This artist’s concept shows InSight landed safely on the Elysium Planitia region of the Red Planet. (Creditd: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
On November 26, NASA’s InSight spacecraft will touch down on an exceedingly featureless patch on the Martian surface. According to the InSight team, this plain, boring spot couldn’t be more perfect.
The InSight lander aims to study and explore deep into the Red Planet. “It is InSight’s job to study the deep interior of Mars, taking the pl ...read more
Credit: MIT News
If extraterrestrial life exists in our neck of the Milky Way, how would we make our presence known to one another? Could we just shoot a massive, unmistakable signal out into space?
As it turns out, this wild sounding idea could actually be carried out with current and developing technologies. A new MIT study found that by shining a powerful laser through a gigantic telescope, humans could produce a beam of infrared radiation detectable from 20,000 light-years away. The r ...read more
Scientists got African clawed frogs, similar to this one, to regrow limbs in the lab. (Credit: D. Kucharski K. Kucharska/shutterstock)
Millions of people live with amputated limbs that are gone forever. But that might not be the case forever. For the first time, scientists have shown that adult frogs can regrow amputated legs. They say the approach can work in humans, too. “There is no reason that human bodies can’t regenerate,” said Tufts University biologist Michael Levin, ...read more
A bitcoin mining operation near Moscow, Russia. (Nikiforaw77/shutterstock)
Mining cryptocurrency uses more energy than conventional mining of copper or platinum and at least as much as mining gold finds new research published today in the journal Nature Sustainability. The digital currencies aren’t helping climate change either, as they produce millions of tons of CO2 emissions. Market trends for the virtual currency are on the rise suggesting energy requirements for cryptocurrencies wil ...read more
(Credit: tommaso lizzul/Shutterstock)
Have you had your tonsils out? If you’re a millennial, the answer is probably no. Tonsillectomies, once all the rage in the mid-to-late 20th century, have fallen off sharply in recent decades.
They may not have fallen off far enough, though. A new study suggests that seven of every eight tonsillectomies in Britain weren’t actually necessary.
Leave Those Tonsils
Writing in the British Journal of General Practice, researchers from ...read more
A comparison of skulls from a human (left) and a Neanderthal (right). (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Did Neanderthals have language? Before trying to answer that, I should admit my bias: I’m team Neanderthal. As an anthropologist who studies our evolutionary cousins, I’ve seen plenty of evidence suggesting Neanderthals were competent, complex, social creatures. In light of their apparent cognitive abilities, I’m inclined to believe they had language.
But I can’t ...read more
A color image of the Hellas Planitia region of Mars. (Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS)
Today, water on mars is locked into ice deposits or held in deep underground lakes. But, water once flowed across the planet’s surface, and researchers have found further evidence of its presence on the Red Planet.
A new study, reveals that the Hellas impact basin on Mars once contained a number of ephemeral lakes, or lakes that are usually dry but fill up with water for brief periods of time.
Wat ...read more
Earlier this year, I posted on how Sergio Della Salla, the editor of Cortex, criticized a headline-grabbing JAMA paper that had reported neuropsychological abnormalities in US embassy staff exposed to the mysterious Havana ‘sonic attack’. According to Della Salla, the evidence presented didn’t suggest enduring cognitive deficits in the victims.
Now, Della Salla is back (along with co-authors) for round two with a new paper, called Cognitive symptoms in US government personnel ...read more
