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Science

SCIENCE: What Is Dark Matter?

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dark matter - pixabay

In the 1930s, a Swiss astronomer named Fritz Zwicky noticed that galaxies in a distant cluster were orbiting one another much faster than they should have been given the amount of visible mass they had. He proposed than an unseen substance, which he called dark matter, might be tugging gravitationally on these galaxies. Since then, researchers have confirmed that this mysterious material can be found throughout the cosmos, and that it is six times more abundant than the normal matter that makes up ordinary things like stars and people. Yet despite seeing dark matter throughout the universe, scientists are mostly … Read more

SCIENCE: Is This “Hairy Ogre” Microbe A Whole New Branch on the Tree of Life?

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Hairy Ogre Microbe

Who needs aliens when there are bizarre life forms still to be discovered in Canada? Scientists recently detected two previously unknown species of microbes in a Canadian dirt sample, and the specimens were so unusual that the researchers had to reorganize the tree of life to make room for them. The microbes, also known as protists, belong to a group with the tongue-twisting name hemimastigotes, and the first-ever genetic analysis of these peculiar microorganisms revealed that they were even stranger than anyone suspected. Hemimastigotes, first observed in the 1800s, were previously classified as a phylum within a much larger group … Read more

SPACE: A Moon Dust Economy

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lunar ceramics

How do you start a colony on the moon? Can you ship everything the colonists need from Earth? That’s how NASA handled brief excursions to the lunar surface in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but astronauts couldn’t haul that much with them — certainly not enough to sustain themselves over the long term. Technology has improved since then, but most plans for a sustainable lunar base assume that its residents will use local resources, rather than hauling everything from Earth. So that’s why the European Space Agency (ESA) created a whole bunch of fake moon dust (fake “regolith” in … Read more

SCIENCE: Is Earth Eating Her Own Oceans?

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Earth - pixabay

As Earth’s tectonic plates dive beneath one another, they drag three times as much water into the planet’s interior as previously thought. Those are the results of a new paper published today (Nov. 14) in the journal Nature. Using the natural seismic rumblings of the earthquake-prone subduction zone at the Marianas trench, where the Pacific plate is sliding beneath the Philippine plate, researchers were able to estimate how much water gets incorporated into the rocks that dive deep below the surface. [In Photos: Ocean Hidden Beneath Earth’s Surface] The find has major ramifications for understanding Earth’s deep water cycle, wrote … Read more

SCIENCE: Midnight Sun Zombie Skin

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zombie skin

A midnight sun can evoke many images, including those of an endless night and a beautiful, soft light — but a really awful sunburn probably isn’t one of them. A man, a 29-year-old tourist from Australia, learned just that while hiking in Greenland for several weeks. He didn’t think much of it when he squeezed two limes into his water bottle during the trip, according to a report of the man’s case. But, two days later, he was surprised to find “small, purple marks on the top side of my fingers and hands,” he wrote in the report, published online … Read more

SCIENCE: Using Lasers to Guide Aliens to Earth – What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

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Earth Laser - MIT News

We could build a laser that could send signals to extraterrestrial intelligence. Not we as in the staff of Live Science. (That’s probably beyond our skill set.) But we as in humanity. A new paper published yesterday (Nov. 5) in The Astrophysical Journal has found that humanity could feasibly build an infrared laser hot and bright enough that — if we shined it directly at nearby exoplanets — alien astronomers should be able to detect it using sky-watching technology not too much more advanced than our own. (Presuming they’re out there, of course.) [9 Strange, Scientific Excuses for Why We … Read more

SCIENCE: We’re Getting Close to an Artificial Brain

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Neurons - Pixabay

Scientists just activated the world’s biggest “brain”: a supercomputer with a million processing cores and 1,200 interconnected circuit boards that together operate like a human brain. Ten years in the making, it is the world’s largest neuromorphic computer — a type of computer that mimics the firing of neurons — scientists announced on Nov. 2. Dubbed Spiking Neural Network Architecture, or SpiNNaker, the computer powerhouse is located at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, and it “rethinks the way conventional computers work,” project member Steve Furber, a professor of computer engineering at the University of Manchester, said in … Read more

HISTORY: How Did People Wake Up On Time Before Alarm Clocks?

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alarm clock - pixabay

Of all the modern inventions we rely on in our daily lives, the alarm clock is probably the most universally despised. Its jarring morning jangles jolt us uncomfortably out of our slumber, and back to reality. And yet however annoying alarm clocks are, they’re also indispensable in getting us out of bed. That raises an interesting question: How did people wake up before alarm clocks became so ubiquitous? Throughout the ages, even the simple act of telling the time has presented a huge challenge to humans that we’ve tried to solve with elaborate inventions. The ancient Greeks and Egyptians developed … Read more

SCIENCE: Boy Could Literally Be Scared to Death

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brain - pixabay

A 5-year-old boy has a rare brain condition that could cause him to be literally scared to death, according to news reports. Reed Havlik, who lives in Iowa, has a condition called vanishing white matter disease, a disorder that’s been reported in only about 200 people worldwide, according to South West News Service (SWNS). Vanishing white matter disease is a genetic condition that mainly affects the brain and spinal cord, and causes deterioration of nerve fibers known as “white matter,” according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s Genetics Home Reference (GHR). People with the condition are particularly vulnerable to … Read more

SCIENCE: What Is the Fibonacci Sequence?

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fibonacci - pixabay

The Fibonacci sequence is one of the most famous formulas in mathematics. Each number in the sequence is the sum of the two numbers that precede it. So, the sequence goes: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, and so on. The mathematical equation describing it is Xn+2= Xn+1 + Xn A mainstay of high-school and undergraduate classes, it’s been called “nature’s secret code,” and “nature’s universal rule.” It is said to govern the dimensions of everything from the Great Pyramid at Giza, to the iconic seashell that likely graced the cover of your school math textbook. … Read more