Barnard the goat, one of the animals tested in the study, stands in a field of flowers at the Buttercups Sanctuary. (Credit: Christian Nawroth)
Put on a happy face. That works for creating a positive impression on other people. Research also shows that dogs and horses prefer a smile to a frown.
But what about domesticated farm animals, such as goats, pigs and cows? Turns out domesticated pigs and cattle are smarter than we give them credit for, studies have shown. They may even have complex in ...read more
Naked mole rat pups being tended by workers. (Credit: Neil Bromhall/Shutterstock)
As in marriage, business and volleyball, good communication is essential for the health of any society. That’s doubly true when you’re the sole ruler of a thriving colony of dozens of pink, wrinkly and decidedly unconventional mammals.
To pass directives to their workers, naked mole rat queens have internalized — and then externalized, as it so happens — this tenet of societal well-b ...read more
The Horn of Africa seen from the International Space Station in January 2015, taken by ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. NASA.
So, another school year starts Thursday (for me) and I thought I’d offer a list of 5 things all college students should know about the Earth, whether they take a geology classes or not (but you really should take at least one).
#1 The Earth is 4.54 billion years old (give or take a few million years)
This is “long history”. About 4.54 billion ...read more
(Credit: Ruslan Kokarev/shutterstock)
A version of this article originally appeared on The Conversation.
When those first fat drops of summer rain fall to the hot, dry ground, have you ever noticed a distinctive odor? I have childhood memories of family members who were farmers describing how they could always “smell rain” right before a storm.
Of course rain itself has no scent. But moments before a rain event, an “earthy” smell known as petrichor does permeate th ...read more
Credit:NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
If you think your commute is bad, try traveling over a billion miles to get to work.
After almost two years of space travel, NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft finally has a clear view of its jobsite — a near-Earth, carbon-rich asteroid named Bennu.
The craft’s PolyCam camera captured its first image of Bennu on August 17 from a distance just 1.4 millio ...read more
(Credit: Carnegie Mellon University)
Robots made of … paper? Researchers at Carnegie Mellon’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute have developed a pretty neat way to bring plain old paper to life.
The team used an inexpensive 3D printer to apply a thin layer of conducting thermoplastic, a material that becomes pliable when warm, but regains its original, hardened shape when cool.
When the researchers apply an electrical current, the melting thermoplastic makes the paper bend ...read more
Editor’s Note: You got to know Dan with his team member spotlight. Now you can read about his perspective on and work with libraries!
By Dan Stanton
If you haven’t visited your local public library in a while or if you just pop in from time to time, I highly recommend you take some time to look around and really take in what is going on:
Take a walk around the building: you are likely to see a maker space, a seed library, or a teen area hosting a coding club (&ldquo ...read more
This artist’s concept shows Pioneer venturing out into interstellar space. Both Pioneer 10 and 11 carry a plaque bearing a message from Earth. (Credit: NASA)
The Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft famously contain messages to anyone who might someday find them. Both Pioneers carry a plaque, while the Voyagers carry a phonograph record. An enormous amount of effort went into creating these objects, but could an alien observer truly understand the messages we have sent to the stars?
While we c ...read more
(Credit: Willyam Bradberry/Shutterstock)
Like it or not, we’re surrounded by robots. Thousands of Americans ride to work these days in cars that pretty much drive themselves. Vacuum cleaners scoot around our living rooms on their own. Quadcopter drones automatically zip over farm fields, taking aerial surveys that help farmers grow their crops. Even scary-looking humanoid robots, ones that can jump and run like us, may be commercially available in the near future.
Robotic devices are ge ...read more
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft captured this animation of a solar prominence on August 13, 2018. (Source: NASA)
In my ongoing hunt for cool imagery to feature here at ImaGeo, I regularly check to see what NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft has been seeing on the Sun. The animation above is one of SDO’s more recent captures.
It shows an eruption of material rising up along invisible magnetic field lines, twisting, and then falling back down, a ...read more
