Human-caused warming is popping the frozen corks that normally bottle up thick sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, allowing it to pour south NASA’s Aqua satellite captured these two views of different sea ice conditions over the Lincoln Sea, a part of the Arctic Ocean north of Greenland and Ellesmere Island. Breakup here happened much earlier than usual in 2017, allowing huge volumes of thick sea ice to pour south through a narrow passage and ultimately into the North Atlantic Ocean. (Image ...read more

(Credit: FCSCAFEINE/Shutterstock) Dreams can feel awfully real when you’re deep in sleep. Perhaps you find a hidden doorway in your home that leads to entirely new rooms and passageways. Maybe you went work in your underwear—yikes. When you wake up, you check your closet for that mysterious doorway; maybe you jolt awake in a cold sweat, instantly relieved you still have plenty of time to properly clothe yourself before leaving the house. Regardless, whatever you were experiencing f ...read more

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Sexual signaling back in the day was as subtle as today’s Axe body spray: “Do I make you horny, baby?” asks Styracosaurus, whose marvelous multi-horn display is among the most elaborate of the ceratopsians. (Credit Wikimedia Commons/LadyofHats) Triceratops to potential mate: “Hey baby, check out my frill and big horns…you know what they say, big horns, big everything, awwwww yeahhhhh…” Apparently, that’s how hook-ups went down in the Mesozoic, a ...read more

(Credit: Martin Hoscik/Shutterstock) Before he died, renowned cosmologist Stephen Hawking submitted a paper, with co-author Thomas Hertog, to an as-yet-unknown journal. The paper deals with the concept of the multiverse and a theory known as cosmic inflation. Though the paper currently exists only in pre-print form, meaning it hasn’t completed the process of peer-review, it’s received a significant amount of coverage. “Stephen Hawking’s last paper,” after all, doe ...read more

Subbing new risks for the current dyes’ dangers? (Credit: Evgeny Savchenko/Shutterstock) Graphene is something of a celebrity in the world of nanoscale materials. Isolated in 2004 by Nobel Prize winners Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, these ultrathin sheets of carbon atoms are already finding novel uses in areas like electronics, high-efficiency heating systems, water purification technologies and even golf balls. According to recent research published in the journal Chem, hair dyes ...read more

(Credit: Shutterstock) The craft brew revolution is fueled by an earnest pursuit of hoppiness. Many craft beer enthusiasts are drawn to the potent, bitter, aromatic flavors of a primo India Pale Ale (IPA), and brewers take pride in delivering a roundhouse kick to mouth in every bottle. Indeed, the names of IPAs often connote a cataclysmic struggle between man and beer: Hoo Lawd, Hopslam Ale, Pound Town, Hoptrocity, Ruination. You get the point. As the names suggest, hops—the flowers of H ...read more

Our first approach to Aucanquilcha, my thesis volcano in Chile. Erik Klemetti So, a few weeks back I got to tell a story about my experience as a geologist as part of a Story Collider show here at Denison. Let me tell you, it was an awesome experience, to share about what I’ve done as a scientist. At some point, I’ll be able to link to video and/or audio of my storytelling, but for now, I thought I’d share the story I wrote. Hope you enjoy it. —- It was a snowy day in Ph ...read more

(credit: Matej Kastelic/Shutterstock) Crying babies, chronic snorers — they’re the usual targets of our displeasure when we fly. But, the real villains of the sky might be germs. Flyers are packed into a cramped metal tube for hours on end where movement is limited. It seems like a microbe’s playground. But research on the topic is a bit inconclusive, despite worrying cases involving SARS and an aggressive type of influenza. Studies suggest that caution is warr ...read more