Many island nations have deep water within an hour’s boat ride from shore; here, a view of Gatokae Island in the Solomon Islands is taken over water that is at least 1000 meters deep and known to be volcanically active. (Image: Alex DeCiccio)
Most countries on Earth have no way to access vast portions of their sovereign territory. In a time when you can read street signs half a world a way on Google Earth, this fact may seem surprising, but these unreachable territories all have one thin ...read more
Last week, I wrote about a social psychology paper which was retracted after the data turned out to be fraudulent. The sole author on that paper, William Hart, blamed an unnamed graduate student for the misconduct.
Now, more details have emerged about the case. On Tuesday, psychologist Rolf Zwaan blogged about how he was the one who first discovered a problem with Hart’s data, in relation to a different paper. Back in 2015, Zwaan had co-authored a paper reporting a failure to replicate a 2 ...read more
A World War II-era contamination suit. (Credit: Shutterstock)
In January 1958, two medical officers at Porton Down, Britain’s military science facility, exposed their forearms to 50-microgram droplets of a substance called VX, which was a new, fast-acting nerve agent that could kill by seeping through the skin.
VX, short for “venomous agent X,” is tasteless, odorless and causes uncontrollable muscle contractions that eventually stop a person’s breathing within minu ...read more
(Credit: Gregg Lab)
We’re all the product of genes from both parents. But in the brain, neurons may favor genes from mom or dad far more than previously thought, which is an effect that could impact one’s risk for mental disorders.
Everybody generally receives two versions, or alleles, of each gene, one from each parent. The fact that each person has a spare copy of a gene in case the other is defective is one reason why scientists think sex evolved in the first place, says study s ...read more
On February 15, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s PSLV-C37 flight launched with 101 CubeSats on board. (Credit: Indian Space Research Organisation)
Last week, the Indian Space Research Organisation launched 104 satellites into space via one rocket. Out of those 104, 101 are CubeSats, small satellites that have the potential of doing big things for astronomy, and yet for various reasons the astronomy community isn’t utilizing them. Most of the 613 CubeSats that have launched ( ...read more
A bumble bee hard at work spinning a ball toward its goal. (Credit: Courtesy Clint Perry, Queen Mary University of London)
If scoring a goal is the only way to earn a sugary treat, a bumblebee will summon its inner Messi.
Indeed, rolling a ball into a goal—soccer, sort of—is the latest puzzle solved by Bombus terrestris after training with scientists/bee trainers at Queen Mary University of London. In October, scientists from the same lab—the Chittka Lab—taught bees to ...read more
Seen here through the glass wall of the Southland Museum’s tuatarium on New Zealand’s South Island, Henry the tuatara has been around since the late 19th century. His lineage is much older — the species predates dinosaurs. Credit: G. Tarlach.
New Zealand’s tuataras prove the old adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” like few other animals on the planet (coelacanth, I’m looking at you). While paleontologists have long differe ...read more
Vijayan’s Night Frog, Nyctibatrachus pulivijayani,, a 13.6-millimeter, miniature-sized frog discovered from Agasthyamala hills in the Western Ghats. (Credit: SD Biju)
Four frogs tinier than an average adult thumbnail are among seven new species identified in India’s Western Ghat mountain range.
The new frog species all belong to the genus Nyctibatrachus, commonly known as night frogs. As the name suggests, they usually come out after dark and prefer to hide out under ...read more
(Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
TRAPPIST-1 has a solar system like no other. The tiny, tiny red dwarf is just barely big enough to be considered a star, and is, radius-wise, a hair bigger than Jupiter. When it was announced last May, there was some excitement: the system had three Earth-sized planets, and they might all be habitable.
We’re going to have to revise that, though. It has seven planets. The results of an intensive study were published today in Nature.
TRAPPIST-1 is so small that ...read more
