Missions from above and on the surface have been searching for life on Mars for years. But there’s an important question worth asking, amidst this vital search: If life once thrived there, how long could even extreme microorganisms survive in Mars’ current harsh conditions? And where might they best survive?
A group of researchers from Lomonosov Moscow State University has just released their answer to those questions.
The paper, published in the journal Extremophile ...read more
By Louise Lief
Every day, it seems, brings more dispiriting news to the science world. The head of the Environmental Protection Agency is removing research scientists from the agency’s advisory boards and has forbidden some of them from speaking at conferences. The Government Accounting Office is investigating reports that the current administration is violating scientific integrity policies at federal agencies. The Trump administration has proposed deep budget cuts at scientific agencies. ...read more
(Credit: Wachiwit/Shutterstock)
By now, most of us are probably used to the idea that large corporations track our preferences and activities every time we go online. It’s the price we pay for the custom, convenient experiences we seek on the internet. But tracking your activity online isn’t exclusive to high-flying FAANG companies. For a modest sum, anyone can use the similar tracking tools to essentially spy on another person’s activities.
To illustrate the ease of web ...read more
Known for its unusual varietals and millennia-old wine traditions, the Republic of Georgia may also be where viniculture was born. (Credit G. Tarlach)
Where are the roots of the earliest wine? Countries in southwestern Asia have long contested who was first to ferment grapes. To date, the oldest widely accepted evidence for viniculture came from the Zagros Mountains of Iran.
But now new research from the Republic of Georgia — a perennial and fierce challenger for the title ...read more
When multiple specialists can’t solve the mystery of a toddler’s persistent rashes, grandma offhandedly offers a clue.
The toddler wriggled across the exam table, laughing as he crinkled its paper covering. His grandmother JoAnne scooped him onto her lap, rubbing his back as he sucked his thumb. She lifted his hospital gown and unfastened his diaper, showing us the raw skin beneath. Teary-eyed, she told me and another pediatrician the story of his rash. About a year earlier, JoA ...read more
North America, as seen by the GOES-16 weather satellite on Nov. 10, 2017. The sun had already set on about three quarters of the continent. (Source: CIRA/RAMMB/Colorado State University)
With a month and a half to go until year’s end, it’s looking like 2017 will go down in the books as the warmest on record – that is, among years that received no temperature boost from El Niño.
Overall, 2017 is likely to be either the second or t ...read more
Will La Niña help bring a warmer or colder winter to your neck of the woods? And will it be wetter or drier? Read on.
Cool sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific are part of La Niña’s fingerprint. According to the latest advisory from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, La Niña conditions are now in place and stand a 65 percent to 75 percent chance of persisting into April. (Image: earth.nullschool.net)
Before I delve into the substance of this post, ...read more
If you’ve ever worked in an office, you know about the battle of the thermostat. This futile clash costs quite a bit of energy: some 12 percent of the United States’ total energy consumption goes to regulating building temperature with air conditioning.
Now, a new fabric could end that war and save energy at the same time. The textile, described Friday in the journal Science Advances, offers wearers dual heating and cooling, allowing individuals to control their perso ...read more
Tending to a nursing newborn is hard enough, but sea lion moms have an extra challenge. To consume enough calories for themselves and their pups, they have to repeatedly leave their babies behind and swim out to sea to hunt. Each time the mothers return, they have to find their pups again. Australian sea lion moms use a pup’s smell and the sound of its calls to recognize it. They also use sight—which scientists learned by creating fake, stuffed sea ...read more
