Meteorite likely chief cause of mass extinction The meteorite that struck Earth about 66 million years ago was likely the driving factor behind the extinction of the dinosaurs rather than extreme volcanic activity. Researchers examined deep sediments in the North Atlantic to create global temperature data and found that temperatures around the world at the […]
Parrots appear to altruistically help each other out Researchers filmed one African grey parrot helping another get a reward, an act of altruism they say hasn’t been demonstrated before in birds. “We found that African grey parrots voluntarily and spontaneously help familiar parrots to achieve a goal, without obvious immediate benefit to themselves,” said Desiree […]
Australia bushfires create their own weather Australia’s bushfires are creating their own weather in the form of pyrocumulonimbus clouds, which generate massive thunderstorms capable of starting more fires. “These fire-induced storms can spread fires through lightning, lofting of embers and generation of severe wind outflows,” Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said in a tweet. Insider Bears’ […]
NY forest fossils date back 386M years The 386-million-year-old fossils of trees found in New York’s Catskills are likely the remains of the world’s oldest forest. Researchers found the remains of three different types of trees in what is now a quarry. New Scientist Ancient seawall finally gave way to rising waters A seawall dating […]
Alternative explanation for landslides in Mars Long landslides on Mars may have been caused by vibrations of unstable light rocks at the bottom of the slide. The findings, which offer an alternative view to previous suggestions that the landslides were caused by underlying ice, could give researchers more insight on the landslide risks on Mars […]
New image offers closer view of interstellar object Astronomers used the W.M. Keck Observatory’s Low-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer to take a new image of 2I/Borisov, the second interstellar object ever observed passing through our solar system. The image shows the coma of the interstellar comet, which will pass by the sun early next month and Earth […]
Clues point to possible fifth fundamental force Physicists say they’ve gathered more evidence that there could be a fifth physical force in addition to gravity, electromagnetism and a pair of nuclear interactions. The researchers say they’ve glimpsed a force carried by a particle they’ve named X17 most recently coming from a helium atom; if the […]
Hayabusa2 on its way back to Earth with asteroid material Japan’s Hayabusa2 has left the asteroid Ryugu and is on its way back to Earth, bringing with it samples of subsurface material. The spacecraft will return sometime at the end of next year. Nature Sun’s plasma jets formed by magnetic field shifts Spicules of plasma […]
Remains of woolly mammoths found in Mexico pits The remains of 14 woolly mammoths have been found in pits in Mexico dug about 15,000 years ago by humans, according to officials with the National Institute of Anthropology and History. “[The discovery] represents a watershed, a touchstone on what we imagined until now was the interaction […]
AI outplays most humans in StarCraft II video game An artificial intelligence developed by tech firm DeepMind is better at playing the strategic video game StarCraft II than most human players, and its prowess is detailed in a study published in Nature. “Ever since computers cracked Go, chess, and poker, StarCraft has emerged by consensus […]