Damage caused by a 2011 earthquake in Oklahoma, likely caused by waste-water injection by humans. USGS.
Earthquakes are common across much of North America. The most famous might be the area along the San Andreas fault in California, where the Pacific and North American plates are sliding side-by-side, generating earthquakes in the process. Even the interior of North America has some major earthquake zones, like the New Madrid Seismic Zone that runs along the Mississippi River from Illinois to ...read more
A tortoise’s shell shape can help determine how quickly it can turn right side up after falling on its back. (Credit: YouTube/Bio Insider)
It’s tough being an adult giant tortoise in the Galapagos Islands—they’re always one step away from flipping upside down. Whether it’s from a fight for male dominance or treading over a jagged field of lava rocks, being unable to get back up is among the most common ways these giant tortoises can die.
There is no Life Alert butt ...read more
A seascape of fear? New study suggests fear of sharks shapes ecosystems. Photo Credit: Narchuk/Shutterstock
It’s kind of incredible how our fears can shape our behaviors. When Jaws was released in 1975, it fundamentally changed how we interact with sharks. In the years that followed, we hunted these large marine predators more intensely, and came to view them as terrible monsters—attitudes scientists still fight to this day. But while our fears are largely unfounded, there are ...read more
Photo: flickr/Nick Harris
When you’re choosing a drink at a bar, what goes into that decision? We know that taste has a lot to do with it, but according to this study, emotions may come into play as well: more specifically, the emotions brought about by the type of alcohol itself. Here, researchers used an online survey of almost 30,000 people around the world to explore the emotions associated with drinking different kids of alcohol. They found that “Overall 29.8% of respondents r ...read more
A person trying out the “Tree” virtual reality experience by the New Reality Company. Credit: James Orlando
Virtual reality experiences can provide an uncanny sense of immersion that tricks participants’ brains into believing they are walking on that narrow beam high above a city or are being chased by a monster through dark halls. The New Reality Company wants to push the boundaries of virtual reality by adding real-world props and additional sensory stimuli b ...read more
If you know any flat-earth types, you might share this with them…
Sometimes on a #spacewalk, you just have to take a moment to enjoy the beauty of our planet Earth. pic.twitter.com/liTnCB60c9
— Randy Bresnik (@AstroKomrade) November 27, 2017
Video shot by NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik from the International Space Station on Nov. 7, 2017 (Source: Randy Bresnik, Twitter)
Sometimes, all it takes is a stunning new view of the home planet to make all the complications of every day life g ...read more
A Sri Lankan woman grinds flour by hand, similar to how prehistoric women may have. (Credit: Adam P/Shutterstock)
Compared to hunting and gathering, farming can seem like pretty easy work. But the skeletons of Central European women who lived during agriculture’s earliest days would like to tell you otherwise.
An analysis of prehistoric women’s upper arm bones shows they took on formidable tasks of manual labor, likely during the course of tilling, harvesting and otherwise managing ...read more
An animation of satellite images shows Mount Agung in Bali, Indonesia erupting. The images were acquired by Himawari-8, a Japanese weather satellite, between 12:00 UTC on Nov. 26th and 8:00 UTC on Nov. 27th. (Note: When the animation page comes up, make sure to click on ‘play’ there. Source: SLIDER BY RAMMB/CIRA @ CSU)
With magma boiling at its peak and swelling its body from within, Mount Agung in Bali, Indonesia has awakened from more than a half century of slumber.
Agu ...read more
Each horizontal line is a snapshot of a single atom, whether its lit up or not indicates the atom’s magnetic state. (Credit: Data: J. Zhang et al.; graphic: E. Edwards)
Science, especially these days, can move slowly. The days of big leaps in our understanding are mostly behind us, and the progress of scientists is typically slow, but steady. That’s why something like quantum computers, which you’ve probably heard a lot about, have been so slow to actually arrive.
Adding Up Q ...read more
A partial femur collected from a cave in Tibet allegedly belonged to a yeti, the infamous cryptid also known as the abominable snowman. DNA tests showed it was from a Tibetan brown bear. (Credit Icon Films Ltd.)
Researchers took another crack at hair, bone and other samples allegedly from the yeti, or abominable snowman, of the Himalayas. The analysis was the most sophisticated to date but — spoiler alert — the results won’t thrill cryptozoology fans. The study did reveal ...read more
