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Tech NewsThe Way That Mushrooms Bring the Rain Will Astound You
If you’re still lukewarm on the idea of parachuting in a bunch of beavers to California to end the drought, here’s another option: mushrooms. In forests across the world, Earth’s decomposers are helping seed clouds and promote rainstorms. That’s the conclusion of a study published this week in PLOS ONE, which adds a fascinating layer … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
Stop Freaking Out About Human DNA in Hot Dogs
A startup calledClear Labs has genetically tested a bunch of hot dogs, and the results are about as weird as you’d expect. Pork DNA in the turkey dogs. Chicken DNA in the veggie dogs. But then, there was this little surprise: human DNA! Human DNA in hot dogs! And from the way the press is … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
There’s Primordial Oxygen Leaking From Rosetta’s Comet
Comet 67P is full of surprises, from complex organic molecules to miniature space weather systems. Now, in an astronomical first, scientists have discovered molecular oxygen in the space rock’s tenuous atmosphere. And it may be a relic from the birth of the Solar System. “This is the most surprising discovery we have made so far,” … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
Which Type of Candy is Scientifically the Best?
Halloween is nigh, which means it’s once again time to spend an agonizing twenty minutes in the snack aisle at your grocery store asking yourself a soul-searching question: Which type of candy should I buy? Unfortunately, it’s getting harder each passing year to sift through the deluge of Halloween-themed garbage confections — this year’s top … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech NewsHow Whale Poop Balanced Earth’s Nutrient Cycles
Every week, it seems, we hear about a new way that humans are screwing up the oceans. Too much plastic. Too much sunscreen. Too much fishing. Next to these problems, “not enough whale poop” does sounds a bit silly, but I assure you, it’s a serious consequence of human exploitation. Over the last few centuries, … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
Space Probe to Dive Through Geysers Erupting from Saturn’s Icy Moon Enceladus
Saturn’s moon Enceladus is a cosmic wonder: a brilliant white snowball with a subterranean ocean and ice volcanoes, nestled in a gas giant’s rings. And based on samples collected during today’s historic flyby, we might soon know if this unexpectedly Earth-like moon is habitable. In just a few hours, NASA’s Cassini probe is going to … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
EartherClimate Change
Dusting the Sky With Diamond is the Latest Crazy Scheme to Cool the Planet
Geoengineering — hacking Earth’s climate system to reverse global warming — often sounds a bit preposterous, whether we’re talking about deploying giant space mirrors or dumping a bunch of iron filings into the ocean. The latest proposal? Dusting the stratosphere with billions of dollars worth of powdered diamond. Yes, you heard that right. It might … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
SciencePhysics & ChemistryWatch a Sonic Tractor Beam Levitate a Helpless Ball
The tractor beam, a beloved staple of science fiction, has been inching closer and closer to reality. We’ve got physicists building optical beams that can pull micro-scale balls through water. NASA and Arx Pax (of “hoverboard” fame) are building a magnetic tractor beam that can control satellites. The latest incarnation of this Star Trek-inspired technology? … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
Carve Up Some Science With a Physics Themed Jack-O’-Lantern
Halloween is fast approaching, which means many Americans will partake in the annual mutilate-a-squash ritual this weekend. But let’s face it: toothy grins and pointy eyes are passé. If you really want your gourd to stand out this year, we recommend spicing things up with a healthy dose of physics. The wonderful nerds behind Symmetry … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
Mysterious Chunk of Space Trash is on a Collision Course With Earth
A rogue chunk of debris that orbited Earth far beyond the Moon is making a homecoming on November 13th, astronomers have concluded. WT1190F is one to two meters in length and probably hollow, but beyond that, we have no idea WTF the aptly-named piece of space garbage is. Much, if not all of WT1190F will … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
The Shells of Former Pizza Huts Continue to Shape Our Cities
Like many children of the ‘80s, Pizza Hut occupies a special place in my heart. Those red-roofed, linoleum-floored restaurants are woven into my early childhood memories as palaces of delectably greasy pizza, texture-perfect breadsticks, and carefree Saturday afternoons. I haven’t been to a Pizza Hut in over a decade, and apparently, I’m not alone. Pizza … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech NewsThousands Subscribe to Kid’s Dinosaur YouTube Channel, Proves Everything Isn’t Terrible
In an astounding act of kindness from the anonymous reaches of the Internet, one kid’s dinosaur YouTube channel skyrocketed to fame yesterday, jumping from 22 subscribers to over 70,000 in a matter of hours. It started Friday afternoon, when Redditor Jouletheif submitted one of the kid’s toy dino action videos to r/videos, noting that “the … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
EartherClimate Change
Last Month Was the Hottest September in Recorded History
Here we go again, folks! July was the hottest July on record, August the hottest August, so I bet you can’t fathom what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has to say about the September that closed out the hottest summer on record. You guessed it! This week, NOAA gave us its monthly state-of-the-climate report, … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
This is What the Strongest Tropical Cyclone Ever Recorded Looked Like From Space
Yesterday, NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite passed over Hurricane Patricia, the most powerful tropical cyclone ever measured, and captured this stunning image in infrared. Hurricane Patricia made landfall on the Pacific coast of Mexico last night, and was downgraded to a tropical storm earlier this morning. The storm is remarkable not only in terms of how … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
GIFs of Life in Zero-Gee Almost Make Space Look Fun
Being an astronaut may sound glamorous, but for the most part, life in space is utter tedium—checking systems logs, labeling test tubes for routine science experiments. Not to mention the fact that simple things like using the toilet and running on a treadmill require monk-like patience and bungee cords. Every now and then, however, astronauts … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
Geoff Marcy Was a Serial Sexual Harasser for at Least Twenty Years
Hey, remember that dickwad astronomer who was found guilty of sexually harassing a bunch of women over the course of a decade at Berkeley before resigning in shame last week? It’s worse than we realized. Geoff Marcy’s record of bad behavior apparently trails all the way back to his job at San Francisco State University, … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
These Are the First Baby Giant Squid Ever Discovered
Giant squid are among the most mysterious creatures on the planet; the camera-shy behemoths lurk in murky ocean basins across the world. We’ve only seen adult giant squid a handful of times, and now, you’re looking at the first ever wee baby ones. The three specimens of Architeuthis dux shown here measure only 5.5 to … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
ScienceBiology
Crocs Keep an Eye on You While They Sleep
Sleeping with only half your brain sounds like a great way to become a zombie in no time, but for certain marine mammals and birds, it’s a way of life. A new study suggests that crocodiles, too, may be “unihemispheric” sleepers, a finding which makes humans and other full-brain snoozers look more and more like … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech NewsThis Is What it Looks Like When a Black Hole Shreds a Star
When a star wanders too close to a black hole, immense gravitational forces begin to rip it apart in an epic cosmic slaying called a “tidal disruption event.” Some of the star’s mass is flung outward into space, while the rest is drawn in, triggering a powerful flare that showers the sky with x-rays. Using … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
Did Our Hands Evolve to Throw Punches? One Biologist Thinks So
The human hand is a marvelous evolutionary invention: it can tie knots, tap out blog posts, wield tools and wire circuit boards. But how did we get these hands, with their long, dextrous fingers and conveniently opposable thumbs? It’s likely that tool-grasping played a role, but according to one evolutionary biologist, so did whacking your … Continued
By Maddie Stone
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