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
Credit: NASA Testing interplanetary landers means putting them in an environment as close to their destination as possible. Mars landers are often tested in the “Mars Yard” at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in South California, and now ESA is looking to build a similar test bed for the moon. They are mining a material in … Read more
Depiction of the three telescope system described in the paper. Credit: Paul McKee, Hoang Nguyen, Michael W. Kudenov, John A. Christian One of the hardest things for many people to conceptualize when talking about how fast something is going is that they must ask, “Compared to what?” All motion only makes sense from a frame … Read more
WARNING: This article contains discussion of suicide and suicidal ideation. For all his adult life, Evann Gentry has suffered from depression. But his condition was exacerbated to a dangerous level in 2008, when he says he was assaulted and hazed while serving in the military. Suffering debilitating panic attacks and outbursts of anger, the depression was … Read more
Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane, Tenacity, imaged at the Neil Armstrong Test Facility after being delivered just a few days ago. Credit: Sierra Space/Shay Saldana After a journey spanning almost two decades, Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser reusable spaceplane, named Tenacity, is officially undergoing environmental testing at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility located at NASA’s … Read more
Composite image of the Galactic plane region and Potoroo, with the red layer showing the ASKAP total intensity image at 1368 MHz, and the green and blue layers representing WISE infrared images at 12 µm and 22 µm respectively. Known Galactic SNRs are indicated by red circles (Green, 2019, 2022), while known Galactic HII regions … Read more
Generation of a bioluminescent chimeric monkey. Credit: Protein & Cell (2023). DOI: 10.1093/procel/pwad049 Non-human primates (NHPs) have a high degree of similarity to humans compared to other animal models. These similarities manifest at the genetic, physiological, socio-behavioral, and central nervous system levels, making NHPs uniquely suitable for research into stem cell therapy and increasingly used … Read more
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Antarctica is often imagined as the last untouched wilderness. Unfortunately, avian influenza (“bird flu”) is encroaching on the icy continent. The virus has already reached the sub-Antarctic islands between the Antarctic Peninsula and South America. It’s only a matter of time before it reaches the Antarctic continent. So far avian influenza … Read more
