Old-growth tropical forest at Maliau Basin Conservation Area in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Credit: Maria Mills. Tree stems in tropical forests recovering from logging produce carbon dioxide at a greater rate than those in unlogged forests, according to a new study from the University of Leicester. With fewer surrounding trees to compete with, the tree stems … Read more
Scanning electron-microscopy image of human platelets prior to launch to the International Space Station. Credit: University of Utah/Megakaryocytes PI Team NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov are headed to the International Space Station for the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission in September. Once on station, these crew members will support scientific investigations that … Read more
Structure of MMF-VCSEL. Credit: Sensors (2024). DOI: 10.3390/s24144700 A study led by researchers from the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences revealed a novel metal-dielectric film mode filter structure that can flexibly regulate transverse modes in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), which demonstrates the potential of metal apertures … Read more
Landslide-affected slopes around Barry Arm fjord, Alaska. If the slopes suddenly collapse, scientists fear a large tsunami would hit the town of Whittier, 48km away. Credit: Gabe Wolken / USGS Earthquake scientists detected an unusual signal on monitoring stations used to detect seismic activity during September 2023. We saw it on sensors everywhere, from the … Read more
Tropical forest in Martinique near the city of Fond St-Denis. Credit: Wikipedia Millions of years ago, the climate was much warmer and wetter than today. But exactly how much warmer and wetter? Our research shows that 26 million years ago, the average winter temperature in the UK and Ireland was more than 18°C, about the … Read more
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain New research published in Science shows that for some people who believe in conspiracy theories, a fact-based conversation with an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot can “pull them out of the rabbit hole.” Better yet, it seems to keep them out for at least two months. This research, carried out by Thomas … Read more
This 2021 handout image released by Indonesia’s environment ministry shows one of two rare Javan rhino calves that were caught on video in Ujung Kulon National Park. This week, a billionaire made a spacewalk, archaeologists found a new, isolated Neanderthal lineage and the James Webb Space Telescope revealed the extreme outskirts of the Milky Way. … Read more
Even with recent rotation away from megacap tech stocks, there may still be a case for investing in thematic tech exchange-traded funds. Roundhill Investments runs the Roundhill Generative AI & Technology ETF (CHAT), which is up 13.8% year to date as of Friday’s market close. But despite recent volatility in the group, the firm’s CEO … Read more
Research showing that pigeons can be used to guide missiles was awarded one of this year’s Ig Nobel prizes. Mammals that can breathe through their backsides, homing pigeons that can guide missiles and sober worms that outpace drunk ones: these are some of the strange scientific discoveries that won this year’s Ig Nobels, the quirky … Read more
The great whodunnit of the human family is exactly what caused Neanderthals to suddenly die off 40,000 years ago. A new study posits a very surprising answer to one of history’s great mysteries—what killed off the Neanderthals? Could it be that they were unadventurous, insular homebodies who never strayed far enough from home? Scientists studying … Read more
