NASA has set its sights on the Moon, aiming to send astronauts back to the lunar surface by 2026 and establish a long-term presence there by the 2030s. But the Moon isn’t exactly a habitable place for people.Cosmic rays from distant stars and galaxies and solar energetic particles from the Sun bombard the surface, and exposure to these particles can pose a risk to human health.Both galactic cosmic rays and solar energetic particles, are high-energy particles that travel close to the speed of l ...read more
Humans have long been fascinated by organisms that can produce light. Aristotle, who was a scientist as well as a philosopher, wrote the first detailed descriptions of what he called “cold light” more than 2,000 years ago. More recently, pioneering researchers like World War II Army veteran Emmett Chappelle and deep submergence vehicle pilot Edith Widder advanced the study of this phenomenon with novel technologies.At least 94 living organisms produce their own light through a chemical react ...read more
Millions of years before the Tyrannosaurus rex roamed the Earth, another group of gigantic meat-eating dinosaurs reigned supreme in the Early to Mid-Cretaceous period. The theropod, known as the Carcharodontosaurus, reached a truly enormous size, some growing even bigger than the icon of the Jurassic Park series. Blade-Like Teeth of the CarcharodontosaurusThese enormous predators were amongst the largest to ever walk the Earth. They roamed North Africa around 99 million years to 94 million years ...read more
Jonah Choiniere, a paleobiologist at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, was boating around the world’s largest artificial lake in 2018 when he and his team found the first known fossils of Musankwa sanyatiensis — an ancestor of the sauropod dinosaurs from around 210 million years ago.Part of a flood of similar discoveries from the past decade or so, the fossils hint at how the four-legged sauropods developed from the two-legged sauropodomorphs that preceded them. “We knew r ...read more
For hundreds of years, mariners and fishermen knew this sea creature as a herald of woe. Seeing one in the water or even washed up on shore was an omen, a warning of some impending disaster, typically a natural one, such as an earthquake or tsunami. In Japan, the creature was named “ryugu no tsukai,” a messenger from the palace of the sea god. Others dramatically dubbed it the Harbinger of Doom, or simply the Doomsday Fish. You may know it as the oarfish.Then again, this might be your first ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine