News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
A newfound species of millipede has more legs than any other creature on the planet—a mind-boggling 1,300 of them. The leggy critters live deep below Earth’s surface and are the only known millipedes to live up to their name. “The word ‘millipede’ has always been a bit of a misnomer,” said Paul Marek, an entomologist at … Read more
The UN on Tuesday officially recognized the 38 degrees Celsius measured in Siberia last year as a new record high for the Arctic, sounding “alarm bells” over climate change. The sweltering heat – equivalent to 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit– was seen on June 20, 2020 in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk, marking the highest temperature ever … Read more
The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. The deadly tornado outbreak that tore through communities from Arkansas to Illinois on the night of Dec. 10-11, 2021, was so unusual in its duration and strength, particularly for December, that a lot of people including the U.S. … Read more
It’s almost a mantra in climate science: The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. But that figure, found in scientific studies, advocacy reports, the popular press, and even the 2021 U.N. climate assessment, is incorrect, obscuring the true toll of global warming on the north, a team of climate … Read more
The festive season will be dominated by a large wave of covid-19 infections caused by the omicron variant, but few countries appear to have substantially changed their plans Health 13 December 2021 By Michael Le Page A shop window in Tehran, Iran Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images There now seems little doubt that the Christmas … Read more
Imagine two of the world’s most iconic canids – a dingo and a wolf – head to head in a fight. Who would win? Before we examine the combatants in more detail, we need to answer an important question first, which wolf and which dingo? Taxonomy – the way we describe, name and classify Earth’s … Read more
As extreme weather events in Canada and around the world are linked to human-made climate change, there is one story that continues to be left out: the connection between climate change and the products we purchase. Recent research shows that across a product’s life cycle – from raw material extraction through manufacturing, distribution, use … Read more
By Leah Crane The exoplanet GJ 367b orbits its star in an extremely short time SPP 1992 (Patricia Klein) An extraordinarily dense exoplanet seemingly made mostly of iron has joined a group called the ultrashort-period planets that orbit so close to their stars that their years are less than one Earth day long. Kristine Lam, … Read more
If it wasn’t for an extinct relative of modern humans known as the Denisovans, some researchers suspect our own species might never have made their home on the highest and largest plateau in the world. The Tibetan Plateau, sometimes called the Himalayan Plateau, is nicknamed ‘the roof of the world’ because it sits, on … Read more
With massive webs of probing black tentacles extending for miles below the ground, the Armillaria group of fungi includes some of the largest known organisms on our planet. An 8,500-year-old specimen of Armillaria ostoyae in Oregon covers 2,385 acres (3.7 square miles) with its mass of rhizomorph tentacles and is estimated to weigh roughly 7,500 … Read more