Month by month, and season by season, global heating records continue to fall.After 2023 came in as warmest year (it wasn't even close), and 2024 started with record high temperatures, it should come as no surprise that February was weirdly warm too. The red line in the graph above shows the evolution of Earth's average surface air temperature for the year so far. The orange line shows the record for 2023, and the dashed one shows the average for 1991-2020. All years between 1940 and 2023 are de ...read more

(Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Brant Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), Ben Johnson (CfA), Sandro Tacchella (Cambridge), Marcia Rieke (University of Arizona), Daniel Eisenstein (CfA))Since December 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has unlocked various secrets of our universe. From providing newer images of galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope to enlightening experts on supernova remnants and peering into the early universe, the spacecraft has already discovered so much.Below are the latest ...read more

Up to half a century ago, researchers established that writing originated in Mesopotamia in the fourth millennium B.C., and spread to the rest of the world, adapting to different languages. Since the 1970s, however, the decipherment of Maya and further discoveries has suggested that humans invented writing not once, but four separate times: in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and Mesoamerica. In a recent study published in Nature, researchers at the University of Bologna in Italy have dated the wood o ...read more

“You don’t count your children until the measles has passed.” Dr. Samuel Katz, one of the pioneers of the first measles vaccine in the late 1950s to early 1960s, regularly heard this tragic statement from parents in countries where the measles vaccine was not yet available, because they were so accustomed to losing their children to measles.I am a pediatrician and preventive medicine physician, and I have anxiously watched measles cases rise worldwide while vaccination rates have dropped s ...read more

For many people in the ancient world, life was no casual stroll around the Forum. Today, many diseases can be treated with modern medicine or prevented entirely, thanks to the development of myriad vaccines to help rid us of the risk of infection (though major inequalities still mean such lifesaving shots are not available to all). In ancient times, however, these advances simply were not available, making disease an ever present and deadly risk. Kyle Harper, professor of classics and letters at ...read more

Vertigo is more than just feeling dizzy. It is a symptom characterized by a sensation of spinning or a feeling of motion when no actual movement occurs. It often manifests as a perception that either the individual or their surroundings are spinning or tilting, leading to a sense of disorientation and imbalance. All of this is in addition to feeling dizzy.  “First, it is important to outline the differences between vertigo and dizziness. While these words are often used interchangeably, they ...read more

A topologist walks into a cafe: — Can I have a doughnut of coffee, please?This is a joke written by the Soviet-American mathematician Tanya Khovanova, who lectures in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. It is derived from the more familiar bon mot: a topologist is someone who doesn’t know the difference between a coffee cup and a doughnut.Khovanova has an impressive history as mathematician having won a gold medal at the 1976 International Mathematical Oly ...read more

The way Earth scientists can be very odd when seen from the outside. It is common to hear us say things like "oh, it was only a million years ago". Most people never consider events that happened a million years ago. Sometimes considering what you had for lunch makes yesterday seem like a long time ago. This is all about perspective and the question we ask of time.Space is BigAstronomers have faced a similar issue to distance. Douglas Adams, famed science fiction author, may have put it best whe ...read more

Planets get most of the attention when it comes to astronomical discussions. Their moons, on the other hand, are a bit more obscure. Neptune, Jupiter and Saturn are well-known names, but what about Enceladus, Io, and Titan?   A whopping 293 moons, most of which are small enough to resemble asteroids, dance around the planets of our solar system. The universe is not concerned about equality here, either: For example, Venus has no moons, Earth has one, and Saturn has a staggering 146.  Thes ...read more

The Spinosaurus, a dinosaur with a large dorsal fin, narrow skulls, and crocodile-like jaws, has fascinated scientists for years. It’s accepted that the Spinosaurus was semi-aquatic, and paleontologists suspect the theropod ate fish and lived in what is now Africa during the late Cretaceous. But how the dinosaur captured its prey is controversial, and there are many ideas.Could it have chased after its prey in the water, snatched up fish with its claws, or dipped its head into the water like a ...read more