Russia’s War in Ukraine Sends Tremors into the Arctic

by

Diplomatic tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are affecting the farthest reaches of the Northern Hemisphere. Seven of the Arctic Council’s eight members — all except Russia, which currently holds the council’s rotating chairmanship — have agreed to boycott future meetings. The boycott, announced earlier this month by the U.S., Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway … Read more

2 giant blobs in Earth’s mantle may explain Africa’s weird geology

by

Deep within Earth’s mantle, there are two giant blobs. One sits under Africa, while the other is almost precisely opposite the first, under the Pacific Ocean. But these two blobs are not evenly matched.  New research finds that the blob under Africa extends far closer to the surface — and is more unstable — than … Read more

Not One, Not Two, But Three Planetary Systems Are Forming Around This Binary Star

by

Astronomers have spied three whole systems of exoplanets being born around one binary star. SVS 13 is a binary star system 980 light-years away, and the complex structures of dust around it are shedding light on how planetary systems are born in these fascinating environments. Since a large proportion of stars is bound up in … Read more

Russia’s Ukraine invasion could imperil international science

by

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has forced at least 1 million people to flee their homes, and has already seen thousands of Ukrainian civilians killed, could also have wide-reaching and prolonged ramifications for scores of industries and organizations, including many designed to be apolitical. Global efforts that could suffer include international science collaborations, which … Read more

You can watch Astra launch a commercial rocket from Alaska today. Here’s how.

by

The private spaceflight startup Astra will launch a commercial mission for Spaceflight, Inc. today and you can watch it live online.  An Astra Rocket 3.3 booster is scheduled to lift off at (1622 GMT, 9:22 a.m. PDT) from Astra’s pad on Kodiak Island, Alaska. You can watch the launch countdown live here, courtesy of NASA … Read more

NASA Criticized for Ending Pronoun Project

by

In a move that has been widely criticized, NASA leaders recently terminated a test project that allowed employees at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) to display pronouns in their official agency identifiers. The decision affected more than 100 employees who saw their stated pronouns vanish from communication platforms. The project’s termination attracted public … Read more

Preprint server removes ‘inflammatory’ papers in superconductor controversy | Science

by

A debate over claims of room temperature superconductivity has now boiled over into the realm of scientific publishing. Administrators of arXiv, the widely used physics preprint server, recently removed or refused to post several papers from the opposing sides, saying their manuscripts include inflammatory content and unprofessional language. ArXiv has also banned one of the … Read more

People, Not Science, Decide When a Pandemic Is Over

by

All pandemics end eventually. But how, exactly, will we know when the COVID-19 pandemic is really “over”? It turns out the answer to that question may lie more in sociology than epidemiology. As the world passes the second anniversary of the World Health Organization’s declaration of the COVID pandemic, things seem to be at a … Read more

What’s it like inside a massive galaxy cluster? Scientists used 196 lasers to find out.

by

An Earthbound experiment is replicating the extreme heat found in galaxy clusters located in deep space using nearly 200 lasers. The hope is the experiment series will reveal more about the conditions within giant groups of galaxies. Here, hydrogen gas can burn at roughly the same temperatures as it does the center of our sun, … Read more