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science

SPACE: MOXIE Will Soon Make Oxygen – On Mars

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MOXIE - Nasa

Having safely landed on Mars on Feb. 18, NASA’s newest rover, Perseverance, is just beginning its scientific exploration of the Red Planet. But sometime in the next few weeks, the car-size robot will also help pave the way for future humans to travel to our neighboring world with a small instrument known as the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE). MOXIE, which will soon be pulling precious oxygen out of Mars’ poisonous atmosphere, is gold-colored and about the size of a bread box. It sits tucked away inside Perseverance’s chassis, where it will conduct the first demonstration on another … Read more

PHYSICS: Meet the Swirlon

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school of fish - swirlon - Yay Images

Fish school, insects swarm and birds fly in murmurations. Now, new research finds that on the most basic level, this kind of group behavior forms a new kind of active matter, called a swirlonic state. Physical laws such as Newton’s second law of motion — which states that as a force applied to an object increases, its acceleration increases, and that as the object’s mass increases, its acceleration decreases — apply to passive, nonliving matter, ranging from atoms to planets. But much of the matter in the world is active matter and moves under its own, self-directed, force, said Nikolai … Read more

What if Earth’s Magnetic Field Flips Again?

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Earth's magnetic field - NASA

A reversal in Earth’s magnetic field thousands of years ago plunged the planet into an environmental crisis that may have resembled “a disaster movie,” scientists recently discovered. Our planet’s magnetic field is dynamic and, numerous times, it has flipped — when the magnetic North and South Poles swap places. In our electronics-dependent world, such a reversal could seriously disrupt communication networks. But the impact could be even more serious than that, according to the new study. For the first time, scientists have found evidence that a polar flip could have serious ecological repercussions. Their investigation connects a magnetic field reversal … Read more

FOR WRITERS: What If Our Bodies Could Make Their Own Water?

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Wet Man - Deposit Photos

FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Jim Comer: What if gene-modded humans generated water in our tissues, like koalas and kangaroo mice do? What sci-fi possibilities would that open up Writers: This is a writer chat – you are welcome to share your own book/link, as long as it fits the chat, but please do so as part of a discussion about the topic. Join the chat: FB: http://bit.ly/1MvPABVMeWe: http://bit.ly/2mjg8lf

Identical Twins Aren’t Actually Identical

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twins - pixabay

Identical twins form from the same egg and get the same genetic material from their parents — but that doesn’t mean they’re genetically identical by the time they’re born. That’s because so-called identical twins pick up genetic mutations in the womb, as their cells weave new strands of DNA and then split into more and more cells. On average, pairs of twins have genomes that differ by an average of 5.2 mutations that occur early in development, according to a new study. “One particularly surprising observation is that in many twin pairs, some mutations are carried by nearly all cells … Read more

SCIENCE: What if humans had photosynthetic skin?

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green man - deposit photos

The series “Imaginary Earths” speculates what the world might be like if one key aspect of life changed, whether related to the planet or humanity. Green skin is common in science fiction, from little green men to Hera Syndulla from “Star Wars Rebels” to Gamora from “Guardians of the Galaxy.” But what if green skin were not just for fictional aliens? If humans had green skin, for instance, what if it granted us the ability to perform photosynthesis, which plants use to live off of sunlight? Let’s analyze what science says about similar abilities in other animals and ask award-winning … Read more

What We Learned About Black Holes in 2020

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black holes - deposit photos

Physicists are currently in a golden age of new knowledge about black holes. Since 2015, researchers have been able to get signals directly from merging black holes using the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), while observatories like the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) have produced the first image of a black hole’s shadow. This year was no exception, with a fresh crop of exciting and unique results expanding our black hole horizons. Here, we take a look at some of the most spectacular black hole findings of 2020.  Nobel Prize in physics goes to black holes As if to certify that this … Read more

The Science of the Winter Solstice

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icehenge - ice stonehenge - winter solstice - deposit photos

For many of us on Earth this year, celebrating the first day of winter, astronomically speaking, is more than a yearning for snow-covered landscapes and sips of hot chocolate — It also means we’re closer than ever to the end of the year … and the beginning of a new one! But the winter solstice is an astronomical marvel in its own right. Today, the Northern Hemisphere experiences the fewest hours of daylight for the year all because of our blue marble’s tilt as it treks around the sun. This year’s winter solstice is doubly special, as it’s the day … Read more

Scientists May have Detected Radio Emissions from An Alien World

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Radio Telescope - Deposit Photos

Scientists may have detected radio emissions from a planet orbiting a star beyond our sun for the first time. The astronomers behind the new research used a radio telescope in the Netherlands to study three different stars known to host exoplanets. The researchers compared what they saw to observations of Jupiter, diluted as if being seen from a star system dozens of light-years away. And one star system stood out: Tau Boötes, which contains at least one exoplanet. If the detection holds up, it could open the door to better understanding the magnetic fields of exoplanets and therefore the exoplanets … Read more

There Are Zombie Flies?

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zombie fly - pixabay

Two newly discovered fungi species have a similarly macabre mode of action: They eat flies alive while using them to drop spores on new victims.  The related species, Strongwellsea tigrinae and Strongwellsea acerosa, attack the fly species Coenosia tigrina and Coenosia testacea, which look like ordinary house flies but undergo a horrific change once they’re invaded by the fungi. The fungi eat one or more holes in the abdomens of the flies and then produce clumps of orange spores, which spread by dropping out of the holes.  The infected, now-zombie flies remain alive for days during this process, meaning they inadvertently spread the spores far and … Read more