A common triplefin, one of the fish species that may dominate temperate habitats in the near, acidic future. Photo c/o Wikimedia
Scientists predict that in the next twenty years, the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in our atmosphere will rise from the roughly 404 ppm it is now to over 450 ppm—and as a result, ecosystems worldwide will change. Many impacts will be particularly felt in our planet’s oceans. As atmospheric CO2 levels rise, more of the gas dissolves in ...read more
It’s a good thing field sobriety tests don’t exist for bugs, because the jumping spider Myrmarachne formicaria would fail for doing what keeps it alive: walking in a wobbly line. The spider fools predators by imitating an ant. The act is so thorough that it includes how the spider looks, stands and even moves.
Many, many types of jumping spiders have evolved to look like ants. Imitating another animal with better defenses is a tried-and-true strategy for avoiding predators ...read more
It appears that memes and science don’t mix well. A pair of researchers have published an apology in a peer-reviewed journal – for using the word “derpy” in an earlier paper.
In April 2016, Archives of Sexual Behavior published a piece called Fighting the Derpy Science of Sexuality by Banu Subramaniam and Angela Willey.
In this paper, Subramaniam and Willey criticized studies of biological differences between human groups:
The various sciences of‘& ...read more
At SciStarter, we aim to reach people where they are and connect them to opportunities to do and shape science through citizen science projects in need of their help.
If someone wants to promote or recruit participants for their project, event, or tool, they register it on SciStarter. Our editors review each record before publishing it. Once it’s published, it can be shared with our partners (including CitSci.org, the Atlas of Living Australia, the U.S. Federal inventory of projects, ...read more
Apollo 8’s launch, also known as SA-503. NASA.
If you look up a list of all Apollo missions NASA flew in the 1960s and 70s, you’d see Apollo 1, then Apollo 4 through 17. So what exactly happened to the missing Apollos 2 and 3?
When NASA started testing Apollo and Saturn hardware in the early 1960s — the hardware that would eventually fly to the Moon — it established a pretty standard nomenclature. Every rocket was given a letter designation for the rocket and paylo ...read more
A new theory suggests dark matter could coalesce into massive structures.
A new theory says physics might allow dark matter to form into compact objects, like planets. But don’t try to walk on such a world. (Credit: NASA)
Dark stars may not just be for Grateful Dead fans anymore.
In a new paper uploaded to arXiv, Rutgers University astrophysics professor Matthew R. Buckley puts forth a truly wild hypothesis: It might be possible to build worlds out of dark matter.
But the whole thing cam ...read more
By: Russ Campbell
There is a lot to learn from bees. The survival of the hive depends on the combined efforts of the entire colony. In Conetoe (pronounced KUH-nee-tah), North Carolina Reverend Richard Joyner and his family of youth beekeepers are tending to bees and building community, one hive at a time.
Reverend Joyner is the force behind the Conetoe Family Life Center, created to address the fact that in one year, he conducted more than 30 funerals for people under 50 who had died from chroni ...read more
Photo: flickr/Thomas Hawk
Despite evidence to the contrary, many like to think that the U.S. justice system works pretty well. This is especially true when it comes to the ultimate punishment — the death penalty. But as we know, not everyone on death row is guilty. So where does the process go wrong? Here, researchers tested whether snap judgements of peoples’ faces affected whether they were given the death penalty. To do so, the researchers had volunteers judge the &ldq ...read more
Lumosity “brain training” games have no beneficial effects on cognition, according to a paper just published in the Journal of Neuroscience.
According to the authors, led by UPenn psychologist Joseph W. Kable, Lumosity “appears to have no benefits in healthy young adults above those of standard video games.”
In the study, 128 young adults were randomly assigned to either 10 weeks of Lumosity training, or a control condition: 10 weeks of playing normal, non-brain-based on ...read more
