On top of intensifying algal blooms and depleting oxygen, a new study reveals Earth’s bodies of freshwater are also evaporating at a greater rate than we realized. What’s more, “lake evaporation plays a larger role in the hydrological cycle than previously thought,” says ecologist Gang Zhao who was at Texas A&M University during the study.
Month: June 2022
We often think of plants as sedate, tranquil organisms that can’t help but keep to themselves. But not all plants are harmless wallflowers. Carnivorous plants, as the name suggests, eat prey – mostly bugs, but also small animals, and other nutrient-rich matter. While the whole idea seems vaguely nightmarish at first, these “ecologically unique” plants need our
The beloved pooch snoring on your couch or sticking a snoot under your arm at dinner time came from a much wilder origin. At some point, dogs diverged from gray wolves under the guidance of domestication, to become the diverse fuzzbutts that fill our homes and hearts with such joy today. Exactly when and how
Imagine you have an interview for a new job tomorrow. Some people might think about what kind of questions they will be asked so that they can prepare, or imagine the interview going well. For others, the thought of an interview will cause them to toss and turn all night thinking of every worst case
NASA administrator Bill Nelson said Wednesday the agency will reveal the “deepest image of our Universe that has ever been taken” on July 12, thanks to the newly operational James Webb Space Telescope. “If you think about that, this is farther than humanity has ever looked before,” Nelson said during a press briefing at the
Spotting a wispy sea dragon, floating amongst the seaweed, embellished with leaf-like adornments ruffling in swaying ocean currents, is truly a sight to behold. But there is more to sea dragons than meets the diver’s eye. Bedazzled as they may be, sea dragons are also missing teeth, lacking ribs, and their spines are curved and
NASA blasted a nanosatellite barely bigger than a microwave oven into outer space Tuesday, part of a landmark mission to return humans to the Moon. A rocket carrying the tiny CAPSTONE module successfully launched from New Zealand’s eastern Mahia Peninsula to a deafening blast and a wash of fiery propulsion. “We have liftoff!” NASA said
In 2018, archaeologists made a staggering discovery in Swaga Swaga Game Reserve in central Tanzania: 52 previously undocumented rock shelters, deliberately painted with rock art. Weathering had mostly destroyed all but a handful; but of those that were preserved, one was an absolute enigma. The site, named Amak’hee 4, was elaborately painted with a frieze
If you’ve been laying in bed at night, fretting that the planets of the Solar System are going to go ricocheting off throughout the galaxy, you can set your mind at ease. We have at least 100,000 years before that happens, according to new calculations. In a new study, mathematicians Angel Zhivkov and Ivaylo Tounchev
Long ago, almost up until the end of the last ice age, a peculiar giant kangaroo roamed the mountainous rainforests of New Guinea. Now, research published by myself and colleagues suggests this kangaroo was not closely related to modern Australian kangaroos. Rather, it represents a previously unknown type of primitive kangaroo unique to New Guinea.
NASA has requested the safe return of moondust and cockroach samples that were scheduled to be sold in a private auction that ended June 23. Earlier this month, the space agency contacted RR Auction, a Boston-based auction house, to stop the sale of moondust that was collected by astronauts during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission.
Like its movie namesake, the horrific marine heatwave nicknamed the Blob destroyed much in its path during its peak, causing mass deaths of fish, birds, and many other marine animals, threatening fishing industries. Since then, the Blob has at least briefly reared its head twice, hinting at an underlying persistence to its cause. Now, researchers
The search for life on Mars may have just gotten a whole lot more complicated. While rovers such as Curiosity and Perseverance scour the surface looking for traces of ancient life, new evidence reveals we may have to dig much deeper to find them. Any evidence of amino acids left over from a time when
Our blueprint for the habitability of exoplanets is just one world in the entire cosmos: Earth. Our home is the only planet on which we know, for a certainty, life has emerged. But the conditions for life as we know it may not be restricted to Earth-like planets, and now scientists have determined one kind
A US navy destroyer sunk during World War II has been found nearly 7,000 meters (23,000 feet) below sea level off the Philippines, making it the world’s deepest shipwreck ever located, an American exploration team said. The USS Samuel B. Roberts went down during a battle off the central island of Samar on 25 October
Archaeologists have revealed a complex of hidden passageways and galleries deep inside the ancient Chavín de Huántar temple complex in the Peruvian Andes. The researchers think the network of chambers and galleries was used in religious rituals, possibly involving psychedelic drugs. It’s the first time in about 3,000 years that these particular hidden structures have
Multiple ancient hominin remains from caves in South Africa may be much, much older than previous estimates suggested. The Sterkfontein limestone cave system, not far from Johannesburg, has yielded so many ancient bones from the hominin genus Australopithecus over the last century that its location has been dubbed the Cradle of Humankind – deeply important
Scientists have already established that octopuses are smarter than your average invertebrate, but a new discovery suggests one of the reasons why: a specific molecular analogy with the human brain. Both the human genome and the octopus genome contain a high number of ‘jumping genes’ or transposons, which are able to duplicate themselves or move
Three-dimensional models of astronomical objects can be ridiculously complex. They can range from black holes that light doesn’t even escape to the literal size of the Universe and everything in between. But not every object has received the attention needed to develop a complete model of it, but we can officially add another highly complex
For years, computer scientists have warned of the perils artificial intelligence (AI) poses in the future, and not just in the sensational terms of machines overthrowing humanity, but in far more insidious ways too. While this cutting-edge technology is capable of wondrous breakthroughs, researchers have also observed the darker sides of machine learning systems, showing
It often feels like when people die, they leave a void behind. In the case of massive stars, that happens to be physically true. A new analysis of the tenuous gas that drifts between the stars in the Milky Way galaxy has revealed the imprint of bubbles that expand into space when a massive star
A gold miner found a mummified baby woolly mammoth in the Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin Traditional Territory in Yukon, Canada. According to a press release from the local government, the female baby mammoth has been named Nun cho ga by the First Nation Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in elders, which translates to “big baby animal” in the Hän language. Nun cho ga
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) – NASA’s eye-in-the-sky in orbit around the Moon – has found the crash site of the mystery rocket booster that slammed into the far side of the Moon back on 4 March 2022. The LRO images, taken May 25th, revealed not just a single crater, but a double crater formed
Is there life on Mars? Has there ever been? It’s one of the biggest questions we have about our planetary neighbor; now, research points to one particular part of the red planet that could have been able to harbor life several times across billions of years. Through a thorough study of images captured by the
The oceans are one of our planet’s most important carbon sinks, with currently around 39,000 gigatons of carbon dioxide locked away – that’s around 50 times more than what’s circulating in the atmosphere right now. However, we can’t rely on this carbon capture and storage to solve our climate crisis problem, because we’re producing too much
Neutron stars are dense remnants of large stars. They are the collapsed cores of stars formed during a supernova explosion. While we know generally how they form, we are still learning how they evolve, particularly when they are young. But that’s starting to change thanks to large sky surveys, which have allowed astronomers to observe
Being tiny can certainly have its advantages. You need less food, don’t take up as much space, and are harder for predators to spot. But researchers have just discovered there’s a limit to how small a backboned animal can get, while still retaining the ability to balance. Pumpkin toadlets (Brachycephalus) have miniaturized well beyond this
When it comes to going out with style, nothing comes close to the end of a white dwarf. Their thermonuclear self-destruction ranks among the most powerful explosions in the cosmos, forcing the star to wink out of existence in a blaze of glory. At least, that’s the idea. A discovery confirms some white dwarfs fake
If you look different to your close relatives, you may have felt separate from your family. As a child, during particularly stormy fall outs you might have even hoped it was a sign that you were adopted. As our new research shows, appearances can be deceptive when it comes to family. New DNA technology is
An overlooked archaeological site outside of Canterbury turned out to contain some of the oldest human-made tools in Britain. Many of the artifacts were found in the 1920s in the market town of Fordwich, Kent, but they were only recently properly dated. According to modern radiometric techniques, the collection of more than 330 hand axes
Through June, sky watchers have had the pleasure of watching all five of the planets that we can see with the naked eye – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn – line up in the sky. And this weekend, the crescent Moon will join them. Impressively, the planets currently appear in order of their distance from the
Have you ever met a perfect stranger and felt like you ‘clicked’ almost immediately? Well, that feeling of chemistry might actually be chemistry. An Israeli study recruited twenty pairs of same-sex, platonic friends who said they clicked when they met. Using an electronic nose (and volunteers who heroically agreed to sniff T-shirts worn overnight), the
The fearsome megalodon was the largest shark that ever lived, possibly growing up to 20 meters (66 feet) in length, with teeth the size of a human hand. New research analyzing teeth from this ancient creature has revealed that the megalodon was the most apex of apex predators. By studying the levels of nitrogen isotopes
Once again, life has been found in an environment that would be deeply inhospitable to most organisms living on this planet. Fed by waters that pass through 600 meters (1,970 ft) of permafrost, the sub-zero, salty, virtually oxygen-free Lost Hammer Spring in the Canadian Arctic is one of the harshest places on Earth. Even here, however,
A new published and incredibly thorough study of ectothermic tetrapods – reptiles and amphibians – gives experts a fresh insight into the reasons why cold-blooded animals tend to have such long lifespans in relation to their size. It’s the most comprehensive study of longevity and aging ever published: 114 different scientists looking at 107 different
The idea of love languages is that we all express love differently – physical touching, buying gifts, giving compliments and so on – and recognizing that others may not express love in the same way that we ourselves do can help keep relationships strong. But there’s not been much research done to back that idea
A gigantic bacterium found in a mangrove swamp in the Caribbean is by far the largest ever found, and now scientists think they’ve figured out how it grew to such an enormous size. This species of bacteria, Thiomargarita magnifica, is 5,000 times larger than most bacteria, and 50 times larger than all other known giant bacteria.
A gigantic sunspot has swelled to twice Earth’s size, doubling its diameter in 24 hours, and it’s pointed right at us. The sunspot, called AR3038, grew to 2.5 times Earth‘s size – making the sunspot roughly 19,800 miles, or 31,900 kilometers, in diameter – from Sunday (June 19) to Monday night (June 20), according to Spaceweather.com, a
A fearsome ‘vampire’ predator that lurked in Earth’s oceans more than 160 million years ago probably did actually suck its prey, at least in a sense. A new analysis of exceptionally well-preserved fossils of a small cephalopod named Vampyronassa rhodanica, related to modern vampire squids (neither actually vampires, nor squids), reveals the presence of muscular
These days, peeing on your food plants may be considered a gross and wacky gardening hack, despite the practice having been proven beneficial for thousands of years. But our modern squeamishness has meant gardeners and farmers alike must resort to expensive fertilizers to provide their crops with the much-needed nutrients found free in our pee.
Why would someone join an institution that removed the option of family life and required them to be celibate? Reproduction, after all, is at the very heart of the evolution that shaped us. Yet many religious institutions around the world require exactly this. The practice has led anthropologists to wonder how celibacy could have evolved
An award-winning photographer has captured the somber moment when dozens of colorful starfish set about devouring a lifeless sea lion on the seafloor in California. Wildlife photographer David Slater captured the haunting photo in the shallow waters of Monterey Bay. The dead sea lion and its compatriots swimming in the background are most likely California
Australian scientists have created the world’s first-ever quantum computer circuit – one that contains all the essential components found on a classical computer chip but at the quantum scale. The landmark discovery, published in Nature today, was nine years in the making. “This is the most exciting discovery of my career,” senior author and quantum
From orbit, this landscape on Mars looks like a lacy honeycomb or a spider web. But the unusual polygon-shaped features aren’t created by Martian bees or spiders; they are actually formed from an ongoing process of seasonal change from created from water ice and carbon dioxide. The HiRISE camera (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) on
Pluto’s life partner, Charon, has a disarming red ‘cap’. Ever since New Horizons snapped the moon‘s rust-tinted north pole on its 2015 flyby, scientists have pondered the planetary processes responsible for leaving such a bold landmark. Scientists initially suspected the iron-colored smear (nicknamed Mordor Macula) was methane captured from Pluto’s surface, its red color the
Scientists have identified the traits that may make a person more likely to claim they hear the voices of the dead. According to research published in 2021, a predisposition to high levels of absorption in tasks, unusual auditory experiences in childhood, and a high susceptibility to auditory hallucinations all occur more strongly in self-described clairaudient
A fisherman on the Mekong river in Cambodia has hooked the biggest freshwater fish ever recorded, scientists said – a 300-kilogram stingray. The giant freshwater stingray, which measured four meters (13 feet) from snout to tail, was caught last week and released back into the wild after being fitted with a tag to track its
As people age, their immune systems naturally begin to decline. This aging of the immune system, called immunosenescence, may be an important part of such age-related health problems as cancer and cardiovascular disease, as well as older people’s less effective response to vaccines. But not all immune systems age at the same rate. In our
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