Fountains of lava erupted from the Sundhnúkur volcanic system in southwest Iceland on Jan. 14, 2024. As the world watched on webcams and social media, lava flows cut off roads and bubbled from a new fissure that invaded the outskirts of the coastal town of Grindavík, burning down at least three houses in their path.Nearby, construction vehicles that had been working for weeks to build large earthen dams and berms in an attempt to divert the lava’s flow had to pull back.The lava flow on Ja ...read more
A new computer model might explain why some animals shrink over time while others grow. It has to do a lot with their habitat and resource availability."Where direct competition is less, sizes tend to get bigger, even though being big and few in number can make animals more vulnerable to dying out – such as what happened with the dinosaurs," said Shovonlal Roy, study lead author who specialized in ecosystem modeling at the University of Reading, in a press release. The study was published in ...read more
Every squirrel has a science story to tell, but, sadly, squirrels vastly
outnumber squirrel scientists. That’s where you, the intrepid citizen
scientist, come in. Try out the squirrel projects in this newsletter,
along with other squirrel-centric and squirrel-adjacent projects you’ll
find with the handy SciStarter Project Finder, and help sort out the
many mysteries of our favorite wild rodent.Cheers!The SciStarter TeamWhat sorts of squirrels live near you? Researchers at Project Squirr ...read more
It was the fall of 1888, and the inhabitants of London were frozen with fear. “The air of Whitechapel is thick with murders and rumors of murder,” an article in The Star announced in September. “Whitechapel is panic-stricken,” with its inhabitants too terrified to travel the twisting, smoggy streets alone. The widespread terror in Whitechapel was all thanks to the work of a “murderous maniac,” according to the article, “who stalks through the streets,” targeting “the most miser ...read more
The only constant is change. At least, that’s what the Greek philosopher Heraclitus is credited to have said. And while science and philosophy don’t always go hand in hand, there is some truth to Heraclitus’ notion. Change is inevitable and, in some cases, necessary for our species to evolve. While some change happens automatically, like the tides going in and out, some changes bloomed from scientific discoveries. Using fire to cook food and keep warm propelled our ancestors toward the fo ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine