Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Christmas, we’re told, is the most wonderful time of the year. For many of us, however, it is preceded by one of the least wonderful times: the awkward social spectacle of the office Secret Santa or Kris Kringle, where employees agree to purchase a gift for a randomly allocated colleague. As … Read more
Depiction of the different signals and the telescopes that would detect them. Credit: Palmar et al One of the most significant constraints on the size of objects placed into orbit is the size of the fairing used to put them there. Large telescopes must be stuffed into a relatively small fairing housing and deployed to … Read more
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Finding dead seals along California’s coast is not novel in and of itself. The marine mammals get sick, are stillborn or even wash ashore after being fatally struck by a boat. But decapitated seals? That was something new for North Coast ecologists—even ones who study stranded marine life. Again and again … Read more
Fire history from 1450 to 1950 ce at 16 data collection sites across the upper Middle Fork study area. Upper panels show individual tree ring series (horizontal lines), tree establishment dates (small points), crossdated fire years (small triangles), crossdated fire years that initiated cohorts (large triangles), and establishment dates that constitute distinct tree cohorts (shaded polygons) … Read more
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain The temperature has dropped, the nights have drawn in. The winter holidays have started, families are gathered—so where can you go to fuel the imagination and get some fresh air? A zoo might not be your first thought—but with some offering reduced ticket prices and smaller crowds than in summer, your … Read more
Credit: Jean van der Meulen from Pexels Over the past 15 years, through our scientific study of tracks and traces, we have identified more than 350 fossil vertebrate tracksites from South Africa’s Cape south coast. Most are found in cemented sand dunes, called aeolianites, and all are from the Pleistocene Epoch, ranging in age from … Read more
Flax. Credit: Newcastle University in Singapore A new study has compared the reinforcing efficiency of pineapple leaf fiber (PALF) and cultivated flax fiber in poly(butylene succinate) composites. PALF, a less explored but potentially sustainable alternative, outperformed flax at 20 wt.%, showcasing its potential in high-performance bio-composites and aligning with environmental goals. The focus of this … Read more
Credit: CC0 Public Domain Hurricane Idalia and the Hawaii firestorm were the most notable weather disasters in the U.S. in 2023, but they were far from the only ones. In 2023, 25 weather or climate disasters caused at least $1 billion in losses and the deaths of 482 people, according to the National Centers for … Read more
Credit: CC0 Public Domain In 2015, the LIGO/Virgo experiment, a large-scale research effort based at two observatories in the United States, led to the first direct observation of gravitational waves. This important milestone has since prompted physicists worldwide to devise new theoretical descriptions for the dynamics of blackholes, building on the data collected by the … Read more
Credit: CC0 Public Domain Retail activity has been a defining facet of cities since antiquity. The Greek Agora and Roman Forum may be viewed as the original CBDs—central business districts, or what urban planners call activity centers. Retail spaces have evolved over time. Urbanization, mass production and the rise of conspicuous consumption led to the … Read more
