Green glow detected in Mars atmosphere for first time A green glow similar to the one around Earth, caused by sunlight and oxygen mixing in the upper atmosphere, has been detected for the first time around Mars. The orientation of the MArs Discovery (NOMAD) instrument was manipulated to look across the Martian atmosphere rather than […]
Urban foxes in UK becoming more doglike Urban red foxes in the UK appear to be evolving to better adapt to urban life, with a shorter, more powerful snout and a smaller brain than their country cousins. They’re also becoming less afraid of humans, and “adapting to life around humans actually primes some animals for […]
Range of personalities observed in wild dolphins Some wild bottlenose dolphins in Italy’s Gulf of Aranci are much more bold and adventurous than others, and the bolder dolphins appear to have deeper social connections than shyer dolphins, according to a study published in Animal Behavior. Differences in social behaviors could affect reproductive success and group […]
Elevated amyloid may predict Alzheimer’s in seniors Researchers who used amyloid PET found that older adults with healthy cognition and elevated amyloid levels had poorer test scores and more reports of subtle daily cognition declines, compared with those with lower amyloid deposition. “These results support the hypothesis that elevated amyloid represents an early stage in […]
Array of facial expressions detected in mice Subtle facial movements indicating a number of emotions have been detected in mice by machine learning tools that may help researchers learn more about how animals convey emotions. Researchers used high-speed cameras to capture the mice’s expressions as they were given experiences meant to spark emotions such as […]
Many amphibians have that certain glow Many amphibians, mostly salamanders and frogs, fluoresce under certain light conditions. Researchers tested 32 amphibian species using blue light and found that all glowed green or yellow, but they haven’t yet figured out why this occurs. New Scientist Massive blast ever observed in faraway galaxy observed Astronomers have detected […]
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 […]
A star cluster is a group of stars that are sufficiently close to each other for them to be physically associated. Stars belonging to the cluster are formed together from the same cloud of interstellar gas and have approximately the same age and initial chemical composition. Because of this, and sin the stars in a […]
We started this series discussing the basic ingredients of the Universe: events, spacetime, causality. In the last chapter , we introduced massive objects (and thus, matter), which appear as a generalization of the so-called photon box. As it moves, any object traces a path. Physicists call it worldline . We established that a massive object […]
Supermassive black holes heading for collision found A pair of supermassive black holes about 2.5 billion light-years away appear to be on a collision course with each other in a few more billion years, but astronomers say they can learn a lot about gravitational wave background noise now by observing them. Science Alert Ancient bird […]