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Laura Shepard Churchley is not sure if she is now an astronaut. The eldest daughter of Alan Shepard, America’s first astronaut to fly into space, Churchley followed in her father’s footsteps — and trajectory — lifting off on Dec. 11 aboard the New Shepard, Blue Origin’s suborbital launch vehicle named after her dad. The 10-minute … Read more
By Michael Le Page and Graham Lawton People queue for vaccinations at St Thomas’ Hospital in London Dan Kitwood/Getty Images The world is facing a surge in hospitalisations and deaths from the omicron variant of the coronavirus that could be as bad as in previous waves, even if omicron is only a third as severe … Read more
When you think of snails, sharp jagged teeth are not usually what comes to mind. But you might have to reconsider because these squishy mollusks have terrifying lickity-bits when you look close enough under the microscope. Snails use their weird-as-heck toothed-tongues called a radula to lick through all sorts of surfaces to feed, including grinding through … Read more
The nature and origin of black holes and their role in the evolution of the universe still puzzles scientists. Now, a new study suggests that the existence of black holes from the earliest moments of the universe could explain more than one astronomical mystery. The new study suggests that small primordial black holes filled the … Read more
Josh Fischman: Hi, and welcome to COVID, Quickly, a Scientific American podcast series. This is your fast-track update on the COVID pandemic. We bring you up to speed on the science behind the most urgent questions about the virus and the disease. We demystify the research and help you understand what it really means. I’m … Read more
Is time travel possible? Short answer: Yes, and you’re doing it right now — hurtling into the future at the impressive rate of one second per second. You’re pretty much always moving through time at the same speed, whether you’re watching paint dry or wishing you had more hours to visit with a friend from … Read more
In his 1972 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, American biochemist Christian Anfinsen laid out a vision: One day it would be possible, he said, to predict the 3D structure of any protein merely from its sequence of amino acid building blocks. With hundreds of thousands of proteins in the human body alone, such an advance would … Read more
Once widely accepted, the geocentric model is now a debunked theory that the Earth is the center of the universe, with the sun and planets revolving around it. Nevertheless, some still believe the universe revolves around them. According to a 2012 survey conducted by the National Science Foundation of 2,200 people in the United States, … Read more
Forests have a localised cooling effect, and in tropical areas where deforestation has occurred, outdoor workers are now feeling the heat more Environment 17 December 2021 By Carissa Wong Areas of forest that have been cleared for oil palm plantations in Indonesia HOTLI SIMANJUNTAK/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Deforestation in tropical regions of Asia, Africa and the Americas has … Read more
If you’re a fan of weird animals and exotic concepts, we’ve got a top 10 list for you. From wombats that poop cubes to hypothetical power plants fueled by black holes, our annual end-of-the-year list includes staff favorites and some of our most popular stories of the year. You won’t find any COVID-19 news here … Read more