physics

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain We have used machine learning to identify the biggest plastic pollution hotspots across more than 50,000 towns, cities and rural areas worldwide. Our new global model reveals the most detailed picture of plastic pollution ever created with the highest environmental concentrations in India, predominantly because so much of its waste isn’t … Read more

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Is authoritarian populism finally being rejected by citizens around the world? In 2016, Donald Trump successfully fused his angry frustrations with globalism with false allegations about immigrant rapists. Eight years later, he is still doubling down on identity. But this time around, his message seems worn and brittle. He lacks a … Read more

by Bradley J. Moggridge, Jessica K Weir, Katie Moon and 󠁡Rachel Morgain, The Conversation Kamilaroi Country lies in far northwest New South Wales, past Tamworth and crossing over the Queensland border. Here, the bunyip bird (Australasian bittern, Botaurus poiciloptilus), and the brolga (Grus rubicunda or burraalga in Kamilaroi) have been part of life, lore, spirit, … Read more

This Dec. 2, 2020, file image taken by panoramic camera aboard the lander-ascender combination of Chang’e-5 spacecraft provided by China National Space Administration shows a moon surface after it landed on the moon. Credit: China National Space Administration/Xinhua via AP, File Volcanoes were still erupting on the moon when dinosaurs roamed Earth, new research suggests. … Read more

A northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) attempts to catch a sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria), captured by Ocean Networks Canada’s high-definition camera at the Barkley Canyon NEPTUNE observatory site, off the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada. Credit: Ocean Networks Canada If you’re not susceptible to urban myths and misinformation, there’s a new study from the World … Read more

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain The official U.S. food insecurity rate rose to 13.5% in 2023 from 12.8% in 2022, according to data the U.S. Department of Agriculture released on Sept. 4, 2024. That means more than one in eight Americans—about 47 million people—couldn’t get enough food for themselves or their families at least some of … Read more

A pottery sherd from Jackson Wall Manor (left), an image of Betty R. Ebanks’s Monkey Jar-style pot (center), and a piece of a handle found during excavation at Jackson Wall Manor (right). Credit: Petras and MacDonald 2024; and Betty R. Ebanks Ph.D. candidate Elysia Petras and archaeologist Dr. Brandi MacDonald recently discovered 15 shards of … Read more

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Space is an unnatural environment for humans. We can’t survive unprotected in a pure vacuum for more than two minutes. Getting to space involves being strapped to a barely contained chemical explosion. Since 1961, fewer than 700 people have been into space. Private space companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin … Read more

California suffered a heat wave in early September. The 2024 northern summer saw the highest global temperatures on record, beating 2023’s high and making this year likely Earth’s hottest ever recorded, the EU’s climate monitor said Friday. The data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service followed a season of heat waves around the world that … Read more

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A new study has highlighted a critical issue within the rapidly developing Blue Economy; the need for “Blue Justice”—a new concept that originated from this study. As countries and industries increasingly turn to the oceans for economic growth, this study warns of the risk that current policies could deepen social inequalities … Read more