The workings of our solar system are roughly the same now as they have been for millions of years. Moons circle their planets, the planets circle the sun, the sun’s magnetic fields and sunspots wax and wane. On the scale of a human life, nothing much seems to happen. But on a cosmic timescale, our…
Ana Faguy & Mark Poynting BBC News Watch: Timelapse captures rising glacial lakes in Alaska Some Alaskans are evacuating their homes as meltwater escapes a basin dammed by the Mendenhall Glacier – raising fears of record-breaking flooding in the US state’s capital city. The National Weather Service (NWS) office in Juneau has issued a flood…
The need for biodegradable packaging material has never been higher. Currently, most packaging is “single use” and is made with plastic materials, derived from nonrenewable sources like crude oil that take hundreds of years to decompose in the environment. On top of this, only 9% of plastic is recycled. This has resulted in the formation…
An international study surveying people in a dozen countries found that when it comes to making complex decisions, people all over the world tend to reflect on their own, rather than seek advice. Researchers from the University of Waterloo led the new study that surveyed more than 3,500 people from megacities to small Indigenous communities…
With large eyes, razor sharp teeth and a compact body built for hunting, Janjucetus dullardi is nothing like the gentle giants we know today, but this newly discovered ancient whale is one of their earliest cousins. Scientists at Museums Victoria’s Research Institute have described a new species of ancient whale from a 26-million-year-old fossil found…
One theory proposes a hidden physical realm with its own versions of particles and forces that gave birth to tiny, stable black hole-like objects that would account for all the dark matter observed today. The other theory explores whether dark matter could be a product of the universe’s own expansion, created by quantum radiation near…
Artificial intelligence models that can discover drugs and write code still fail at puzzles a lay person can master in minutes. This phenomenon sits at the heart of the challenge of artificial general intelligence (AGI). Can today’s AI revolution produce models that rival or surpass human intelligence across all domains? If so, what underlying enablers—whether…
A new study led by University of Houston researchers, in collaboration with planetary scientists worldwide, suggests Uranus does have its own internal heat — an advance that not only informs NASA’s future missions but also deepens scientists’ understanding of planetary systems, including processes that influence Earth’s climate and atmospheric evolution. The discovery resolves a long-standing…
Betelgeuse is one of the brightest stars in the night sky, and the closest red supergiant to Earth. It has an enormous volume, spanning a radius around 700 times that of the Sun. Despite only being ten million years old, which is considered young by astronomy standards, it’s late in its life. Located in the…
Due to extreme temperatures and the dryness of Mars, it’s thought to be impossible for liquid water to form on the planet’s surface, a critical precondition for habitability. The only hope of finding liquid water appears to be in the form of brines, which are liquids with high concentrations of salts that can freeze at…
