You’ve probably heard people say, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.” There’s a lot of truth to that phrase, and it’s important to understand it as summer temperatures rise.Humidity doesn’t just make you feel sticky and uncomfortable – it also creates extra dangerous conditions on hot days. Together, too much heat and humidity can make you sick. And in severe cases, it can cause your body to shut down.Meteorologists talk about the risk of heat and humidity using the heat in ...read more
The first of several global heating analyses for May is in, and while expected, the news, from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, is still disturbing: It was the warmest May on record, continuing a record-setting heat streak that has now lasted for each of the past 12 months, going back to June 2023.This means global temperatures have been at 1.63 degrees C above preindustrial levels over the past 12 months, according to the Copernicus analysis. Under the Paris Agreement, countries agreed to ...read more
Buronius manfredschmidi nov. gen. et sp. photographs. Upper panel: holotype left upper M2 (GPIT/MA/13005), A–occlusal, B–buccal, C–lingual, D–mesial, E–distal. Lower panel: paratype left lower P4 (GPIT/MA/13004), F–occlusal, G–buccal, H–lingual, I–mesial, J–distal. Scale bars equal 10 mm. (Credit: Böhme et al., 2024, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/))A team of researchers reported a new species, Buronius manfredschmidi, that they estimated w ...read more
We know that humans evolved in Africa from our ape-like ancestors, starting around 6 million years ago. We came down from the trees, began to walk upright, found fire, hunted and gathered, constructed weapons and tools, and then some of us migrated out of Africa.In time, Homo sapiens spread all over the world and became the only remaining hominins after Neanderthals died out around 40,000 years ago.But while we know that H. sapiens started in Africa before populating the rest of the planet, for ...read more
Have you ever played hide-and-seek in a new place? It’s much harder than playing at home. You only know the obvious hiding spots: under the bed, in the closet, behind the couch. The trick is trying to think of hiding spots you can’t even imagine. How do you search in places you never thought could be hiding spots?That is kind of what scientists like me do when we look for alien life; we’re trying to think of new ways to look for life. In the meantime, we’re looking for life by looking fo ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine