It sounds crazy. In recent years, scientists have confirmed a remarkable link between two kinds of objects that should, by all rights, have nothing to do with each other: black holes and strange metals. The former are the famous guzzlers of deep space, able to swallow anything — including stars, planets and even light itself — that gets too close. The latter are closer at hand, though less familiar: the stuff left behind when so-called high-temperature superconductors, materials with ...read more
1. For centuries, academics thought colored light was modified white, or “pure,” light. (We’ll get back to how wrong they were in a bit.)
2. And color sometimes is a modifier. For example, coloring foods goes back at least 3,500 years, when ancient Egyptians added wine and other colorants to candy to increase its visual appeal.
3. The history of coloring food is stained with nefarious deeds. Toxic lead- and mercury-based compounds were once pervasive in Asia and Europe to add c ...read more
An adult female Lord Howe Island insect. (Credit: Rohan Cleave, Melbourne Zoo)
Lord Howe Island stick insects are back for good. Nearly a century ago, they were exiled from their homeland by invasive rats and thought extinct, only to be rediscovered in 2001, confined to a lonely rock spire in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The insects looked different though. They were skinnier and had lost some of their spines, raising questions about their origins.
Now, a new genetic analysis confirms that ...read more
(Credit: Shutterstock)
Paying a higher price for something is typically associated with positive benefits. When you shell out more for a thing, you feel it’s faster, stronger, softer or cleaner. You know that premium you paid was worth it.
But when it comes to medication, the association between high price and added benefits is sort of flipped on its head: A medication perceived to be expensive was associated with more negative side effects. That, at least, is a key finding in a new stud ...read more
A view of the crater at Agung on September 27, 2017. The increased steam and gas emissions can be seen on the right side of the crater. The dark scar on the slopes of the volcano come from a forest fire earlier in the month. Image by Planet Labs.
We have likely entered the most dangerous period in the waiting game at Agung in Indonesia. It has been over 2 weeks since the volcano began to show signs of unrest and it has done very little other than shake and produce a small steam-and-gas plume. Up ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
