News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
When NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei launched into space 11 months ago, he did not know how long he would be off the planet, let alone that he would be up there long enough to set any records. But when the clock strikes 12:24 p.m. EDT (1624 GMT) today (March 15), Vande Hei will claim … Read more
All routes to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) degrees run through calculus classes. Each year, hundreds of thousands of college students take introductory calculus. But only a fraction ultimately complete a STEM degree, and research about why students abandon such degrees suggests that traditional calculus courses are one of the reasons. With scientific understanding and innovation … Read more
Earth could be hit by a series of mild geomagnetic storms on Monday and Tuesday (March 14 and 15) after a moderate solar flare blasted out of the sun’s atmosphere several days ago, according to government weather agencies in the U.S. and U.K. The storms aren’t likely to cause any harm on Earth, save … Read more
The U.S. associates two statues with the cornerstones of its republic. The two figures are the Statue of Liberty, her torch lighting the way for immigrants, and Lady Justice, blindfolded to avoid bias from the eyes in the court. The reality is that people, not statues, make decisions about immigration. And in the courts and … Read more
The planet-scale array of observatories most famous for creating the first-ever image of a black hole is heading back to work. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is gearing up for its 2022 campaign, which includes seven days of remote observations. The telescope network will focus on dramatic objects around the universe including black holes, galaxies … Read more
Dogs might not be able to recognize themselves in a mirror, but that doesn’t mean our pets don’t have some level of self-awareness. Recent research has shown dogs can recognize the unique smell of their own odor, sort of like looking in an ‘olfactory mirror’, and in 2021, a study found they might also have … Read more
Have you ever felt a creeping sensation that someone’s watching you? Then you turn around and you don’t see anything out of the ordinary. Depending on where you were, though, you might not have been completely imagining it. There are billions of things sensing you every day. They are everywhere, hidden in plain sight – … Read more
Two NASA astronauts will conduct a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Tuesday morning (March 15), and you can watch it live. Kayla Barron and Raja Chari are scheduled to step outside the orbiting lab Tuesday at 8:05 a.m. EDT (1205 GMT), kicking off a roughly 6.5-hour spacewalk designed to help pave the way … Read more
On 11 March 2022, at around 9:20 pm UTC, a small asteroid entered Earth’s atmosphere. This is not unusual. Space rocks enter Earth’s atmosphere all the time. What makes this asteroid so amazing is that an astronomer spotted it before it made its rendezvous with atmospheric entry. It’s named 2022 EB5, and it’s only the … Read more
The private spaceflight startup Astra on Monday called off its first attempt to launch a rocket since a failed flight last month due to the risk of lightning at its Alaska liftoff site. Astra scrubbed the attempted launch of its Astra-1 mission Monday (March 14) at Pad LP-3B at the Pacific Spaceport Complex on Alaska’s … Read more