For almost 60 years, the world’s most iconic radio telescope consisted of a 305-metre dish built into a natural sinkhole in Puerto Rico with a 900-tonne receiver suspended above. But on 1 December 2020, the receiver plummeted to the ground after its supporting cables snapped, destroying the dish. The US National Science Foundation, which runs the facility, had long been aware of the ageing observatory’s shortcomings. Indeed, it had closed the observatory and announced plans to demolish it. B ...read more
Hobbits are usually found feasting, drinking, gardening and destroying rings in Tolkien's fictional Middle-Earth. But in reality, ancient remains indicate that hobbit-sized humanoids once lived on the Indonesian island of Flores. While researchers found artifacts such as stone tools, there was no evidence of dark lords or broken swords. The ancient remains belonged to Homo floresiensis, also known as the Flores Hobbit or simply, hobbit. As more research goes into the Flores Hobbit, it leaves ...read more
A "smokestorm" swirls over North America, as seen by the GOES-16 satellite on May 20, 2023. (Credit: Screenshot of animation RAMMB/CIRA Slider animation)On May 20, 2023, the GOES-16 satellite acquired astonishing imagery of what one climate scientist described as a "smokestorm." It happened as massive amounts of smoke billowing up from wildfires blazing in the western Canadian province of Alberta got sucked into a low-pressure weather system whirling counterclockwise near the border of Canada an ...read more
About 250 million years ago, widespread volcanic eruptions changed the earth’s atmosphere and thus its climate, setting off “The Great Dying,” otherwise known as the Permian extinction. Some nine out of 10 species disappeared over the course of about a million years, during which herbivores and predators alike jockeyed for resources, including the formidable inostrancevia.A saber-toothed meat-eater that likely had tough skin like a rhino and ran on all fours, the inostrancevia was the larg ...read more
Most breeds of chicken go around barefoot, with no feathers on their talons. But a new study found a simple genetic method to reverse this, neatly transforming scales into something else. Even the smallest changes in gene expression can affect embryonic development.The researchers’ method, carried out through the so-called Sonic Hedgehog pathway, could also help explain how scaly dinosaurs eventually evolved into lineages of small, feathery birds.Egg CandlingThe study took 11-day-old incubatin ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
