Russia’s Ukraine invasion and space impacts: Live updates

Refresh 2022-03-08T03:04:05.879Z Russian space chief trades barbs with astronaut Scott Kelly NASA astronaut Scott Kelly gives two thumbs up while resting up from a 340-day mission to the International Space Station. Kelly and two Russian crewmates landed their Soyuz capsule in a remote area of Kazakhstan on March 2, 2016 (Kazakh time). (Image credit: NASA/Bill … Read more

Too much of a good thing: Early impacts delivered iron to Earth but almost wiped out life

Paul M. Sutter is an astrophysicist at SUNY Stony Brook and the Flatiron Institute, host of Ask a Spaceman and Space Radio, and author of How to Die in Space. The Hadean era was a pretty wild ride. Earth had just formed, but meteorites constantly rained from the sky, pummeling our young planet for over 700 million years. Those impacts posed a … Read more

The Staggering Ecological Impacts of Computation and the Cloud

Screens brighten with the flow of words. Perhaps they are emails, hastily scrawled on smart devices, or emoji-laden messages exchanged between friends or families. On this same river of the digital, millions flock to binge their favorite television programming, to stream pornography, or enter the sprawling worlds of massively multiplayer online roleplaying games, or simply … Read more

Climate change report: Humans are causing widespread and irreversible impacts, says IPCC

By Adam Vaughan Pastoralists in Kenya among the bodies of sheep and goats that died after a dramatic change from drought to cold and wet weather TONY KARUMBA/AFP via Getty Images Climate change is already wreaking widespread, pervasive and sometimes irreversible impacts on people and ecosystems globally, according to a landmark report warning it has … Read more

Tonga volcano eruption yields insights into asteroid impacts on Earth

On Jan. 15, 2022, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted off the coast of Tonga in the South Pacific Ocean, generating a tsunami and triggering resulting wave action alerts around the world.  The underwater volcanic eruption spewed ash, steam, and gas a radius of over 160 miles (260 kilometers) and more than 12 miles (19 … Read more

Lunar Rover Discovers Mysterious Glass Spheres on The Far Side of The Moon

China’s Yutu-2 mission has made another fascinating discovery on the far side of the Moon. Glistening amid the dry, gray dust, the rover’s panoramic camera picked out two small intact spheres of translucent glass.   Such spherules can record information about the Moon’s history, including the composition of its mantle and impact events. Yutu-2 was … Read more

Malaria-preventing bed nets save children’s lives—with impacts that can last for decades | Science

Since the 1990s, bed nets impregnated with insecticides have been an invaluable tool for malaria prevention. Babies and young children who sleep under them are far less likely to die of the disease. But some scientists have worried this might increase the risk of contracting malaria later in life by preventing development of the immunity … Read more

The Latest Verdict on The Future of Coffee Is Here, And The News Is Not Good

The world could lose half of its best coffee-growing land under a moderate climate change scenario. Brazil, which is the currently world’s largest coffee producer, will see its most suitable coffee-growing land decline by 79 percent.   That’s one key finding of a new study by scientists in Switzerland, who assessed the potential impacts of … Read more

This Study on Teenager Sleep Impacts Has Once Again Proven School Should Start Later

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a significant toll on people’s mental health, and young people are a particularly affected group, with school closures cutting off millions of both young and older children from their friends, teachers, and any semblance of normal life.   The negative psychological effects of this have been documented in many studies, … Read more

Being Denied an Abortion Has Lasting Impacts on Health and Finances

As the Supreme Court decides the future of abortion laws in the U.S., a key question to be considered is whether access to the procedure has positive or negative consequences for the people who get an abortion, and for society in general. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization concerns the constitutionality of a new Mississippi … Read more