Lightning was detected in association with a thunderstorm located over the Arctic Ocean on Saturday, Aug. 11. (Source: National Weather Service)
We're accustomed to lightning crackling within thunderstorms over relatively warm places like Florida — which happens to be the U.S. lightning champ.
But lightning near the North Pole? Well, that's what happened on Saturday. And so now we get to add this to the list of extreme events that have befallen the Arctic this summer.
These incl ...read more
Our goosebumps are one of those weird quirks that make us human. (Credit: Michal Cervenansky/Shutterstock)
Human bodies do a lot of weird stuff. But goosebumps may be one of our strangest bodily functions.
Goosebumps are humanity's near-universal reaction to the cold. But for some reason, those unmistakable, tiny bumps on the skin also appear when we’re scared or when we’re moved by something awe-inspiring.
What is it about these starkly different experiences that triggers ...read more
(Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab)
(Inside Science) -- Experts believe the building blocks of life first bumped into each other about 3.5 billion years ago. This serendipitous collision somehow helped form the first rudimentary cell -- and the first life on Earth.
At least, that's been the predominant theory. Now, a team of scientists from the University of Washington is challenging this idea in a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Ac ...read more
The Vela pulsar is known to glitch something like once every three years, when it speeds up for a few seconds. (Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ of Toronto/M.Durant et al; Optical: DSS/Davide De Martin)
When a massive star dies, it leaves behind a dense core called a neutron star. Many of these exotic suns spin rapidly, sending out beams of radiation like lighthouses, and these are called pulsars. They can rotate thousands of times a second, and spin so steadily that they can be used as cosmolog ...read more
An animation of Himawari 8 satellite images shows Typhoon Lekima threading the needle between Japanese islands. (Note: The animation is a big file so it may take a moment to load. Source: SSEC/CIMSS)
Typhoon Lekima blasted ashore south of the mega-city of Shanghai early on Saturday local time, whipping the coast with sustained winds of around 115 miles per hour.
A million people were evacuated ahead of the storm, which has caused 13 deaths. Now a tropical storm, Lekima is churning north ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine