local

A Treasure Trove of Dinosaur Bones in Italy Rewrites the Local Prehistoric Record

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Emily Schwing: This is Scientific American’s 60 Second Science. I’m Emily Schwing. When he was little, Alessandro Chiarenza’s grandmother used to read him bedtime stories about dinosaurs and she would always tell him the same thing.  Alessandro Chiarenza: Oh you know, but these things were not living here. They were living in like America and in … Read more

Identify local wildlife and aid research with the iNaturalist app

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Capture photos of wild plants and animals, identify species you come across and contribute to biodiversity and conservation research, suggests Layal Liverpool Life 9 February 2022 By Layal Liverpool Shutterstock/Wut_Moppie ONE of my New Year’s resolutions was to spend more time outdoors, in nature. Inevitably, there are apps for that, and the one I decided … Read more

Behold, The Most Accurate Virtual Simulation of Our Universe to Date

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In the Cosmic Calendar, which maps the chronology of the Universe across a single Earth year, modern humans don’t appear until the very last minute of December 31. Everything we understand about the evolution of the Universe, we’ve had to piece together. We simply haven’t been around for pretty much any of the 13.7 billion-year … Read more

Over 60% of Adverse Reactions to COVID-19 Vaccines May Just Be The Nocebo Effect

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The human mind, it seems, is a very powerful thing. According to a new study involving over 45,000 patients, most of the adverse reactions people experienced after having a COVID-19 vaccination could be due to the nocebo effect.   The nocebo effect is a bit like the ‘evil twin’ of the placebo effect, occurring when … Read more

Local Bubble: Huge gas structure that contains the solar system mapped for first time

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The solar system lies inside a structure called the Local Bubble some 1000 light years across – and a map of its surface shows it is the site of star formation Space 12 January 2022 Artist’s illustration of the Local Bubble with star formation occurring on the bubble’s surface Leah Hustak (STScI) The star-forming regions … Read more

The Solar System Exists Inside a Giant, Mysterious Void, And We Finally Know Why

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The Solar System floats in the middle of a peculiarly empty region of space. This region of low-density, high-temperature plasma, about 1,000 light-years across, is surrounded by a shell of cooler, denser neutral gas and dust. It’s called the Local Bubble, and precisely how and why it came to exist, with the Solar System floating … Read more

Spectacularly Rare, Enormous Eagle Shows Up in North America, 5,000 Miles From Home

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Bird watchers in Massachusetts have been given an early Christmas present in the form of an incredibly rare sighting – a Steller’s sea eagle, which is native to Asia almost 8,000 km (5,000 miles) away.   The large sea eagles are native to the Kamchatka Peninsula in far eastern Russia, and also seen in Japan, … Read more

Deforestation: Outdoor workers are losing hours due to overheating caused by lack of trees

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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