When Igor Ashurbeyli walked onstage to be inaugurated Asgardia’s head of state, it was a few small steps for the Russian scientist and businessman, and one dubious leap for the world’s first “space nation.â€� The national anthem that preceded him fills the mind with scenes of an epic, pioneering future, and that’s just what Ashurbeyli envisions. Our descendents take up residence in â€&oelig ...read more
"No man is an island," noted English poet John Donne, but now a new study of nearly a half-million people find there may be genetic roots to loneliness. These findings also show that some genetic variations are linked to social activities like going to the pub. The results were published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications. Previous research has already shown that loneliness is more than just a state of mind. It's strongly linked with an increase in all causes of death, on a l ...read more
So, we're made it through the 2018 Geology World Cup Group Stage. Now it's time to vote for the countries that will make it through to the quarterfinals. To make it easier, I've created a single poll for your votes, so cast your ballot now! The Matches: Left bracket: A1. Russia vs B2. Portugal: In soccer, this might lean strongly in Portugal's direction but in geology, Russia is the behemoth. I mean, Russia is big enough that it has been the site of not one but two maj ...read more
Telling people how we really feel can be... well, tricky. Even when it comes to writing a simple thank you note: "What if it's too much? Will they think I'm weird? Is it going to be awkward?" If only there were a surefire way to know how it was going to turn out! Well, this study is getting as close as we are likely to get. Here, scientists tracked how senders and receivers felt about thank you letters, and the results suggest that you should get your pen out: "Expressers significantly under ...read more
Launched in 1977, the unmanned space probes Voyager 1 and 2 carried out an extensive survey of the planets and moons of the outer solar system. Visiting Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, the Voyager program can only be called an unqualified success on virtually every level. The twin spacecraft returned thousands of photographs and reams of scientific data that fundamentally changed our understanding of our entire solar system. Currently in interstellar space, Voyager 1 is the farthest ma ...read more
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has entered its nearest orbit ever to the dwarf planet Ceres, an icy body in the asteroid belt left over from the formation of the solar system. And Dawn is already turning up stunning results. The latest images sent back by the spacecraft were captured just 22 miles above a site called Occator Crater. Before June, Dawn was orbiting hundreds of miles over the surface. This bright region first stood out to astronomers when Dawn arrived at Ceres in 2015 ...read more
In 2015, in a small town in Germany called Handeloh, a group of 29 men and women were rushed to hospital after displaying strange and sometimes violent behaviours along with other symptoms including vomiting and seizures. The victims were all attendees at a seminar on spiritual healing called 'Die sieben Quellen' - "The Seven Springs". The patients all survived, although a number were seriously ill. The organizer of seminar, a psychotherapist, admitted to police that he had given the attendee ...read more
Out on the Mongolian steppe, where the horse remains the primary mode of transport, modern herders regularly remove certain teeth from yearlings to avoid potential problems. The herders typically use pliers or screwdrivers for the task. If that makes you squirm, you might want to stop reading — because archaeologists have found the earliest evidence of horse dentistry, and it's even more cringe-inducing. If you're not too squeamish, however, read on, because resea ...read more
The American reaction to Sputnik was diverse, to say the least. Some people were terrified. Some were excited by the scientific prospects of the now-dawned space age. Others immediately jumped to ways to match then beat the Soviets. And one Air Force Physicist, Leonard Reiffel, thought the best course of action in the wake of Sputnik was to nuke the Moon... [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PogaZ1Y7hw[/embed] The idea was summed up in a 1958 report somewhat innocuously titled ...read more
When you’re a tiny fern in a big, cruel world, how do you survive insect attacks and stay fed? Teaming up with bacteria might do the trick! Biologists have sequenced the genomes of ferns for the first time, and the two species they’ve started with are already revealing trade secrets, adding to our understanding of how partnering with bacteria helps them repel hungry insects and get the nutritious nitrogen they need. The ferns’ genomes als ...read more