One soap bubble over green bush. Getty One of the most reliable anthropomorphic rules of thumb in physics is that any system “wants” to minimize its energy, and will move in the direction of the lowest-energy state available. Of course, inanimate physical objects don’t really have desires, so this is really just a statistical-likelihood kind
Hurricane season doesn’t start until June 1, but the National Hurricane Center announced Monday evening that Subtropical Storm Andrea had formed. Called a subtropical storm because it has a blend of both tropical and nontropical characteristics, it is packing peak winds of 40 mph (64 kilometres per hour). The storm could strengthen slightly through Tuesday
PASADENA, Calif. — A supplier base of hardware and service vendors sees opportunities for new business from the growing number of satellite and launch vehicle ventures, even if space remains a small part of their overall business. Unlike many other space conferences, the exhibit hall of the Space Tech Expo conference, which opened here May
Various long-exposure campaigns, like the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field (XDF) shown here, have revealed thousands of galaxies in a volume of the Universe that represents a fraction of a millionth of the sky. But even with all the power of Hubble, and all the magnification of gravitational lensing, there are still galaxies out there beyond
If you think your mom is laying it on thick about producing grandchildren, take heart: At least you’re not a male bonobo. Bonobo mothers have been seen performing a variety of behaviors that seem to lend their sons an advantage when it comes to fathering babies, according to a study published Monday in Current Biology
Thirty years ago, archaeologists digging at one of England’s earliest medieval villages discovered the remains of 73 worn cooking pots. Used for the last time half a century ago, they still hold tiny remnants of their last meal. Which means they provide fascinating insight into what medieval people actually ate on a day-to-day basis. Chemically
You may not realise it, because we always see the same side of it from Earth, but the Moon is pretty weird. The side we see is very different from the far side, which is always facing away from us, and the contrast between these two sides has been a baffling oddity. Now we have a
There’s no doubt we have too much plastic in our oceans, and it’s all our fault. But an unexpected source of support might help us to solve this terrible environmental problem: marine microbes that eat plastic, breaking the ubiquitous waste material down. In new research, an international team of scientists studied how microbial communities build
ARCADIA, Calif. — SpaceX filed a bid protest in federal court against the government May 17, but most details about the protest, including the specific award being protested, remain undisclosed. SpaceX filed the complaint with the Court of Federal Claims, but requested that the details of the complaint be kept under seal. Even the specific
How we measure the world underwent a quantum leap on Monday as scientists adopted new hyper-accurate definitions for units of weight, electricity and temperature derived from the universal laws of Nature. The change, on the occasion of World Metrology Day, sees one of science’s most influential objects – a metal cylinder used to define what
Dry erase boards wipe perfectly clean due to its non-porous surface and dry-erase ink. The dry-erase ink contains release agents which prevent the pigments from permanently adhering to the surface. Stream Full Episodes of How It’s Made: https://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-shows/how-its-made/ Subscribe to Science Channel: http://bit.ly/SubscribeScience Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScienceChannel Follow us on Twitter: Tweets by ScienceChannel
Tiger sharks, aptly named because of their tiger-like stripes on the sides of their body, are arguably one of the most infamous sharks in the world. Known as “garbage cans of the sea” because of the junk that has been found in their stomachs (like chicken wire, TNT, and parts of a suit of armor),
The Solar System might be a soggier place than we previously thought – even in the glacially cold reaches of the Kuiper Belt. There, dwarf planet Pluto could be harbouring liquid oceans under a shell of nitrogen ice. It was thought that the temperature required to maintain a liquid ocean on Pluto was too high
WASHINGTON — EchoStar Corp. on May 20 agreed to sell its waning broadcast satellite services business to Dish Networks for $800 million, reshaping EchoStar as a company whose primary focus is on internet connectivity. The sale includes nine satellites — half of EchoStar’s fleet when counting leased payloads — plus employees who handled satellite operations,
Hey, I wonder if there’s any science around here? Free for commercial use (via Pixabay) For decades the standard route from science to the public has been a follows. Scientist does research. Scientist writes a paper. Sometimes the scientist tells the press office at their university that they wrote a paper. If the press office
It’s long been known that cannabis plants are indigenous to Central Asia, but a new study provides a fresh focus on where exactly this genus may have first evolved millions of years ago. Documents dating back to the middle ages show humans have been hypothesising about the geographical origins of cannabis for over a thousand
Those who watched the full 51-minute version of Jeff Bezos’ May 9 Blue Moon announcement were treated to a tutorial on the work of Dr. Gerard K. O’Neill. In the 1970s Dr. O’Neill popularized the idea of space colonies that rotate in orbit allowing tens of thousands of inhabitants to live comfortable lives in Earth-like
A new breeding ground for endangered scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini) has been found in the Galápagos Islands, according to the Ecuadorian government. The area was discovered in the coastal area of Santa Cruz Island during a recent Galápagos National Park Directorate (GNPD) monitoring excursion. According to Eduardo Espinoza, the park ranger who led the
Researchers have pinpointed a previously unknown source of volcanoes in the extreme depths of Earth – in the transition zone between the upper and lower mantle. Until now, we thought we had a handle on the ways in which volcanoes form, welling up from the molten regions in the upper mantle beneath our planet’s crust,
Sound isn’t just something we hear. It’s a formidable physical phenomenon – a wave of pressure that reverberates through the air around us. But the medium sound moves through doesn’t have to be air. Incredibly loud sounds can also travel through water, sometimes even being the result of particularly noisy fish. But if you really want
Did you know that there are forests in the Arctic? Lush underwater forests of large brown seaweeds (kelps) are particularly striking in the Arctic, especially in contrast to the land where ice scour (scraping of sea ice against the sea floor) and harsh climates leave the ground barren with little vegetation. Kelp forests have been
WASHINGTON — In order to meet the goal of landing humans on the moon in 2024, NASA needs to get one element of its proposed lunar Gateway on contract in the near future so it will be ready in time. NASA’s latest plans for getting humans back to the surface of the moon involve the
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is suing the federal government again. But this time, it wants its protest of a government contract to stay under seal, meaning its allegations would not become public. In a motion filed with the Court of Federal Claims on Friday, the company said the privacy was necessary because the suit contains “confidential
Fifty years ago, Apollo 10 launched from Cape Kennedy on May 18, 1969. The Apollo 10 mission encompassed all aspects of an actual crewed lunar landing, except the landing. It was the first flight of a complete, crewed Apollo spacecraft to operate around the Moon. The crew members were Commander Thomas Stafford, Command Module Pilot
If you are interested in this story then read also Governments Look To “Smart Islands” For High Tech And Low Carbon Solutions. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected and technology-dependent, a new wave of smart applications is changing how we approach everyday activities. Utility appliances such as intelligent fridges (yes, you read that right), personal assistants like Amazon’s Alexa
The HAC draft report notes that the decision to not back the $72 million request should not be read as a complete rejection of the idea of establishing a Space Force. WASHINGTON — The House Appropriations Committee says in a draft report says it will not support the Pentagon’s $72.4 million request to establish a
Finally, 130 years after it was established, the kilogram as we know it is about to be retired. But it’s not the end: tomorrow, 20 May 2019, a new definition will be put in place – one that’s far more accurate than anything we’ve had until now. After the shift was unanimously voted in at the
Most people are familiar with optical lasers through their experience with laser pointers. But what about a laser made from sound waves? What makes optical laser light different from a light bulb or the sun is that all the light waves emerging from it are moving in the same direction and are pretty much in
I am always careful when writing this type of piece because there is usually some contrarian hanging out on Twitter waiting to pounce on statements like “It’s the ______est year ever.” To avoid cliche trolling, it is important to use the word “on record.” With that out of the way, let’s discuss the U.S. experiencing
Perhaps your teacher is just a good a judge of your academic prowess as an exam paper – and that could help reduce some of the exam workload on kids as they go through school. Researchers looked at data collected on more than 5,000 pairs of twins in the UK, and found that teacher assessments
Between 1946 and 1958, the US government tested 67 nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands. It later dumped radioactive waste from the tests into a crater on one of the islands, placing an 18-inch-thick concrete dome over the horrifying sludge. Because the crater was only supposed to be a temporary storage solution, the bottom of
Sometimes, while waiting for quantum computers to become a thing, or complaining that your stupid laptop keeps dying on 5 percent battery, it’s easy to forget just how far technology has come over the past 50 years. Sure, we can all list off a whole bunch of innovations that have changed the way the world
Getty Getty The link between depression and the body’s inflammatory response continues getting stronger, with more research showing an ever-tighter correlation. Whether inflammation causes depression has been difficult to nail down, but findings from a new study suggest we could be getting closer to an answer. For women in particular, it seems higher levels of inflammation
A team of scientists from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia has measured for the first time accuracy of two-qubit operations in silicon - a feat that would enable companies build a full-scale quantum processor. Computers today process information in binary bits that take either a 0 or 1 value while quantum computers
The James Webb Space Telescope’s cryogenic vacuum testing at our Johnson Space Center verified it’s ready for the cold, harsh environment of space, and its mission to uncover a part of the universe we have not seen. From distant worlds orbiting other stars, to mysterious cosmic structures, Webb could help answer questions about our universe
Unlike human history, when nature repeats itself, there’s usually a good reason. For the white-throated rail (Dryolimnas cuvieri), all it took was a peaceful reef Eden, free from predators and competition. On the remote Aldabra atoll in the Indian Ocean, scientists have discovered that the same species of bird has lost its ability to fly
They say a tree never forgets, and apparently, neither does its resin. For more than ten thousand years, an ancient chewing gum, made from the tar of a birch bark tree, has held the memory of Scandinavia’s first human settlers. Discovered in the 1990s, in a prehistoric hunter-fisher site on the Swedish coast, known as the Huseby
Hurricane Michael was recently reclassified as a Category 5 storm by NOAA. The storm devastated parts of Florida, Georgia and beyond in 2018 with 160 mph winds, storm surge and rainfall. For my home state of Georgia, it was a particularly tragic event with agricultural losses estimated to be in the $2.5 to 3 billion
Thornberry is proposing legislation that would make it easier for startups like Capella Space to continue to get private funding and compete for DoD small business awards. WASHINGTON — Capella Space, a San Francisco-based startup that is the first U.S. commercial company to deploy radar imaging satellites, earlier this year submitted a bid for a
Peacock spiders are so adorable, they stand a chance to sway the feelings of the most seasoned spider hater. These creatures are tiny – a mere 5 millimetres (0.2 inches). They’re also fluffy, the males have incredibly colourful butts, and they love to dance. Now we’ve discovered these spiders also have an interesting superpower – the
Consider yourself lucky if you’re in a job that you love, but be aware that there’s a potential downside – other people might take advantage of your passion for your work. New research shows that managers often set extra hours without pay, or give out demeaning tasks to employees, to those who are particularly passionate
Millions of cryptocurrency investors have been scammed out of massive sums of real money. In 2018, losses from cryptocurrency-related crimes amounted to US$1.7 billion. The criminals use both old-fashioned and new-technology tactics to swindle their marks in schemes based on digital currencies exchanged through online databases called blockchains. From researching blockchain, cryptocurrency and cybercrime, I
A lot of electronic dance music has a very characteristic feature: The music gradually builds, and then suddenly changes to a different rhythm, pitch or instrumentation. It feels like the tension of riding up a rollercoaster, just before you go down. Fittingly, this music phenomenon is called the “drop”. The buildup to the drop in
WASHINGTON — The European Space Agency gave contracts to ArianeGroup and MT Aerospace on May 14 to develop a prototype upper stage that could lead to an advanced carbon-composite upgrade for the Ariane 6 rocket. ArianeGroup, the Franco-German company building Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket, and subcontractor MT Aerospace of Augsburg, Germany, received funding repurposed from
After 12 successful seasons, “The Big Bang Theory” has finally come to a fulfilling end, concluding its reign as the longest running multicamera sitcom on TV. If you’re one of the few who haven’t seen the show, this CBS series centers around a group of young scientists defined by essentially every possible stereotype about nerds
Around 620 light-years away from Earth lies KELT-9b – by far the hottest planet we have ever found. It’s so hot that vaporised iron and titanium are scattered throughout its atmosphere, as researchers discovered last year. But it turns out it gets even more intense. Exoplanet scientists have now found a bunch of other vaporised
(Reuters) – A three-year-old filly collapsed and died after racing at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore on Friday, a day before the Preakness Stakes. FILE PHOTO: May 14, 2019; Baltimore, MD, USA; A general view of the straight away in front of the seating coming out of turn four at Pimlico Race Course. Mandatory Credit:
The next time your friends show you a photo of themselves riding an elephant, you might wince after watching Ashley Bell’s documentary. It’s the story of rescuing Asian elephants from the cruelty they endure to be housed in zoos and “entertainment” in circuses, as well as rides. We see them as “docile due to their
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