News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
Earth and Jupiter don’t have a lot in common. One is relatively small, rocky, and habitable. The other is absolutely enormous, completely lacking in solidity, and raging with colossal storms. Yet, if you look at some satellite pictures of marine phytoplankton blooms here on Earth next to pictures of atmospheric turbulence at Jupiter’s poles, it … Read more
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
With the enhanced virulence of the Omicron variant, some experts are urging us all to upgrade cloth and surgical masks to the much more protective N95s, but supply remains a concern. The limited supply is why this advice has so far been held back, but a new study may make this more feasible – suggesting … Read more
The air around us carries detectable traces of animals living in our midst, scientists have found, and the discovery stands to revolutionize the way researchers monitor and track populations of vulnerable or endangered species. In two new studies conducted by separate teams of scientists, researchers discovered that environmental DNA (eDNA) shed by living creatures … Read more
We can all let out a collective sigh of relief. With its primary mirror array fully unfolded, the major components of the beleaguered James Webb Space Telescope are now deployed, and it continues to calmly make its way to its destination. The deployment, completed on 8 January 2022, marks a pretty important milestone for … Read more
A video by the team at Yellowstone national park shows the extraordinary sight of a grizzly bear hunting alongside a pack of wolves, only to make off with their prey. The footage, posted to the National Parks Service Facebook page in December, shows the multi-species pack hunting a large herd of elks. A few wolves break away … Read more
In a nearby galaxy, a rare kind of dead star erupted into a giant outburst. This in itself may not be so peculiar; but, for the first time, changes in its brightness during this event have been documented in detail, giving scientists a window into understanding the processes that produce these colossal flares. The … Read more
In science, as in life, we all like to celebrate the big news. We confirmed the existence of black holes by the ripples they create in space time. We photographed the shadow of a black hole. We figured out how to edit DNA. We found the Higgs boson! What we don’t usually hear about is … Read more
For female patients, operation outcomes tend to be significantly better when their surgeon is also female, recent research out of Canada has found. No one really knows why that is just yet, but a new model comparing the sex of the surgeon, the sex of the patient, and the outcomes of the surgery have now revealed an … Read more
Most Universe Today readers are familiar with nebulae. They’re gaseous structures lit up with radiation from nearby stars, and they’re some of nature’s most beautiful forms. With the help of amateur astronomers who laid the groundwork, an international team of astronomers has discovered a new type of nebulae around binary stars that they’re calling galactic … Read more