Sci/Tech

June 13, 2017 – A new study led by Michael West of Lowell Observatory and Roberto De Propris of the University of Turku, Finland, reveals that the most massive galaxies in the universe have been aligned with their surroundings for at least ten billion years. This discovery shows that galaxies, like people, are influenced by […]

June 12, 2017 – Researchers from the University of Zurich have simulated the formation of our entire Universe with a large supercomputer. A gigantic catalogue of about 25 billion virtual galaxies has been generated from 2 trillion digital particles. This catalogue is being used to calibrate the experiments on board the Euclid satellite, that will […]

June 8, 2017 – This 70 km-wide crater and its surrounds offer a window into the watery past of the Red Planet. The scene, captured by ESA’s Mars Express, is a composite of two images taken in March 2007 and February 2017. It focuses on a large crater in the Margaritifer Terra region in the […]

Irvine, Calif., June 7, 2017 — An increase in mean temperature of 0.5 degrees Celsius over half a century may not seem all that serious, but it’s enough to have more than doubled the probability of a heat wave killing in excess of 100 people in India, according to researchers at the University of California, […]

This Hubble Space Telescope image shows the binary star system Stein 2051 on October 1, 2013, consisting of the brighter, redder “A” component at lower right and the fainter, bluer “B” component near the center, a white dwarf star. Because these stars are relatively close to Earth, only 18 light-years away, they appear to move […]

June 5, 2017 – A newly discovered Jupiter-like world is so hot, it’s being vaporized by its own star. With a dayside temperature of more than 7,800 degrees Fahrenheit (4,600 Kelvin), KELT-9b is a planet that is hotter than most stars. But its blue A-type star, called KELT-9, is even hotter — in fact, it […]

June 5, 2017 – Last year was the hottest on record, Arctic sea ice is on the decline and sea levels continue to rise. In this context, satellites are providing us with an unbiased view of how our climate is changing and the effects it is having on our planet. Estimates show that the global […]

May 30, 2017 – Pale “halos” around fractures in bedrock analyzed by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover contain copious silica, indicating that ancient Mars had liquid water for a long time. “The concentration of silica is very high at the centerlines of these halos,” said Jens Frydenvang, a rover-team scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in […]

May 25, 2017 – Astronomers have watched as a massive, dying star was likely reborn as a black hole. It took the combined power of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), and NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes to go looking for remnants of the vanquished star, only to find that it disappeared out of sight. […]

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. May 23, 2017 – Brown-headed cowbirds are unconventional mothers. Rather than building nests and nurturing their chicks, they lay their eggs in the nests of other species, leaving their young ones to compete for resources with the foster parents’ own hatchlings. Despite their reputation as uncaring, absentee moms, cowbird mothers are capable of […]

May 22, 2017 – The wildfire that has raged across more than 150,000 acres of the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia and Florida has sent smoke billowing into the sky as far as the eye can see. Now, new research published by the Georgia Institute of Technology shows how that smoke could impact the atmosphere and […]

May 22, 2017 – There’s something new to look for in the heavens, and it’s called a “synestia,” according to planetary scientists Simon Lock at Harvard University and Sarah Stewart at the University of California, Davis. A synestia, they propose, would be a huge, spinning, donut-shaped mass of hot, vaporized rock, formed as planet-sized objects […]

May 22, 2017 – A new vulnerability affecting Android mobile devices results not from a traditional bug, but from the malicious combination of two legitimate permissions that power desirable and commonly-used features in popular apps. The combination could result in a new class of attacks, which has been dubbed “Cloak and Dagger.” The vulnerability, which […]

May 19, 2017 – Growing plants and then storing the CO2 they have taken up from the atmosphere is no viable option to counteract unmitigated emissions from fossil fuel burning, a new study shows. The plantations would need to be so large, they would eliminate most natural ecosystems or reduce food production if implemented as […]

May 18, 2017 – A nationwide analysis of water use over the past 30 years finds that there is a disconnect between rural and urban areas, with most urban areas becoming more water efficient and most rural areas becoming less and less efficient over time. “Understanding water use is becoming increasingly important, given that climate […]

May 16, 2017 – Climate change will likely cause wheat and barley yields to decline by 17 to 33 percent by the end of the century, predicts a new statistical model developed by researchers at the University of California, Davis, and Cornell University. The study, based on 65 years of weather records and wheat and […]

May 9, 2017 – Fossil evidence of early life has been discovered by UNSW scientists in 3.48 billion year old hot spring deposits in the Pilbara of Western Australia – pushing back by 3 billion years the earliest known existence of inhabited terrestrial hot springs on Earth. Previously, the world’s oldest evidence for microbial life […]

May 9, 2017 – How often are safety concerns raised about a drug after it’s been approved by the FDA? Nicholas Downing, MD, of the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and colleagues have found that for drugs approved between 2001 and 2010, nearly 1 in 3 had a postmarket safety event. The […]

May 8, 2017 – Rachel Buxton, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology at Colorado State University, recently offered the advice above when discussing her latest research. She would like more people to think about noise pollution when they’re visiting a national park or protected area. Buxton is the lead author […]