But in reality, it is a flying saucer moon named Atlas Who knew? I certainly didn't... Saturn has a moon shaped eerily like a flying saucer. Check it out in the image above, acquired by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on April 12, 2017 during a flyby that came as close as 7,000 miles from the moon. This is the closest image ever taken of the moon, named Atlas, according to NASA. The object is just 19 miles across; it orbits Saturn just outside the giant planet's A ring —& ...read more

The equatorial Pacific Ocean is suffering from a split personality disorder: El Niño-ish in the east; La Niña-ish to the west. El Niño is likely to win out. Climate forecast models are predicting a full-fledged El Niño by summer or fall. If it should happen, it would bring all manner of disruption to global weather patterns. And it would also be an extraordinary event. If you'll recall, in 2015-16, the planet experienced a monster El Niño event, one of the ...read more

You've likely seen some version of this scenario on television or in the halls of a university: A researcher runs out of the lab in a frenzy, electrified after suddenly arriving at the solution to an impossible problem. These "aha!" moments are supremely satisfying, whether you're a scientist, a hard-bitten detective or an unlucky horror movie actress realizing that something's just not right. But what happens to us in the moments just before the light bulb turns on? New research from ...read more

In a thought-provoking new paper called What are neural correlates neural correlates of?, NYU sociologist Gabriel Abend argues that neuroscientists need to pay more attention to philosophy, social science, and the humanities. Abend's main argument is that if we are to study the neural correlates or neural basis of a certain phenomenon, we must first define that phenomenon and know how to identify instances of it. Sometimes, this identification is straightforward: in a study of brai ...read more

Every morning at Hamelin Pool, in Western Australia, the first rays of sunshine illuminate knobby reef-like structures, submerged or peeking just above the gentle waves, depending on the tide. On the crudely rounded surfaces of these rocks, microorganisms stir and begin the daily task of photosynthesizing, fighting against occluding sand grains to harvest the sunlight. This scene, or something like it, has likely been occurring every morning, somewhere on Earth, for the last 3.7 billion y ...read more

It's surprisingly hard to stick a camera to a dolphin. Surprising, anyway, when you consider the other animals that have carried monitoring devices down into the ocean for human scientists: sharks, sea turtles, birds, manatees, even whales. When a group of researchers recently overcame the challenges and created a camera that dolphins can wear, they were inducted into a dizzying underwater world. Scientists may attach instruments to marine animals to do environmental research, as wi ...read more

Smelling someone's stinky body odor can really bum you out, at least temporarily. But did you know that BO can communicate emotions directly? According to this study, human body odor may contain chemicals, also known as "chemosignals", that can carry information about emotional states. To test this hypothesis, the researchers evoked emotions in 12 men by showing them movie clips to make them either happy (e.g., “Bare Necessities” from The Jungle Book), a ...read more

The 2017 UCLA Science & Food public lecture series is here! FOOD WASTE: Solutions Informed by Science (and what to do with your leftovers) Tuesday, May 2nd 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm Freud Playhouse, Macgowan Hall World-renowned chef Massimo Bottura, UCLA professor Jenny Jay, Zero Waste Consultant and “Waste Warrior” Amy Hammes will participate in a panel discussion moderated by Evan Kleiman on “Food waste: solutions informed by science,” hosted by Dr. Amy Rowat, Scienc ...read more

A thin lattice of metals and organic compounds could turn moisture trapped in the atmosphere into drinkable water using only the power of the sun. By optimizing what they call a metal-organic framework (MOF) to hang on to water molecules, researchers at MIT and the University of California-Berkeley have created a system that passively catches water vapor and releases it later when exposed to heat from sunlight. Their device could offer a low-cost, sustainable means to deliver drinkable wa ...read more

Springtime Citizen Science April is buzzing with citizen science you can do at hackfests, conferences, festivals, workshops, marches and more! Looking for family-friendly projects? Check this out.  Below, we've selected three projects and two events we think you'll love.  You can find more projects and events on SciStarter to do now or bookmark for later.  Bonus: Complete your SciStarter profile this month and we'll send you a free pdf of The Rightful Place of ...read more