Uncategorized
- Climate
Explainer: What is attribution science?
A relatively new, developing field of science investigates possible links between climate change and extreme weather events.
- Animals
Ancient crocodiles may have preferred chomping plants, not meat
Fossil teeth of ancient crocodilians suggest that some ate plants and that such green diets evolved in crocs at least three times more than 60 million years ago.
- Physics
Scientists Say: Big Bang
The Big Bang is the current theory about how our universe came to be. It began with a vast explosion of matter — a very Big Bang.
- Animals
New treatment offers hope for bats battling white nose syndrome
A fungal disease that has wiped out millions of North American bats has a new challenger: antifungal bacteria. Infected bats treated with the germs had a good chance of surviving.
- Earth
Sunlight can produce energy and clean water at the same time
A new device can make electricity from the sun. What makes it truly special, however: It uses waste heat from the system to turn dirty water or salty water into drinking water.
- Earth
Three things scientists want to know after California’s July earthquakes
Major back-to-back earthquakes struck northern California on July 4 and 5 — but not where geoscientists were expecting them. That’s raised some questions about how things might be changing.
- Animals
Some mama whales may whisper to keep calves safe from orcas
Even enormous whales can fear the threat that orcas pose to their babies. It now seems that some have taken to whispering to help their young stay off the killer whales’ radar.
- Earth
Record seaweed belt spanned from Africa to Gulf of Mexico
Blooms of Sargassum seaweed used to form at the mouth of the Amazon River each year. In 2011, they mushroomed in size to where they now span from South America across to Africa.
- Life
Scientists Say: Mitosis
Mitosis is a type of cell division where one cell divides into two identical copies, called daughter cells.
- Brain
High fat diet removes brain’s natural brake on overeating
At least in mice, high-fat diets promote overeating. And the problem appears to trace to changes that these foods make to cells in an appetite-control center within the brain.
- Planets
What do you call a moon that escapes its planet? A ‘ploonet’
Giant planets in other star systems might lose their moons, creating new planets. And if moons do go rogue, current telescopes may be able to find them.
- Space
Caught: A ghost galaxy that may have hit ours long ago
Astronomers think they’ve found a galaxy that hit the Milky Way. The collision took place millions of years ago, leaving ripples in our galaxy.
