To leave a lasting trail, meteors must aim downward. A new study of shooting stars shows that meteors that blaze 90 kilometers up in the sky leave a continuous glow, unlike those that burn up at higher altitudes. Meteors are normally bright events and you will miss them. A particle of space dust leaves a … Read more
As more and more species come close to extinction, scientists have been collecting samples of animals, plants and other creatures and storing them in biorepositories around the globe.SN: 5/8/19). But climate change, environmental disasters and wars threaten these modern Noah’s Arks (SN: 28/2/22). Now, a team of researchers is thinking of an out-of-this-world solution: building … Read more
Imagine going on a week-long business trip and not coming home until next year. That may be the case for American astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, whose eight-day mission to the International Space Station has already stretched to more than two months and is likely to last even longer. The pair launched to the … Read more
The neutrino “fog” has begun to materialize. Light subatomic particles called neutrinos are starting to make their way into the data of experiments not designed to detect them. Two experiments designed to detect dark matter particles have captured the first glimpses of neutrinos born in the Sun, physicists report. “This is a triumph,” says neutrino … Read more
This video was supported by funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. TRANSCRIPT David Johnson: So, in 2014, we were on a mud bank in the marsh here in Massachusetts, and I saw this little crab that came crashing through the mud bank and into a hole. And so I dug up the crab and … Read more
Neanderthals traveled at least two evolutionary paths on their way to extinction around 40,000 years ago, a new study suggests. If it is classified as a separate species or a variant of Homo sapiensNeanderthals have usually been seen as a genetically stable population. But the partial skeleton of an adult male discovered in France contains … Read more
When strained by earthquakes, underground networks of quartz veins can generate enough tension to leach gold from passing fluids, researchers report Sept. 2 in Nature Geoscience. The findings explain how fluids carrying small amounts of gold can fabricate large pieces, even in chemically inert environments. “You find a quartz vein 2 meters wide, and there’s … Read more
citations J. O’Conner et al. Effect of ashwagandha on stress, sleep quality, and food cravings in college students: quantitative analysis of a double-blind randomized control trial. Journal of Medicinal Food. Vol. December 25, 2022, p. 1086. doi: 10.1089/jmf.2022.0040. C. Baker et al. Perceived impact of ashwagandha on stress, sleep quality, energy, and mental clarity in … Read more
Extreme Climate Survey Scientific news is collecting readers’ questions about how to navigate our planet’s changing climate. What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events? Most “radiant cooling” designs involve roofs designed to receive and then emit the sun’s energy in infrared wavelengths that radiate … Read more
African rock art depicting a mythical tufted creature may reflect the appearance of fossilized real-life relatives of ancient mammals called dicynodonts. Abundant fossils exposed in South Africa’s Karoo Basin include dicynodont skulls with tusks that bend down and back, like those of the long-bodied animal depicted in roughly 200-year-old rock art by the region’s San … Read more