A NASA rover deployed to Chile’s Atacama desert has discovered microbes in one of the most Mars-like environments on Earth. It could prove helpful in the search for life on Red Planet.
The life that the rover found was adapted to extremely salty environments, much like those on Mars. Scientists also say the life was patchy, which they expected and called a basic rule of ecology. That's because nutrients and water tend to accumulate in pools. But finding that this also holds true in extrem ...read more
The last time Jim Murphy saw snow in Los Angeles, he was 11 years old. It was December, 1968 — a week or so before holiday break — and the already unruly class was stirred into a frenzy when one sixth grader spotted the flurries outside.
“Of course, everyone ran out of the classroom,” Murphy recalls. “The teacher had no control.”
Northridge, where Murphy grew up, is a neighborhood of Los Angeles that sits at about 800 feet above sea level. Snow is more comm ...read more
What color are these shells? The grove snail, Cepaea nemoralis, comes in a range of colors that can be roughly sorted into three groups: yellow, pink and brown.
Tracking color has been key to studying the evolution of this snail, however new research published in the journal Heredity highlights differences in the way humans see color that can make categorization a bit trickier (remember The Dress?)
“As scientists, to ensure the accuracy of our studies and the subsequent interpretat ...read more
Getting enough deep sleep might be the key to preventing dementia. In a series of recent experiments on mice, researchers discovered that deep sleep helps the brain clear out potentially toxic waste. The discovery reinforces how critical quality sleep is for brain health and suggests sleep therapies might curb the advance of memory-robbing ailments, like Alzheimer's disease.
“Alzheimer’s disease is a major problem for the patients, their families and society,” said M ...read more
(Inside Science) -- Most of us are familiar with the screeching noise packing tape makes when it's peeled off a box, as well as the frustration of failing to cleanly remove a label from a new purchase. It turns out that the jerky stop-and-go motion we experience when peeling tape occurs at a microscopic level as well.
Scientists exploring the physics of peeling tape have observed that tape detaches from a surface in a series of tiny lines perpendicular to the peeling direction that can tr ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine