A quick YouTube search reveals a plethora of floating astronaut videos. They can spin in the air, juggle bubbles of water, and their hair looks ridiculous. It certainly appears that there’s no gravity in space—but appearances are deceiving. Astronauts in orbit are more accurately in free fall. They’re constantly falling towards Earth—which means Earth is […]
(Credit: Pixabay) Health eHeart You’re probably science-savvy enough to know that the seat of love is in the brain, not the heart. But do you really want to send a romantic card that says “I (brain) you!” We thought not. So follow your heart to the Health eHeart (get it?) project, where you and your […]
(Inside Science) — A mysterious extinct “ghost” human lineage that was an even more distant relation than Neanderthals may have interbred with the ancestors of modern West Africans, significantly contributing to their gene pool, a new study finds. Although modern humans are now the only surviving lineage of humanity, others once lived on Earth. Some […]
Having trouble sleeping? Nervous about an important interview? Smelling your partner’s worn clothing may help improve your sleep and calm your nerves. While it may sound strange to smell your partner’s clothing, these behaviors are surprisingly common. In one study, researchers asked participants if they had ever slept with or smelled their partners’ worn clothing during periods […]
Imagine liking your car so much you put its picture on a coffee cup. Or — to kick the gesture up several notches — how about being buried with your ride when you die? Not many of us would decorate a mug with our wheels, let alone take them to the grave. But about 5,000 […]
Were all dinosaurs warm-blooded? Were any of them warm-blooded? The question of endothermy has long been, ahem, a hot topic in paleontology. No doubt a new study, using a recently developed method, will fire up the debate. Unlike cold-blooded ectotherms, endotherms have the ability to regulate their body temperature internally. They generate, conserve and shed […]
Betelgeuse, a red supergiant located roughly 700 light-years away in the constellation Orion, has been dimming over the last few months. But now, astronomers have found it’s also changing shape. In a new image captured with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers captured how much the star has dimmed compared with a […]
If you stargaze on a clear winter night, it’s hard to miss the constellation Orion the Hunter, with his shield in one arm and the other arm stretched high to the heavens. A bright red dot called Betelgeuse marks Orion’s shoulder, and this star’s strange dimming has captivated skygazers for thousands of years. Aboriginal Australians […]
You don’t have to be a scientist to know that stars shine. It’s what they’re known for. But how and why they shine was unknown for thousands of years, and only became clear in the 20th century, as humans puzzled out the power of nuclear fusion. To understand how stars shine, it’s important to know […]
Every few years, we get big news from NASA about the potential next wave of solar system exploration. This year, the four finalists for the Discovery Missions were announced and if they all had something in common, it is the volcanoes! Potential missions to Venus, Io and Triton were approved to go forward and two […]
Last month was the warmest January in 141 years of climate records. That’s according to the latest analysis from scientists at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. As the angry, oblong red splotch in the graphic above shows, the abnormal warmth was particularly concentrated in Russia and parts of Scandinavia. Eastern Canada also was particularly […]
If you study toxic jellyfish for a living, you know how to take safety precautions. You dive into the ocean covered in protective gear and know to avoid the venom-laced tentacles. But there was one painful jellyfish encounter that always caught marine biologist Cheryl Ames by surprise. The Tohoku University-based researcher found that if she […]
Most humans will spend every moment of their lives on Earth. The closest we get to leaving our home planet is jumping in a plane and flying mere thousands of feet above the surface. Meanwhile, NASA astronaut Christina Koch just stepped back onto the planet after 328 days on the International Space Station, breaking the […]
On New Year’s Day of 2019, the New Horizons probe buzzed past a small, snowman-shaped world designated 2014 MU69. At the time of the flyby the distant object went by the unofficial name Ultima Thule, but its formal name, now approved by the International Astronomical Union, is Arrokoth, which means “sky” in the Native American […]
As deserts expand, sea levels rise and other climate impacts make some regions uninhabitable, tens of millions of people will be displaced from their homes. They won’t be alone. Thanks to human-caused climate change, countless plants and animals will also need to move in order to survive. But as disruptive as climate migration will be […]