Behold, Minnie, the artificial reading companion. Look at those eyes. Who wouldn’t want to read to a face like that? (Credit: Michaelis and Mutlu, Sci. Robot. 3, eaat5999 (2018))
Back in the day, if parents wanted to encourage their kids to read without, you know, actually reading with them, educational TV programs like Reading Rainbow were the way to go. Now, robots might do the trick, according to a new paper in Science Robotics.
It’s Reading Robot
Researchers from the Universit ...read more
(Credit: Martina_L/shutterstock)
Take a walk through high grass during summer, and you’ll likely have a bunch of grasshoppers tickling your ankles. They are seemingly everywhere. And yet a comprehensive understanding of their evolutionary past has been next to nowhere.
That changed earlier this summer when Insect Systematics and Diversity published the largest genetic study ever on the leggy insects. The paper upturned the received wisdom of the grasshopper origin story.
Researchers ...read more
Dust partially obscures a distant quasar in this artist’s illustration. (Credit: NASA/ESA/G.Bacon, STScI)
With the help of two extremely bright quasars located more than 7 billion light-years away, researchers recently bolstered the case for quantum entanglement — a phenomenon Einstein described as “spooky action at a distance” — by eliminating one classical alternative: The freedom-of-choice loophole.
Quantum Connection
Of the many mindboggling facets of quantum ...read more
What’s in a Name?
After STEVE was first brought to the attention of the scientific community in 2016, it was originally thought to be a proton aurora. The traditional aurorae are largely caused by electron activity, but protons can also be responsible. The catch is, proton aurorae are generally too dark and too diffuse to see, but STEVE is a well-defined, clearly visible violet band stretching thousands of miles long (east-west) and tens of miles wide (north-south).
The aurora borealis gl ...read more
Photo: flickr/ NASA Goddard Photo and Video
[Note from the authors of “Seriously, Science?”: After nine years with Discover, we’ve been informed that this will be our last month blogging on this platform. Despite being (usually) objective scientists, we have a sentimental streak, and we have spent the last few days reminiscing about the crazy, and often funny, science we have highlighted. Therefore, we have assembled a month-long feast of our favorite ...read more
Image:Flickr/moocatmoocat
[Note from the authors of “Seriously, Science?”: After nine years with Discover, we’ve been informed that this will be our last month blogging on this platform. Despite being (usually) objective scientists, we have a sentimental streak, and we have spent the last few days reminiscing about the crazy, and often funny, science we have highlighted. Therefore, we have assembled a month-long feast of our favorite science papers. Enjoy! ...read more
(Credit: Ali Yazdani Laboratory, Princeton University)
You’ve never seen bismuth like this before.
Element 83 on the periodic table, bismuth is a hard, pinkish-white metal that can grow in stunning geometric crystals.
Recently, researchers have been taking a closer look at bismuth, down to the atomic level. Shown here is a simulation of orbiting bismuth surface electrons in a very strong magnetic field.
Note how the electrons are all gathered in clumps inside each potential orbit. S ...read more
Hurricane Katrina, imaged on Sunday, August 28, 2005, near the peak of its intensity. (Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC)
2005 was a crazy year in the North Atlantic. That hurricane season saw not only the most tropical cyclones in recorded history for the region, it also spawned the lowest pressure measured in the Atlantic, the strongest Atlantic hurricane ever, the most hurricanes and the highest accumulated cyclone energy index on record. There were so many storms ...read more
No one mineral dominates the surface of Ryugu, so scientists are still trying to determine its composition. (Credit: JAXA)
Back in June, Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission arrived at the asteroid Ryugu, a near-Earth object that crosses our home world’s orbit. The spacecraft will touch down on the surface in October. But first, scientists must find the most “pristine” location possible – the spot least weathered by the hazards of outer space.
One Hayabusa2’s main goal ...read more
