Move over Triceratops, there’s a new horn-faced dinosaur in town. Researchers announced the fossil of an herbivore dinosaur with one of the largest, most ornate “frills” on its skull and two blade-like horns protruding from it, in the scientific journal PeerJ. Those features inspired its name, Lokiceratops rangiformis, which means “Loki’s horned face that looks like a caribou.” Lokiceratops appeared at least 12 million years earlier than its famous cousin Triceratops and at 22 feet l ...read more
Back in 1994, the Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre proposed a way for spacecraft to travel faster than the speed of light. Instead of accelerating the spacecraft across a region of spacetime, his idea was to contract spacetime ahead of it and expand spacetime behind it. In this scenario, the spacecraft sits in a flat bubble of spacetime that experiences little acceleration.The laws of physics that govern this behavior are Einstein’s field equations for general relativity. And they are fears ...read more
Imagine keeping a laser beam trained on a dime that’s 200 miles away. Now imagine doing that continuously for 24 hours, while riding a merry-go-round. Seem difficult? Well, that’s basically what the Hubble Space Telescope does.After months of technical issues, NASA announced June 4 that Hubble would shift into one-gyroscope mode. This essentially means that the telescope will have to rely on just one of the several gyroscopes – devices that measure an object’s orientation in space – it ...read more
Marcus Aurelius, one of the most celebrated Roman Emperors and a central figure in the philosophical school of Stoicism, continues to capture the imagination of historians and enthusiasts alike. Known for his philosophical writings and his reign as emperor from 161 to 180 AD, Aurelius' life has been well-documented. However, the exact circumstances of his death are less certain, leaving it somewhat shrouded in mystery.Here, we’ll explore the life of Marcus Aurelius, from his historic ascent to ...read more
A new look at a nearly forgotten old bone could change the way we think about the reptiles that preceded the dinosaurs. And the revelation that the bone is the oldest fossil of an oceanic reptile from the Southern Hemisphere — reported in Current Biology — also serves as a legacy to the scientist who prompted its re-evaluation.Dinosaurs and Ancient ReptilesReptiles ruled the seas for millions of years before dinosaurs dominated the land. Sauropterygians, were the most diverse and geologicall ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine