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Amazon Rainforest Nearing Tipping Point Faster Than Predicted, Scientists Warn

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Hammered by climate change and relentless deforestation, the Amazon rainforest is losing its capacity to recover and could irretrievably transition into savannah, with dire consequences for the region and the world, according to a study published Monday.   Researchers warned that the results mean the Amazon could be approaching a so-called “tipping point” faster than … Read more

NASA gearing up for rollout of Artemis 1 mission next week

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Teams are starting to retract the “kitchen drawer” platforms surrounding the first rocket that will launch a NASA Artemis mission toward the moon. Retracting the platforms surrounding the huge Space Launch System (SLS) rocket at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida is a key step to safely sending the rocket and spacecraft to the … Read more

Russian space chief, former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly trade barbs on Twitter

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The space partnership between Russia and the U.S. looks shakier and shakier every day. That partnership has been fraying badly since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, spurring the United States and a number of other countries to impose new economic sanctions. Russian space officials have decried these sanctions; in response, they have stopped the … Read more

NASA orders 3 more SpaceX Crew Dragon flights to space station

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NASA has awarded a nearly $3.5 billion contract to SpaceX to provide three additional Crew Dragon launches to the International Space Station. The contract covers missions Crew-7, Crew-8 and Crew-9, but NASA says it might order more crew launches in the future. SpaceX began flying NASA astronauts to the International Space Station in 2020, marking … Read more

Millions of Palm-Sized, Flying Spiders Could Invade the East Coast

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New research, published Feb. 17 in the journal Physiological Entomology, suggests that the palm-sized Joro spider, which swarmed North Georgia by the millions last September, has a special resilience to the cold. This has led scientists to suggest that the 3-inch (7.6 centimeters) bright-yellow-striped spiders — whose hatchlings disperse by fashioning web parachutes to fly … Read more

When is a pandemic ‘over’? | Science

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Every 3 months since January 2020, when it first named the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak an international public health emergency, a committee of expert advisers to the World Health Organization (WHO) has convened to assess whether the pandemic still merits that label. And every 3 months, most recently in January, the advisers have unanimously agreed it does, … Read more

‘It looks like Iron Curtain 2.’ Arctic research with Russia curtailed after Ukraine invasion | Science

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This year, polar bears will cross from Alaska to Siberia as they do every spring, plodding across the frozen Chukchi Sea to their summer home on Russia’s Wrangel Island. But this time, U.S. scientists won’t be following them. “There’s no way,” says Eric Regehr, a University of Washington (UW), Seattle, polar bear biologist who was … Read more

Ukrainian physicists call for Russia’s ouster from CERN | Science

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For nearly 70 years, CERN, the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva, has served as a narrow but sturdy cultural bridge between East and West. But that link, which endured the coldest days of the Cold War, is straining under the weighty repercussions of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Some Ukrainian physicists are calling for Russia … Read more

These spiders hunt in packs. Watch how they do it | Science

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Jupiter’s big moon Ganymede casts giant shadow in stunning Juno photo by citizen scientist

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A powerful new picture of Jupiter posted by a citizen scientist shows the planet looming large with the shadow of its biggest moon Ganymede blanketing its clouds. The image comes from Kevin M. Gill, who posted copies on Twitter and Flickr  after analyzing data from the Juno spacecraft’s 20th close flyby of May 2019. Like … Read more