Climate change may be speeding up ocean currents Ocean currents around the world, both on the surface and deeper, are faster than they were 20 years ago, likely due to the changing climate. “While we expected some response to the increased winds over the past two decades, that the acceleration was above and beyond that […]
Glass bead chilled to its ground state Researchers have cooled a glass bead to close to absolute zero using a single laser with astonishing results: “Other cold-atom experiments can also create superpositions and quantum states, but what they can never do is create a superposition of all of the atoms in one place and all […]
China shares photos from far side of moon China’s lunar mission has produced a number of photos from the far side of the moon. The images were taken by the Chang’e-4 lander and the Yutu-2 rover over the course of the last year. ScienceAlert New light on Vesuvius victims People who sheltered in boathouses in […]
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 […]