Summer storms found to be stronger and more frequent over urban areas

Summer storms found to be stronger and more frequent over urban areas

An example of a track’s trajectory over Milan and how upwind and downwind distances are defined. Credit: Earth’s Future (2024). DOI: 10.1029/2024EF004505 Summer storms are generally more frequent, intense and concentrated over cities than over rural areas, according to new, detailed observations of eight cities and their surroundings. The results could change how city planners … Read more

Diagnostic test that combines two technologies with machine learning could lead to new paradigm for at-home testing

Diagnostic test that combines two technologies with machine learning could lead to new paradigm for at-home testing

Credit: ACS Nano (2024). DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.4c02897 A new diagnostic test system jointly developed at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) and UCLA Samueli School of Engineering fuses a powerful, sensitive transistor with a cheap, paper-based diagnostic test. When combined with machine learning, the system becomes a new kind of biosensor that … Read more

New Zealand’s kākāpō developed different feather colors to evade predatory birds, genome sequencing shows

New Zealand’s kākāpō developed different feather colors to evade predatory birds, genome sequencing shows

The kākāpō individual Hoki as an example of the green feather color polymorphism. Credit: Lydia Uddstrom, New Zealand Department of Conservation (CC-BY 4.0, creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Aotearoa New Zealand’s flightless parrot, the kākāpō, evolved two different color types to potentially help them avoid detection by a now-extinct apex predator, Lara Urban at Helmholtz AI, Germany and colleagues … Read more

New stormwater infrastructure is needed for Canadian cities to handle increased urban flooding

New stormwater infrastructure is needed for Canadian cities to handle increased urban flooding

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Urban flooding is increasingly concerning in Canada, where water drainage systems are at risk of being overwhelmed. Natural watersheds have been greatly altered by construction disturbing the natural ways that water flows from rainfall, across the land and into water bodies. The result is that drainage infrastructure must cope with increased … Read more

New dense sub-Saturn exoplanet discovered

New dense sub-Saturn exoplanet discovered

Detrended TESS light curve (LC) of TOI-6651 from sector 17 (1800-second cadence) and 57 (200-second cadence) shown in green and blue points, respectively. The upper panel displays the full TESS LC plotted against time, while the lower panel presents the phase-folded LC with pink dots representing 25-minute binned data points. The black solid line in … Read more

Oil tanker ablaze off Yemen threatens environmental disaster

Oil tanker ablaze off Yemen threatens environmental disaster

The Greek-flagged Sounion was struck on August 21, 2024 by Yemen’s Huthi rebels. An abandoned tanker carrying more than one million barrels of crude oil could contaminate vast areas of the Red Sea in a severe, long-term environmental disaster if it breaks up or explodes, experts warn. The Greek-flagged Sounion, struck on August 21 by … Read more

SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission launches, will attempt spacewalk

SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission launches, will attempt spacewalk

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon Resilience capsule, carrying the crew of the Polaris Dawn Mission. Chandan Khanna | Afp | Getty Images SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission launched on Tuesday from Florida on a Falcon 9 rocket, which carried the Dragon capsule “Resilience” into orbit. It’s the first of three missions that … Read more

Pollution of the potent warming gas methane soars and people are mostly to blame

Pollution of the potent warming gas methane soars and people are mostly to blame

The amount and proportion of the powerful heat-trapping gas methane that humans spew into the atmosphere is rising, helping to turbocharge climate change, a new study finds. Tuesday’s study finds that in 2020, the last year complete data is available, the world put 670 million tons (608 million metric tons) of methane in the air, … Read more

Billionaire Finally Launches on First Private Space-Walk Mission

Billionaire Finally Launches on First Private Space-Walk Mission

One of the most ambitious space tourism missions in history has launched, with the all-commercial crew set to hit a number of milestones during its five days in space, including the first-ever privately funded human space walk. The mission, called Polaris Dawn, took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida today, Tuesday, September 10, … Read more

SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission aiming for history with first private spacewalk

SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission aiming for history with first private spacewalk

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon Resilience capsule sits on Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center ahead of the Polaris Dawn Mission in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission, a daring multiday orbital expedition that will feature the first-ever spacewalk by private citizens, is targeting liftoff early Tuesday, though … Read more