News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
As scientists continue to discover more about the brain and how it works, it can help to know just how much brain matter is required to perform certain functions – and to be able to make complex decisions, it turns out just 302 neurons may be required. That’s based on a new study looking … Read more
Two months before the Super Bowl, the Omicron surge was decimating NFL rosters as players tested positive for COVID. In mid-December, the NFL postponed a game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Seattle Seahawks because the Rams, who would go on to win the Super Bowl, had 29 players out with COVID. The number … Read more
Vehicles and power generators in Antarctica produce black carbon pollution that settles on the snow, causing more of it to melt in the summer Environment 22 February 2022 By Chen Ly Esperanza Base, an Argentinian research station on the Antarctic Peninsula Mike Scharer / Alamy Pollution from increasing human activity in Antarctica is darkening the … Read more
The United States’ human spaceflight program got a much-needed shot in the arm 60 years ago today. On Feb. 20, 1962, NASA astronaut John Glenn launched from Florida’s Cape Canaveral inside a tiny capsule named Friendship 7. The Mercury spacecraft circled Earth three times, ultimately splashing down near the Turks and Caicos Islands four hours … Read more
GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN—On a brutally cold day here earlier this week, Kirill Shchapov stood 200 meters off the shore of Lake Michigan, using a green auger to drill into a glistening ice sheet that stretched to the horizon. A fountain of water erupted when he yanked the auger from the hole. But soon Shchapov, a … Read more
It took nature decades of photosynthesis, followed by eons of intense heat and pressure from geological activity to bake atmospheric carbon dioxide into the long chains of hydrocarbon that make up fossil fuels. We don’t have the luxury of millions of years to mop up the excess carbon from our atmosphere, but advances in … Read more
In “Moonfall,” the latest movie from the so-called “master of disaster” Roland Emmerich, Earth faces an extinction-level event caused by an alien that’s been living on the moon. Despite being plentiful in planetary destruction overflowing with explosions and incorporating an abundant amount of action, you might be surprised at how much care and consideration went … Read more
From air pollutants to pesticides in food and cosmetic additives, modern life means constant exposure to environmental chemicals. Picking apart the effects will help us boost the health of humans and the planet Environment 26 January 2022 By Graham Lawton Kyle Ellingson MICHAEL SNYDER wears four watches, two on each wrist. A geneticist at Stanford … Read more
We take it for granted that virtually every habitat on Earth is alive with the sounds of animals, from the haunting songs of whales in the oceans to the riotous symphony of birds, frogs and insects in forests to the hubbub of humans and our technological creations in cities the world over. Yet for most … Read more
Our planet’s convoluted history of evolving life has spawned countless weird and wonderful creatures, but none excite evolutionary biologists – or divide taxonomists – quite like crabs. When researchers attempted to reconcile the evolutionary history of crabs in all their raucous glory just earlier this year, they arrived at the conclusion that the defining … Read more