparticles' ment ...read more
Suomi NPP/VIIRS image of the Raikoke plume, taken June 22, 2019. NASA.
It has been awhile since we've had an unexpected eruption, but last night Raikoke in the Kuril Islands off Russia had an impressive explosion. Most people (and volcanologists) are likely unfamiliar with this remote volcano and rightly so -- only ~140 people live within 100 kilometers and the last known eruption was in 1924. However, the last two eruptions (1924 and 1778) were both VEI 4 events.
The new eruption sent a ...read more
In May, Jeff Bezos unveiled the lunar lander, dubbed Blue Moon, that his spacecraft company Blue Origin hopes to fly in the coming years. (Credit: Blue Origin)
The rocket’s flare is sudden and brilliant, a blurring horizontal column of whooshing fire. Just as quickly, the bright jet flickers out of existence, the few seconds of burn enough complete the test.
A pause in the control room, then applause ripples around. The group retires to a test cell nearby, where there are speeches an ...read more
