News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
In late summer Candice Davis and her brother, Starr, returned to South Philadelphia from a trip to Mexico, and Davis quickly knew that something was wrong. Both she and Starr felt ill, and both subsequently tested positive for COVID-19. But Starr, who had been immunized, experienced only mild flulike symptoms and felt better within a … Read more
A new cosmic survey project known as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) today released its first results: the most detailed 3D map of the universe to date, which shows the locations of 400,000 galaxies up to distances of 10 billion light-years. The map is the fruit of the project’s first 7 months of operation. … Read more
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon gets between Earth and the sun, and the moon casts a shadow over Earth. A solar eclipse can only take place at the phase of new moon, when the moon passes directly between the sun and Earth and its shadows fall upon Earth’s surface. But whether the alignment … Read more
Keen to gain an edge for the day ahead? A secular ritual really can bring greater success even for rational thinkers, writes David Robson
The chance it’s an artefact is just 1%.
And then there were two—maybe. Astronomers say they have found a second plausible candidate for a moon beyond our solar system, an exomoon, orbiting a world nearly 6,000 light-years from Earth. Called Kepler-1708 b-i, the moon appears to be a gas-dominated object, slightly smaller than Neptune, orbiting a Jupiter-sized planet around a sunlike star—an unusual … Read more
By Chelsea Whyte Ken Barber/Alamy; Schankz/Shutterstock; Advia Image/Shutterstock; Koktaro/Shutterstock LOOKING out over an expanse of scrubby sagebrush, it is hard to imagine that the high desert in eastern Oregon was once home to large creatures that resembled sabre-toothed cats. The land here is mostly dry and grassy, punctuated by sharp hills. There isn’t a lot … Read more
Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Humans 12 January 2022 Josie Ford Boozing hamsters Feedback has a soft spot for hamsters, whose hoarding and nesting behaviours are similar to our own. Our feeling of oneness only increases with an article in The Atlantic forwarded to us … Read more
The wormhole theory postulates that a theoretical passage through space-time could create shortcuts for long journeys across the universe. Wormholes are predicted by the theory of general relativity. But be wary: wormholes bring with them the dangers of sudden collapse, high radiation and dangerous contact with exotic matter. Wormhole theory Wormholes were first theorized in … Read more
By Elle Hunt CHASTENED by the sight of her newborn baby’s face lit up by the blue light of her phone, Catherine Price set about limiting the time she spent in front of screens. The journalist and her husband stopped mindlessly scrolling on social media and started taking 24-hour “digital sabbaths”. By cutting down on … Read more