Forty-four of the world’s leading climate scientists have called on Nordic policymakers to address the potentially imminent and “devastating” collapse of key Atlantic Ocean currents. In an open letter published online Monday (Oct. 21), University of Pennsylvania climatologist Michael Mann and other eminent scientists say the risks of weakening ocean circulation in the Atlantic have … Read more
Tiny photosynthetic microbes could be secretly thriving on Mars — hiding inside small bubbles of liquid water in the thin layers of dusty ice that litter the Red Planet’s surface, a new NASA-led study reveals. Researchers believe the icy patches could be among the most promising targets in the hunt for extraterrestrial life within our … Read more
In my research focused on early farmers of Europe, I have often wondered about a curious pattern through time: Farmers lived in large dense villages, then dispersed for centuries, then later formed cities again, only to abandon those as well. Why? Archaeologists often explain what we call urban collapse in terms of climate change, overpopulation, … Read more
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to spend a night on Mars? This excerpt from the new book “Daydreaming in the Solar System” by John E. Moores and Jesse Rogerson, takes a poetic look at what it might be like to explore the Red Planet if you were faced with the daunting … Read more
In summer 2024, several news outlets chronicled the “nightmarish” impacts Texas communities endured due to the din of noise emanating from nearby cryptocurrency mines. Residents of these communities reported that the unrelenting noise caused them to experience a range of ailments, including high blood pressure, chest pain and tinnitus. The noise levels of the cryptocurrency … Read more
Scientists estimate that the earliest biological entities began to appear on Earth more than 4 billion years ago. “There was a sort of primordial soup from which certain organic molecules were formed. These were precursors to RNA and DNA,” carbon-containing molecules which combined and organized themselves into a sequence of biological reactions, said computational biologist … Read more
Material harvested from asteroids could be used to sustain astronauts during long-duration space missions. Researchers from Western University’s Institute for Earth and Space Exploration have identified a way to produce edible biomass, aka food, using microbes and the organic compounds found in asteroids. Their proposed process addresses the issue of how to pack enough food … Read more
Quantum physicists are familiar with wonky, seemingly nonsensical phenomena: atoms and molecules sometimes act as particles, sometimes as waves; particles can be connected to one another by a “spooky action at a distance,” even over great distances; and quantum objects can detach themselves from their properties like the Cheshire Cat from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland … Read more
It may take less than 1,000 years for an advanced alien civilization to destroy its own planet with climate change, even if it relies solely on renewable energy, a new model suggests. When astrophysicists simulated the rise and fall of alien civilizations, they found that, if a civilization were to experience exponential technological growth and … Read more
Far beyond the eight familiar planets in our solar system, countless bizarre and extreme worlds await discovery — and some have already been found. Thanks to rapidly advancing telescope technology, astronomers have detected more than 5,600 planets outside our solar system. These exoplanets, as scientists call them, are worlds of lava, and worlds of water. They’re worlds … Read more
