Wormholes could offer a path to the most distant places in the universe. (Credit: dimonika/Shutterstock)
Wormholes make the best shortcuts in the universe. That’s true in a literal sense, since the theoretical things can connect distant corners of the cosmos (or even different universes), allowing a traveler to go someplace without having to visit everywhere in between.
But wormholes also present the perfect way for writers to get around that pesky speed of light, the universe's spee ...read more
The documentary INVENTING TOMORROW follows several young scientists on their journey to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), a program of Society for Science & the Public, with projects that tackle complex environmental issues affecting water, air, and soil quality.
INVENTING TOMORROW Broadcast on July 29, 2019
You can catch this documentary tonight on POV Docs, television’s longest-running showcase for nonfiction films on PBS.
https://www.youtube. ...read more
The glow of fireflies on a summer night is actually a complex mating dance. (Credit: Shutterstock)
You might not really be sure you saw what you think you saw when the first one shows up. But you stare in the direction of the flicker of light and there it is again – the first firefly of the evening. If you are in good firefly habitat, soon there are dozens, or even hundreds, of the insects flying about, flashing their mysterious signals.
Fireflies – alternatively known as light ...read more
The Discovery Channel's popular Shark Week is July 28-August 4. Help scientists learn more about sharks through the projects we've tagged for you, below. This year, you can also help provide healthy ocean homes for sharks by joining the world’s largest volunteer effort for oceans: the International Coastal Cleanup.
The Shark Trust: Great Eggcase Hunt
Ever see a "mermaid's purse" while walking on the beach? These are the egg cases of sharks or skates, and they hel ...read more
Arrange your fingers like the image below, and then look at them closely.
From Bertamini (2019) i-Perception
Do you notice anything odd?
Psychologist Marco Bertamini of the University of Liverpool describes this test in a fun new paper. According to Bertamini, seven of the ten people he surveyed reported that their little fingers clearly appeared to be 'too far away', to the extent that they did not appear to be part of their hands.
Bertamini suggests that the illusion is caused by ...read more
Elevation changes also indicate where Mars may have once had a vast northern ocean. (Credit: Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter Science Team/NASA)
Three and a half billion years ago, an asteroid slammed into Mars. The cataclysm wasn’t terribly unusual for this period in the solar system’s history, but the fallout would leave its mark. The asteroid carved out an enormous crater. It also sent a wall of water a thousand feet high hurtling around the young Red Planet, which was much more bl ...read more
(Credit: T. L. Furrer/Shutterstock)
What if I told you that countless tiny beings living inside your body right now were responsible for everything from the health of your gut to your mental health? It sounds crazy. But, that’s exactly what research into the microbiome is showing us.
Tens of trillions of bacteria inhabit our bodies — scientists call them the human microbiome. The past decade or so has seen an explosion of studies linking gut bacteria with all sorts of diseases ...read more
Sandpiper eggs in a nest. (Credit: Drakuliren/Shutterstock)
The speckled brown eggs of seabirds may look like lifeless lumps of shell, but inside, developing chicks are already paying attention to their parents. Researchers studying yellow-legged gull chicks have discovered that the animals can respond to their parents’ alarm calls while in the egg and even pass on the information to younger nestmates by rattling their shells.
The discovery shows that “even before hatching, em ...read more
As the Suomi NPP satellite watched overhead on July 21, 2019, a swirling low-pressure system over Siberia pulled wildfire smoke into its giant vortex . (Source: NASA Earth Observatory)
Heat records were obliterated across Western Europe yesterday, with Paris reaching an unfathomable all-time high of nearly 109 degrees.
It's the second heat wave in the region in as many months — and this one has been even more brutal than June's. As I wrote earlier this week, research shows that huma ...read more
The eruption of the Icelandic volcano Hekla may have led to the collapse of multiple thriving Bronze Age societies. (Credit: Abraham Ortelius/Wikimedia Commons)
Life, as they say, goes on. Until one day
it doesn’t. For ancient societies, without the means to predict natural
disasters, destruction could often come suddenly and completely by surprise.
Below are four of the most devastating natural events in recorded human
history, and the societies that they wiped off the map.
The Stor ...read more
