This image provided by researchers in April 2024 shows views of some of the vertebrae of Vasuki indicus, a newly discovered extinct snake from about 47 million years ago, estimated to reach nearly 50 feet (15 meters) long. The scale bar at the center of each row showing rotated views of an individual vertebra indicates … Read more
Poor countries the smallest emitters but the most vulnerable to climate change. Climate change caused by CO2 emissions already in the atmosphere will shrink global GDP in 2050 by about $38 trillion, or almost a fifth, no matter how aggressively humanity cuts carbon pollution, researchers said Wednesday. But slashing greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as … Read more
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Huge pink flocks of millions of flamingos—flamboyances of flamingos—are one of nature’s great spectacles. But colleagues and I have uncovered worrying trends in the salty and highly-alkaline “soda lakes” of east Africa where most of these birds live. Lesser flamingos are the most numerous of the six species of flamingo found … Read more
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain It’s true that our 16th-century ancestors drank much more than Irish people do today. But why they did so and what their beer was like are questions shrouded in myth. The authors were part of a team who set out to find some answers. As part of a major study of … Read more
A stellar black hole has been identified in the Milky Way. Astronomers identified the largest stellar black hole yet discovered in the Milky Way, with a mass 33 times that of the Sun, according to a study published on Tuesday. The black hole, named Gaia BH3, was discovered “by chance” from data collected by the … Read more
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain The Dura-Europos site in modern-day Syria is famous for its exceptional state of preservation. Like Pompeii, this ancient city has yielded many great discoveries, and serves as a window into the world of the ancient Hellenistic, Parthian, and Roman periods. Yet despite the prominence of Dura-Europos in Near Eastern scholarship, there … Read more
Credit: CC0 Public Domain Hello, stakeholders. (This is the nongendered term of address I’ve been workshopping because I see “folks” in too many social media posts.) Researchers this week reported on an AI model that attempts to emulate human irrationality in decision-making, which has to be the best approach toward building a human-equivalent general AI, … Read more
An AFP team saw bleached and dead coral around Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef during a recent visit. Australia’s famed Great Barrier Reef is suffering one of the most severe coral bleaching events on record, leaving scientists fearful for its survival as the impact of climate change worsens. For 33 years marine biologist … Read more
So-called ‘forever chemicals’ are present in the water, soil, air and food supply — they are invisible and never break down in the environment. The US Environmental Protection Agency on Friday classified two so-called “forever chemicals” as hazardous substances, meaning those responsible for releasing them will have to pay to clean up contamination. The two … Read more
Co@Y containing zeolite-encaged isolated cobalt ions was developed as a robust catalyst for the solvent- and additive-free selective oxidation of ethylbenzene to acetophenone, surpassing the benchmark industrial catalyst cobalt naphthenate. During the reaction, the reactive oxygen species (O*) were generated at the single-site Co2+, promoting the activation of aromatic C–H bonds and leading to the … Read more
