(Credit: NASA)
In space, astronauts see stars in more than one way. Ever since the 1960s, space travelers have reported seeing bright flashes of light even with their eyes closed.
They’re usually described as either bursts or streaks, and are most often white. They seem to be frequent, too, many astronauts complained of trouble sleeping because of the disruptive scintillations. The culprit seems to be cosmic rays, highly energetic particles emanating from far-off sources that are normall ...read more
(Credit: Shutterstock)
For many who value science, 2017 will be remembered as the dawn of a new era. January saw the inauguration of Donald Trump, a president who has denied climate change and filled his inner circle with anti-science activists. But the year was as much an awakening as an annus horribilis: Researchers and citizens alike, in the U.S. and beyond, chose to speak out at rallies, on social media and even in the political arena — unprecedented numbers of scientists are consideri ...read more
A parasitic fungus that controls the behaviour of fruit flies has, for the first time, been studied in the lab.
In a fascinating preprint posted on Biorxiv, researchers Carolyn Elya et al. report how they discovered the pathogen in the wild near Berkeley, California. The fungus belongs to the species Entomophthora muscae, which is already known to prey on various species of wild flies. But Elya et al. found a way to infect laboratory flies with the disease, thus allowing them to study the fungus ...read more
An unmanned military robot rolls out of a U.S. Marine amphibious vehicle during the Ship-to-Shore Maneuver Exploration and Experimentation Advanced Naval Technology Exercise 2017 at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. Credit: Lance Cpl. Jamie Arzola
A United Nations meeting on lethal autonomous weapons ended in disappointment for advocates hoping that the world would make progress on regulating or banning “killer robot” technologies. The UN group of governm ...read more
A view acquired by the new GOES-East satellite on Monday, Dec. 18, 2017. Click on the image to see the latest view of the Continental United States. And then hit the Play button on the left of that web page to watch an animation of recent images. (Source: RAMMB/CIRA/SLIDER)
A brand spanking new advanced U.S. satellite is now fully operational and monitoring weather, wildfires, lightning and other phenomena.
The satellite formerly known as GOES-16, now renamed GOES-East and fully ope ...read more
Fruit fly. (Credit: ELDIE AARON JUSTIM/Shutterstock)
Mind-controlling parasites are the stuff of nightmares and blockbuster horror movies, yet organisms that turn normally sensible creatures into zombies are all too real. Most of the microbes and fungi that do this are restricted to the insect world, luckily, though those cases are gruesome enough.
Ants with fungal spores growing from their heads, cockroaches eaten from the inside by parasitic wasp larva, fish driven to suicide-by-bird &m ...read more
This schlieren image shows an Air Force Test Pilot School T-38 in a transonic state, meaning the aircraft is transitioning from a subsonic speed to supersonic. Above and beneath the aircraft, shockwaves are seen starting to form. (Credit: NASA)
NASA wants to make sonic booms a little less…boom-y.
When a jet breaks the sound barrier, it generates shockwaves that are eventually heard—and felt—on the ground as sonic booms. The boisterous nature of supersonic flight is one of th ...read more
The tiny little yellow guy is the actual flower. The red bits are leaves. (Credit: Scott Bauer/USDA)
Poinsettias are a holiday icon. Their crimson colors are so commonplace this time of year that they practically blend into the background. And once the holidays are over, they’ll disappear like so many Christmas trees.
But these seemingly boring flowers actually hide a fascinating history. Poinsettias owe their holiday prevalence to some weird quirks of evolution — and one clever So ...read more
