Today's Science News
October 29, 2024
James Webb telescope finds 1st possible 'failed stars' beyond the Milky Way — and they could reveal new secrets of the early universe - The James Webb Space Telescope may have found dozens of elusive brown dwarfs — strange objects larger than planets but smaller than stars — beyond the Milky Way for the first time ever.NASA's Perseverance rover gets stunning view of big Mars crater from slippery slope (video, photos) - NASA's Perseverance rover took a break from its Mars mountaineering expedition recently to survey its old stomping grounds.
Less than 7 mm in length, this Atlantic Rainforest flea toad is the second-smallest vertebrate described in the world - A new species of flea toad, B. dacnis, discovered in the Atlantic Rainforest, showcases remarkable miniaturization and distinct vocalizations.
China launches 3 astronauts to Tiangong space station on Shenzhou 19 mission (video) - China launched the Shenzhou 19 mission to orbit today (Oct. 29), sending three astronauts toward the nation's Tiangong space station for a six-month stay.
Ken Iliff: Engineering 40 Years of Success - Editor’s note: This article was published May 23, 2003, in NASA Armstrong’s X-Press newsletter.
“Impact printing” is a cement-free alternative to 3D-printed structures - Impact printing uses a high-velocity jet of material, fusing it into a structure.
6 reasons not to buy in the Black Friday sales - While there are mistakes to avoid and reasons not to buy in the Black Friday sales, here's our advice to make the most of the shopping event.
NASA faces tough decisions on Orion capsule's heat shield for Artemis moon missions - NASA remains in an ongoing test mode to determine what’s behind the ablative thermal protective material that chipped away unexpectedly from the Artemis 1 Orion heat shield during its reentry.
Ancient oak named after a band is UK Tree of the Year - The Skipinnish Oak in Lochaber is thought to be at least 1,000 years old.
Introducing iQue®'s 2nd Edition High-Throughput Cytometry Handbook: Fast. Simple. Discover the Future of Cell Analysis! - This handbook is designed to empower both new and seasoned flow cytometry users who are curious about the unique capabilities of HTS cytometry.
Global warming caused massive number of deaths in European heatwave: study - The 2022 heatwaves in Europe saw record-breaking temperatures and a surge in heat-related deaths across the continent.
1,200-year-old Viking cemetery with 'stone ship' burials discovered in Sweden - Archaeologists in Sweden were expecting to find an ancient settlement, but they were surprised to discover a Viking Age cemetery with boat-shaped burial outlines.
A Particular Lenticular Cloud - Landsat 8’s Operational Land Imager acquired this image of an elongated lenticular cloud, locally nicknamed the “Taieri Pet,” above New Zealand’s South Island on Sept. 7, 2024.
Zombie Fungi Hijack Hosts’ Brains - Mind-controlling fungi are changing the ways that scientists understand host-parasite relationships.
Nature presenter Chris Packham settles case over axing of green policy - The TV presenter says the previous Tory administration was "reckless" to scale back climate policy.
Carissa Arillo: Testing Spacecraft, Penning the Owner’s Manuals - Flight operations engineer Carissa Arillo helped ensure one of the instruments on NASA’s PACE mission made it successfully through its prelaunch testing.
A 13,000-Year-Old Camp Site Reveals Hunting Patterns from Ancient Humans - An ancient campsite discovered in the Great Lakes can tell us how these ancient humans used to live.
NASA Sets Coverage for its SpaceX Crew-9 Dragon Station Relocation - In preparation for the arrival of NASA’s SpaceX 31st commercial resupply services mission, four crew members aboard the International Space Station will
Ancient Indigenous weapons from Australia can deliver 'devastating blows,' 1st-ever biomechanics study of its kind reveals - A first-ever biomechanics study of two First Nations weapons systems has identified the design features that make them so formidable.
The surprising reason a classical computer beat a quantum computer at its own game - Researchers outperformed a quantum computer using classical algorithms, discovering confinement in a two-dimensional system of flipping magnets.
Scientist Calculates Perfect Beer Glass Shape To Keep Liquid Cool - The shape of a beer glass is even more important than anybody thought, according to important new research.
Watch 1st-ever video of ovulation occurring in real-time - A new imaging technique enabled scientists to film every step of ovulation as it unfolds in mouse cells.
'First tree on Mars:' Scientists measure greenhouse effect needed to terraform Red Planet - What is the amount of greenhouse warming required to heat up the cold climes of Mars enough so that trees can grow on the Red Planet?
Mount Fuji remains snowless for longer than ever before - Japan's highest mountain typically gets snow by early October, but there has been unusually warm weather this year.
How NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer Could Decipher the Moon’s Icy Secrets - There’s water on the Moon, but scientists only have a general idea of where it is and what form it is in.
Modified metal-organic framework can capture benzene in the atmosphere to tackle a major health risk - Scientists have developed a new material capable of capturing the harmful chemical benzene from the polluted air, offering a potential solution for tackling a major health and environmental risk.
Death of a Comet: S1 Didn’t Survive its Sungrazing Plummet - Sungrazer C/2024 S1 ATLAS breaks apart at perihelion.
NASA's Artemis 2 moon mission: Live updates - NASA's Artemis 2 mission is returning astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972.
450-million-year-old fossil bug preserved in fool’s gold - A spectacular golden fossil has been discovered preserved in iron pyrite, otherwise known as fool’s gold, in the US state of New York.
A New 450-Million-Year-Old Arthropod Was Preserved in Fool's Gold - Scientists discover a new species of arthropod preserved in 3-D by iron pyrite.
Key Atlantic current could collapse soon, 'impacting the entire world for centuries to come,' leading climate scientists warn - Leading climate scientists ring alarm bell on key Atlantic Ocean current collapse in open letter.
NASA Helps Find Thawing Permafrost Adds to Near-Term Global Warming - Earth’s far northern reaches have locked carbon underground for millennia.
NASA Group Amplifies Voices of Employees with Disabilities - A past and current chair of the Disability Awareness Advisory Group at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland reflect on progress and future goals.
NASA Relaunches Mentor-Protégé Program to Fill Supply Chain Gaps - In an effort to grow new commercial markets that support the future of space exploration, scientific discovery, and aeronautics research, NASA is preparing to
DAILY DOSE: Dairy Worker Virus Study Raises Human Infection Concerns; Human Kissing’s Origin May Come From Ape Grooming Rituals. - A study on H5N1 avian flu reveals serious risks to humans, highlighting the need for containment amid rising dairy cattle outbreaks.
Open database of plastic products highlights substantial knowledge gaps - Plastics contain a vast number of chemicals, some of which greatly impact the environment and human health.
A candy engineer explains the science behind the Snickers bar - How the airy nougat and chewy caramel is built.
How can you write data to DNA without changing the base sequence? - A new method lets anyone with a kit write data to DNA with just one enzyme.
Underwater Temple from ‘Indiana Jones Civilization’ Discovered - An ancient temple made by Arabian immigrants from the Nabataean culture has finally been found off the Italian coast
Watch China launch Shenzhou-19 astronauts to Tiangong space station today (video) - The crew were revealed less than a day ahead of launch.
Ars Live: What else can GLP-1 drugs do? Join us today for a discussion. - Dr. Daniel Drucker will discuss what's ahead for these blockbuster drugs.
Advanced biodegradable plastics run rings around their predecessors - Achieving a sustainable society requires the development of advanced degradable plastics, or polymers, which are molecules composed of long chains of repeating units.
Distorted galaxy whizzes through crowded cluster in new Hubble Telescope image - A new image from the Hubble Space Telescope captures the galaxy IC 3225 with a comet-like tail of gas streaming from its central disk as it moves through the Virgo Cluster.
Math and Puzzle Fans Find Magic in Martin Gardner’s Legacy - Scientific American columnist Martin Gardner started a long mathematical conversation that continues today
'Wake-up call': Women are more likely than men to die of complications after heart surgery - Complications that arise after surgery are more likely to be underrecognized and undertreated in women than in men, leading to higher death rates, new research suggests.
New NASA Instrument for Studying Snowpack Completes Airborne Testing - Summer heat has significant effects in the mountainous regions of the western United States.
Who's in your commercial? Capital One ad stars (unnamed) astronaut - A banker, an athlete and an astronaut walk onto a stage... No, that is not the setup for a joke, but rather the premise behind a new commercial starring a veteran NASA space traveler.
People Overestimate Political Opponents’ Immorality - To heal political division, start with common moral ground, a study suggests
Animal Embryos Can Sense Predators and Food While Still Inside the Egg - Animal embryos can adapt to their surroundings in remarkable ways like sensing predators and food sources to improve their survival.
Have we found all the major Maya cities? Not even close, new research suggests - Researchers used laser-guided imaging to uncover vast unexplored Maya settlements in Campeche, Mexico, revealing more than 6,500 pre-Hispanic structures, including a previously unknown large city with stone pyramids.
Oceanographers record the largest predation event ever observed in the ocean - In the largest predation event ever recorded, researchers observed capelin shoaling off the coast of Norway, where a swarm of cod overtook them, consuming over 10 million fish in a few hours.
Newly discovered cyanobacteria could help sequester carbon from oceans and factories - What if a microbe could help curb the climate crisis?
Weddell seals in the Antarctic strategically time their most extreme dives to maximize foraging - Weddell seals in Erebus Bay, Antarctica, may look like couch potatoes when they are resting on ice.
Scientists explore scents to mimic beer and wine in non-alcoholic drinks - Today, people increasingly seek non-alcoholic versions of beer or wine.
Fossil hunters strike gold with new species - Paleontologists have identified fossils of an ancient species of bug that spent the past 450 million years covered in fool's gold in central New York.
New app performs motion capture using just your smartphone — no suits, specialized cameras or equipment needed - Motion capture requires special equipment and infrastructure that can cost upward of $100,000 — but scientists have created a smartphone app and AI algorithm to do the same job.
This Sponge Pulls Gold from Electronic Waste - A self-building sponge that efficiently collects gold could eliminate some harsh methods used to process e-waste
Is Depression Contagious? - The science about whether mental health conditions can spread socially is uncertain, but exposure to an affected peer can drive awareness
Scientists uncover key mechanism in pathogen defense, paving way for new antimicrobial strategies - Researchers have made a significant breakthrough in understanding how certain pathogens defend themselves against the host's immune system.
Team observes how iron atoms alter grain boundary structures in titanium - Using state-of-the-art microscopy and simulation techniques, an international research team has systematically observed how iron atoms alter the structure of grain boundaries in titanium.
We Must Restore Trust in Science in ‘Antiscientific America’ - Anti-intellectualism is a prevalent and pernicious force in American public life.
How Harris’s Medicare Plan Could Make At-Home Care for Older Adults Easier - Harris recently proposed a Medicare plan that would cover at-home health aides and other long-term care services, which could provide much needed relief to older adults and caregivers
Thunderstorms churn up a ‘boiling pot’ of high-energy gamma rays - A thunderstorm seen in gamma ray vision plays out as a complex, frenzied lightshow above the clouds.
7 centuries-old suits of battle armor from around the world - From Roman "fish scale" armor to Japanese samurai suits, these examples of battle armor were designed to protect and impress.
The trees of Miami’s future - A University of Miami study reveals that global warming threatens native trees, suggesting tropical species for future resilience in urban planting.
Why wait for Black Friday? The Celestron 114LCM computerized telescope is $115 off right now - This powerful Newtonian reflector telescope has hundreds of 5-star Amazon reviews and a previous Black Friday best price-beating discount.
Earth from space: Massive blue 'melt pond' in Arctic glacier is an eerie sign of things to come - A 2014 photo shows a massive, iceberg-littered pool of vibrant blue meltwater sitting alone on top of a glacier in Alaska.
Accelerated three-year medical school students perform as well as peers in traditional four-year programs - A study shows three-year medical graduates perform equally well as four-year counterparts, offering an efficient and cost-effective training pathway.
US air pollution monitoring network has gaps in coverage, say researchers - The U.S. lacks adequate air quality monitoring, disproportionately affecting minority communities; urgent need for enhanced monitoring identified by researchers.
Decoding the Web of Proteins in Spider Silk - Compartmentalized protein expression in the spider silk gland provides clues to spinning more sustainable materials.
For some reason, NASA is treating Orion’s heat shield problems as a secret - “I’m not going to share right now.
Weather radar finally reveals unusual habits of migrating Australian birds - We’ve come a long way from the fantastical idea that birds migrate to the Moon when they disappear each northern hemisphere winter.
Remember that “Alien Signal” Sent by the ExoMars Orbiter Last Year? It’s Just Been Decoded - In May 2023, the ESA’s Exomars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), currently in orbit around Mars, sent a signal to Earth to simulate a possible extraterrestrial transmission.
October 28, 2024
Extreme online language is bad for science – even when it’s yours - Ever felt the need to post something like: ‘Anyone doubting the science is an idiot’?Lasers reveal Maya city, including thousands of structures, hidden in Mexico - The new city, dubbed Valeriana, was a dense urban settlement with temple pyramids and a ball court.
Climate vs. Invasive Species - Which foe is looming largest for native plants along the Yangtze River?
Lidar mapping reveals mountainous medieval cities along the Silk Road - A city larger than many in Europe at the time was perched in the mountains.
What animal societies can teach us about aging - Red deer may become less sociable as they grow old to reduce the risk of picking up diseases, while older house sparrows seem to have fewer social interactions as their peers die off, according to new research which shows humans are not the only animals to change our social behaviour as we age.
NASA’s oldest active astronaut is also one of the most curious humans - "We made the mistake of peeking out the Cupola windows."
Experimental cancer drug eliminates bone metastases caused by breast cancer in lab models - RK-33 shows potential as a novel treatment for breast cancer bone metastasis by targeting the DDX3 protein, preventing cancer progression.
Add Astronaut Nutrition to the List of Barriers to Long-Duration Spaceflight - Though there are no firm plans for a crewed mission to Mars, we all know one’s coming.
Population growth, climate change, pandemics – call for health researchers to think big - What’s keeping Australia’s health researchers awake at night?
Dinosaurs took over after extremely concentrated volcanism and global cooling - A study of ancient volcanism shows that dinosaurs took over the Earth about 200 million years ago because they thrived in the cold.
Pizza place accidentally spiked dough with THC, sickening dozens - Health officials were tipped off after EMS transported five customers to the hospital.
Emails Reveal How Health Departments Struggle To Track Human Cases of Bird Flu - Bird flu cases are rising, but inadequate surveillance and farmer resistance hinder health officials from effectively monitoring infections in humans.
How A New Science of Chess is Emerging - Complexity science has changed the way researchers think about the climate, the economy and ecosystems.
Graphene-enhanced ceramic tiles make striking art - Adding a bit of graphene oxide to slurry and zapping with ultrasound for 10 minutes yields best tiles.
This Ancient Supernova Remnant Looks Like a Stellar Dandelion - In 1181, Japanese and Chinese astronomers saw a bright light appear in the constellation Cassiopeia.
New temperatures in two thirds of key tropical forest - Research shows two-thirds of Key Biodiversity Areas in tropical forests face new temperature conditions, risking species and habitats.
It Was Rare, But Ancient People Sometimes Needed to Translate Languages — Here's How - How did ancient people translate other languages?
Engineered bacterial protein offers efficient rare earth metal separation - A newly discovered protein naturally houses an unusual binding site that can differentiate between rare earth elements, and researchers at Penn State have made it even better.
Scientists can reverse brain aging in fruit flies by preventing buildup of a common protein - Buildup of a protein called filamentous actin, or F-actin, in the brain inhibits the removal of cellular wastes, including DNA, lipids, proteins and organelles.
Dinosaurs thrived after ice, not fire, says a new study of ancient volcanism - The Triassic-Jurassic Extinction, 201.6 million years ago, has been considered by some to have been a fairly slow-burn event, driven by rising temperatures and ocean acidification.
AI has a looming e-waste problem - The explosion in generative AI could be responsible for an extra 5 million tonnes of e-waste by 2030, according to a new study.
New solvent-free 3D printing material could enable biodegradable implants - Additive manufacturing (AM) has revolutionized many industries and holds the promise to affect many more in the not too distant future.
From Prolonging Wallaby Pregnancies to Disorienting Hatchling Turtles, 11 Ways Artificial Lights Affect Animals - From the busy cities to ocean waters, our need to illuminate the world has had some strange and tragic consequences
Could Fungi Actually Cause a Zombie Apocalypse? - A zombie fungus, Massospora cicadina, can consume cicadas.
Wildfires Are Moving Faster and Causing More Damage - A small number of fast-moving wildfires cause almost all the property damage by forcing firefighters to focus on saving lives
Meet the Eukaryote, the First Cell to Get Organized - All modern multicellular life — all life that any of us regularly see — is made of cells with a knack for compartmentalization.
New insights into cancer risks from chemicals in fire smoke - Derek Urwin has a special stake in his work as a cancer control researcher.
Alarm call as world's trees slide towards extinction - Scientists have revealed that more than a third of tree species are facing extinction.
Microplastic Pollution Is Everywhere, Even in the Exhaled Breath of Dolphins - Microplastics are invisible but omnipresent.
Why langurs drink salt water - A new study shows the remarkable adaptability of the critically endangered Cat Ba langurs.
Seeing a black hole's jet in a new light - Researchers have pored over more than two decades' worth of data from NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory to show there's new knotty science to discover around black holes.
Pythons can swallow even bigger prey than scientists realized - Burmese pythons can consume prey even larger than scientists realized, according to a new study.
Designing long-lived peptides for more powerful medicines - Peptides come and peptides go, sometimes too fast.
What your Wikipedia reading says about you: study find different styles - How many Wikipedia tabs do you have open at the moment?
SpaceX has caught a massive rocket. So what’s next? - Spoiler alert: The company still has a massive amount of work to do to reach the Moon.
Why We All Need a U.N. Study of the Effects of Nuclear War - A new United Nations expert study of the effects of nuclear war would spur informed and inclusive global debate on what nuclear war means for people and the planet today
Astronauts Could Take an Asteroid Ferry from Earth to Mars - This idea really is quite a fascinating one.
New ‘Unconscious’ Therapies Could Help Treat Phobias - These therapies dampen fears absent direct exposure—no need to be in the room with a live tarantula
Research effort twists halide perovskites from a distance - A research team has discovered a new process to induce chirality in halide perovskite semiconductors, which could open the door to cutting-edge electronic applications.
Werewolves could learn from other critters when to hunt - Werewolves aren’t the only creatures that undergo transformation under the full moon.
Scientists Say: Dialect - Different dialects of the same language have distinct words, pronunciations and sentence structures.
Method offers more efficient data retrieval from synthetic polymer data storage - Increasing amounts of data require storage, often for long periods.
An Enormous Meteorite, Bird Flu in Washington State and a Troubling Scurvy Case Study - We cover a 3.26-billion-year-old meteorite impact, the spread of bird flu and a scurvy case study that serves as a cautionary tale in this week’s news roundup.
Plans to Destroy the International Space Station Preview a Bigger Orbital Junk Problem - A special spacecraft will guide the space station through Earth’s atmosphere, but what about other large pieces of space debris?
Successful development of a perfect diamagnetic conducting polymer - Conducting polymers exhibit a variety of properties in addition to their conductivity.
A definitive atomic structure of the heme crystals made by malaria parasites could lead to better antimalarial drugs - Prof. Leslie Leiserowitz first became intrigued by malaria when he was a young boy in South Africa.
World way off target in tackling climate change - UN - The world is wildly off track in tackling climate change, the UN says, as CO2 in the atmosphere accumulates faster than ever
A Novel Polymerase Reduces Stutter in Forensic DNA Analysis - A breakthrough enzyme aims to resolve a persistent DNA artifact that has challenged forensic analysis for decades.
Why humans kiss: It might have evolved from our ape ancestors grooming - New research suggests that kissing evolved from the grooming behaviour of ancient ape ancestors of humans.
Goblin Shark & Ghost-faced Bat: Cool Critters with Creepy Names - People have a penchant for slapping Halloween-style names on creatures that are more cool than creepy.
October 27, 2024
Melting Arctic sea-ice could affect global ocean circulation - The warming climate in polar regions may significantly disrupt ocean circulation patterns, a new study indicates.More social species live longer - New research has revealed that species that are more social live longer and produce offspring for a greater time-span.
What do real Nature Positive laws look like? - Following a “disappointing” inaugural Nature Positive Summit in Sydney, a team of researchers say that current laws are not sufficient to achieve the summit’s lofty goal.
Trawling and mining could unleash carbon dioxide from the seabed - Disturbed seabeds could be a potent source of carbon dioxide pollution, according to a new study.
Decline in Sumatran tigers - Poaching is being blamed for a dramatic loss of number of Sumatran tigers.
Insects in Aotearoa show evolution in action - Human activities have caused a type of insect to change colour in Aotearoa New Zealand, according to a new study.
Recycling wastewater to drive water security - Water scarcity is becoming an urgent global crisis, affecting billions of people.
October 26, 2024
Webb Scans Vega for Planets - To northern sky watchers, Vega is a familiar sight in the summer sky.LISTEN: Turtle dreaming, a dive into the archives - As part of the Ultramarine project we are diving into our archives and republishing some paid content for free.
Could Life at TRAPPIST-1 Survive the Star's Superflares? - The TRAPPIST-1 system is exciting because of several Earth-sized worlds within the habitable zone of a red dwarf star, but it's also a dangerous environment, with powerful superflares sweeping past the planets.
Some Notes On The Utility Function Of Fundamental Science Experiments - Earlier this year I mentioned here that I would be writing an article on how the utility function of experiments in fundamental science could be specified, as an enabling step toward the formalization of a co-design optimization problem.
To Make Nuclear Fusion a Reliable Energy Source, We Will Need Heat-and Radiation-Resilient Materials - A fusion experiment ran so hot that the wall materials facing the plasma retained defects.
Shaken Baby Syndrome Has Been Discredited. Why Is Robert Roberson Still on Death Row? - Convicted of a crime that never happened, Roberson’s case is a prime example of how the U.S. legal system often fails to recognize advances in scientific knowledge
How mammal posture evolved hundreds of millions of years ago - How did mammal ancestors evolve from a sprawled posture like a lizard to the upright locomotion we see today?
A how-to for ethical geoengineering research - The American Geophysical Union releases a framework for getting it right.
Red Dwarf Stars Might Be Able to Hold Onto Their Atmospheres After All - Exoplanets are a fascinating aspect of the study of the Universe.
UK needs big emissions cut, climate watchdog says - The government's advisers say faster action is needed but the UK has the tools to achieve this.
Another satellite breakup adds to orbital debris woes - A large communications satellite has broken up in orbit, affecting users in Europe, Central Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australia, and adding to the
October 25, 2024
Astronaut released from hospital after “medical issue” upon return from space - NASA says the astronaut was hospitalized overnight for medical observation.Better than nature: electro-ag could transform food - It might sound like science fiction, but bioengineers want to bypass photosynthesis and grow crops in tall, dark towers surrounded by solar panels.
Webb Finds Dozens of Supernovae Remnants in the Triangulum Galaxy - Infrared astronomy has revealed so much about the Universe, ranging from protoplanetary disks and nebulae to brown dwarfs, aurorae, and volcanoes on together celestial bodies.