Whooping cough cases are increasing in the United States, having hit their highest point in a decade, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Based on the data, there were around 32,000 cases of whooping cough in the U.S. by mid-December in 2024, but around 6,000 cases by mid-December in 2023. There were also more cases of whooping cough in 2024 than in any other year since 2014 (and more cases than in all of 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 combine ...read more
Back in 1998, astronomers made a curious discovery. By studying the behavior of distant supernovas, they concluded that the universe is not just expanding, but that this expansion is accelerating. The cosmos, they concluded, is exploding. The discovery rocked cosmology. It implied that the universe would probably experience a long cold death as its components raced inexorably away from each other. It also raised the question of what was causing this acceleration. Cosmologists eventually decided ...read more
The current eruption at Kīlauea in Hawai'i that started just before Christmas is still rolling along. The activity from the major vents on the edge of the Halema'uma'u crater has waxed and waned some, but lava fountains reaching tens of meters (hundreds of feet) have been common for the past week. The USGS Hawaii Volcano Observatory reports that lava from this eruption has covered two-thirds of the caldera floor. An overflight of the volcano on December 27 showed the extent of the new, dark, bl ...read more
In 2024, space exploration dazzled the world.NASA’s Europa Clipper began its journey to study Jupiter’s moon Europa. SpaceX’s Starship achieved its first successful landing, which is a critical milestone for future deep space missions. China made headlines with the Chang’e 6 mission, which successfully returned samples from the far side of the Moon. Meanwhile, the International Space Station continued to host international crews, including private missions like Axiom Mission 3.As an aero ...read more
When I conceived the idea for this column in 2013, I came up with the name "ImaGeo" as a mashup of "image" and "geo" — as in "images of Earth." (The mashup also hinted at "imagination.")Since then, I've tried whenever possible to emphasize images of Earth from space, as well as imagery created with data from other kinds of sensors. With that original ImaGeo theme in mind as 2024 was drawing to a close, I thought I would pick a selection of compelling images that helped me tell the stories of n ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine