An experiment with white-crowned sparrows shows that insecticides may be impacting songbirds. (Credit: Phil Lowe/Shutterstock)
Some migrating songbirds may be starving thanks to agricultural pesticides. Neonicotinoids are popular insecticides used in industrial agriculture across the U.S. But the chemicals' are controversial because of their detrimental impact on bees and other pollinators.
Now, a group of researchers has added heat to the debate, showing that even small amounts of one pa ...read more
When you're overcome with fear, it's not adrenaline making you want to fight or flee. (Credit: Master1305/Shutterstock)
A thrilling high when you’re faced with danger, a boost of energy when you’re going for an intense run – we tend to associate these rushes with adrenaline, a hormone synonymous with our fight-or-flight response. But it turns out adrenaline might not be what activates our brains' stress reaction after all.
In fact, our bones might be doing more work than ...read more
Astronomers first found Comet C/2019 Q4 on August 30. The past week of observations, including this image taken by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Hawaii's Big Island, have increased astronomers confidence that the comet started life in another solar system. (Credit: Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope)
A newly discovered comet has astronomers excited. Formally
named C/2019 Q4 (Borisov), the object appears to have come from outside our
solar system. If confirmed, that would make it the seco ...read more
A gigantic area of super-warm water has formed again off the U.S. West Coast, threatening impacts on weather and wildlife
A map of sea surface temperature anomalies shows a blob of very warm water off the West Coast of the North America. (Source: Climate Reanalyzer, University of Maine)
Five years ago, a gigantic cauldron of abnormally warm water in the Pacific Ocean wreaked havoc on marine ecosystems and contributed to drought along the western coast of North America.
Dubbed "The Blob ...read more
Hurricane Dorian seen from the MODIS imager on Terra, August 31, 2019. NASA.
We seem to now live in an age where people are comfortable ignoring experts, especially those in the sciences.
You may have noticed that Hurricane Dorian didn't hit Alabama. Depending on the circles in which you run, you might think it was a "close call" or a completely mistaken statement that Alabama was ever in any real danger from the hurricane. However, what is clear is that when experts in meteorology -- the ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine