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A giant exoplanet 855 light-years away is so extreme, it has clouds of vaporized metals and rains liquid rubies and sapphires. That’s the conclusion astronomers have reached after probing its atmosphere – the most detailed such analysis to date, revealing for the first time the conditions and dynamics of the exoplanet’s permanent night side. … Read more
A global analysis of sea levels over the past 2,000 years has found a rapid rate of increase in line with the Industrial Revolution. By 1863, researchers found the rate of sea level rise had clearly surpassed background variability. Unsurprisingly, it’s around this time that the first hints of ocean warming and glacier melt from … Read more
Paleontologists in Argentina have identified a new species of dinosaur which likely had such feeble forearms, it would make Tyrannosaurus rex look like Popeye in comparison. The dinosaur, named Guemesia ochoai and identified from a single skull, is thought to belong to a clade of tiny-armed carnivores known as abelisaurids, which once tramped across Europe, Africa, South … Read more
Successfully achieving nuclear fusion holds the promise of delivering a limitless, sustainable source of clean energy, but we can only realize this incredible dream if we can master the complex physics taking place inside the reactor. For decades, scientists have been taking incremental steps towards this goal, but many challenges remain. One of the … Read more
There’s still lots to explore and learn about the effects that space travel has on the body – and it seems those effects include some neuron rewiring that goes on in the brain. Researchers studying the brains of 12 cosmonauts found what they describe as “significant microstructural changes” in the white matter that manages … Read more
Almost half of Americans morally opposed to abortion would help a friend or family member with arrangements to get one, and a majority would offer emotional support, a new study said Friday. The authors of the paper, which appeared in the journal Science Advances, wrote the finding showed that people are willing to cross … Read more
Photosynthesis quite literally changed our world. Plants ‘eating’ sunlight and ‘breathing out’ oxygen transformed Earth’s entire atmosphere into the one we now breathe, and fuel our ecosystems with energy. Now researchers have caught a cunning species of bacteria with stolen photosynthesizing technology. And their molecular, light-eating device is unlike any we’ve ever seen. “The … Read more
In the Mediterranean region, the soil is degrading, and land is turning to desert faster than anywhere else in the European Union, according to a new analysis. Experts warn that the combined effects of unsustainable land practices and climate change have depleted a finite resource to a critical point. A recent publication by a … Read more
Flowering plants in the Antarctic region are rapidly expanding, scientists say, indicating the continuing effects of climate change on the continent. The findings suggest we may have reached a tipping point in this fragile, remote ecosystem. A new study of this plant expansion looked at the two flowering plants native to Antarctica, Deschampsia antarctica … Read more
Earth’s last major ice age locked up gargantuan amounts of water in vast glaciers. Once they melted, it was a spectacle to behold as tremendous floods gouged channels into the face of the planet. The remnants of one of the largest of these ancient deluges are still visible in eastern Washington, in an area … Read more