News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
Some companies make money out of ‘selling stars’, or rather selling opportunities to name them, perhaps as a gift to a loved one. But is it really worth the money? If you have ever considered “purchasing” a star for the purpose of attaching your name or the name of a friend or relative to it, … Read more
You can watch a big asteroid make a safe flyby of Earth today (March 11) from any spot with good internet access. Weather permitting, the Virtual Telescope Project will livestream telescope views of the recently found asteroid 2022 ES3, which will pass by our planet just slightly within the orbit of the moon. The broadcast … Read more
The planets in our solar system come in two forms: Some are rocky, and some are gaseous. But all of the moons in our solar system are rocky, even the ones that orbit gas giants. So why aren’t some moons in the solar system made of gas? And are there gaseous moons anywhere in the … Read more
Albert Einstein was allergic to authoritarians. His dislike of dogma, playful nature, and ability to constructively concentrate let him visualize unorthodox ways the universe might operate. Some of these proved to be true. Daydreaming his way to deeper understandings was his superpower. It can be ours, too. Through internal journeys of pure thought, Einstein looked … Read more
A new image from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) captures a stunning view of the Cartwheel galaxy following a recent stellar explosion. Located roughly 500 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Sculptor, the Cartwheel galaxy is a spiral galaxy that merged with a smaller neighboring galaxy several million years ago, resulting in its unusual, … Read more
Prehistoric sites are full of stone tools that appear to have two life cycles: They’ve been crafted, used, and discarded before being picked up a second time and used again. A new study puts forward an interesting hypothesis as to why this is. The research suggests that the recycling of these tools is about … Read more
As scientists continue to discover more about the brain and how it works, it can help to know just how much brain matter is required to perform certain functions – and to be able to make complex decisions, it turns out just 302 neurons may be required. That’s based on a new study looking … Read more
As people in the US prepare to turn their clocks ahead one hour in mid-March, I find myself bracing for the annual ritual of media stories about the disruptions to daily routines caused by switching from standard time to daylight saving time. About a third of Americans say they don’t look forward to these … Read more
New satellite views from space show the Russian military moving towards Kyiv, Ukraine on Friday (March 11), including images of a battalion firing upon the besieged capital. Muzzle flashes and smoke are visible in some of the satellite images obtained by Maxar’s WorldView-2 satellite, which has been watching the invasion of Ukraine by Russia since … Read more