One of the fundamental questions in looking for life in the universe is figuring out where the materials necessary for making life are likely to exist. These complex organic molecules are, somewhat surprisingly, found all over: in giant dust clouds in space, and on lonely comets in our own solar system. The question for astronomers is figuring out how they make their way onto planets like Earth.
Astronomers looking to learn about the solar system's early history often turn to comets, as t ...read more
In a surprise find, researchers discover smoking pot may not hinder sperm counts. According to a new study, men who had smoked marijuana at some point in their lives had higher sperm counts than men who had never smoked weed. The finding contrasts previous research showing regular cannabis use lowers sperm numbers.
“These unexpected findings from our study highlight that we know too little about the reproductive health effects of cannabis and, in fact, of the health effects in general to ...read more
As brutal cold spilled out of the Arctic and enveloped much of the U.S. Upper Midwest and Great Lakes in late January, news stories tied the event to global warming. Here's a sampling of headlines:
"Brace for the Polar Vortex; It May Be Visiting More Often" (NY Times)
"The Polar Vortex And How It's Related To Global Warming (Forbes)
"Polar Vortex Linked to Climate Change (WGBH)
An increasing but still contested body of science suggests that rapid and intense warming in th ...read more
Black holes pepper our universe, but like their name implies, most are invisible — until something happens to change that. That something is often material flowing into the black hole. And in March 2018, one such previously invisible black hole flared to life when a flood of matter fell inward, allowing astronomers to spot and track the event, ultimately mapping out the region close to a black hole in finer detail than ever before.
That work, published January 9 in Nature, was led b ...read more
Since InSight’s landing on Mars late last year, it’s been hard at work studying what lays beneath the surface of the Red Planet. The lander's mission is to understand Mars’ deep interior, what it’s made of and how the planet moves. To that end, InSight has been studying the area around it, practicing its movements, and scouting the best locations to place instruments. And now, the science is kicking into gear.
InSight's Mission So Far
To accomplish it ...read more
Asteroid exploration has been all the rage lately, and the European Space Agency (ESA) isn’t missing out on the fun.
On February 4, ESA released new details about its upcoming Hera mission — the first spacecraft to explore a binary asteroid. The mission will launch to asteroid 65803 Didymos, a binary pair made up of one large body and a smaller object that orbits around it, in 2023. Aptly nicknamed Didymoon, the smaller of the two stretches just&nb ...read more
While New Horizons is exploring new targets, researchers are still working on the mountains of data it returned in 2015 from its visit to Pluto and its moon Charon. Charon is Pluto's largest companion, and like Pluto, it has a complicated, icy surface dotted with mountains and canyons. Large parts of Charon's surface appear to have been resurfaced in the past, leading to theories of an underground ocean that could have erupted long ago.
New Horizons’ best views of Charon were of its side ...read more
Trying to model what the cascading impact of anthropogenic climate change might be around the world is challenging to say the least. This isn't a simple relationship where global average temperature goes up and everything changes in concert. As we've seen in the United States with the Polar Vortex, a warmer average global climate can also mean much colder short-term weather as typical patterns are perturbed by the chain of events caused by warming. So, as the dominoes fall in a changing glob ...read more
(Inside Science) -- Researchers from Japan have come up with a way to encourage materials to grow stronger over time, like the muscles in our body. The new technique could allow engineers to design adaptable and healable materials for a wide range of applications.
When we lift weights in the gym, the mechanical stress causes our muscle fibers to rip and tear, but this damaging action actually allows the fibers to regrow stronger afterwards. In contrast, nonliving materials such as rubber ...read more
