Map of Late Neolithic sites. Credit: Communications Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-06676-7 Since the catastrophic pandemics of the Middle Ages, one disease has almost proverbially symbolized contagion and death: the plague. It is now known that the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis has been present in Central and Northern Europe for more than 5,000 years. However, it … Read more
Codi overcoming a slope in rocky terrain. Credit: Airbus Rover trials in a quarry in the U.K. showing a four-wheeled rover, known as Codi, using its robotic arm and a powerful computer vision system to pick up sample tubes. The rover drives to the samples with an accuracy of 10 cm, constantly mapping the terrain. … Read more
Experimental setup of the FSO outdoor experiments. Tunable laser source (TLS), driving amplifier (DA), arbitrary waveform generator (AWG), transmitter digital signal processing (Tx-DSP), erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), bandpass filter (BPF), optical spectrum analyzer (OSA), polarization division multiplexing emulator (PDM), high power optical amplifier (HPOA), real time controller (RTC), deformable mirror (DFM), wafefront sensor (WFS), optical … Read more
The first image of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. It was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), an array which linked together eight existing radio observatories across the planet to form a single “Earth-sized” virtual telescope. Credit: EHT Collaboration The origins of aptly named supermassive black holes—which … Read more
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Severe drought in the American Southwest and Mexico and more severe wet years in the Northeast are the modern norm in North America, according to new research—and the analysis suggests these seasonal patterns will be more extreme in the future. The middle of the United States, meanwhile, can expect bigger swings … Read more
China has endured a summer of extreme weather and heat waves across much of its north and west. China logged its hottest August in more than six decades last month, its national weather service said, after the country endured a summer of extreme weather and heat waves across much of its north and west. China … Read more
Visualization of the gas shroud of starburst galaxy IRAS 08339+6517. Credit: Cristy Roberts ANU/ASTRO 3D If this galaxy is typical, then the study, published today in Nature Astronomy, indicates that our galaxy is already interacting with its closest neighbor, Andromeda. Where does a galaxy end and deep space begin? It seems like a simple question … Read more
Credit: NASA It’s becoming increasingly crowded in the orbits around Earth that are popular for space travel. And that’s not just due to satellites—there’s also more waste material, which is compromising safety. Ph.D. candidate Zhuang Tian is conducting research into the legal aspects of discarded space equipment. Whoever leaves debris behind should take responsibility and … Read more
Plymouth State University students Sarah Brigandi, left, and Sammantha Boulay release a weather balloon from Moriarty, New Mexico, to collect atmospheric data on Oct. 14, 2023. Credit: NASA Student teams from three U.S. universities became the first to measure what scientists have long predicted: eclipses can generate ripples in Earth’s atmosphere called atmospheric gravity waves. … Read more
Inabtanin alarabia and Arambourgiania philadelphiae. Credit: Terryl Whitlatch Some species of pterosaurs flew by flapping their wings while others soared like vultures, demonstrates a new study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. It has long been debated whether the largest pterosaurs could fly at all. However, “remarkable” and “rare” three-dimensional fossils of two different … Read more
