Science

Which hand you prefer to write, eat, and brush your teeth with shouldn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. Yet scientists have been studying human handedness for over a century and discovered it can show a lot about how human brains can work differently. And since creativity is a measure of how we

NASA’s Curiosity rover snapped the first clear picture of Sun rays on Mars, which looks like a ghostly white-tinged sunset. The rover took the ethereal photo on February 2, as the Sun set behind a group of twilight clouds. These clouds hang at an unusually high altitude, which suggests they are probably made of carbon

Japanese authorities are preparing to release treated radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, nearly 12 years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. This will relieve pressure on more than 1,000 storage tanks, creating much-needed space for other vital remediation works. But the plan has attracted controversy. At first glance, releasing radioactive water into the ocean does

WASHINGTON — The Ukrainian government claims that European investigators were “premature” in concluding that a component from a Ukrainian company was the blame for the failed Vega C launch last December. In a March 6 statement, the State Space Agency of Ukraine took issue with the findings of an investigation published by the European Space

Scientists have carefully simulated conditions on Earth in the earliest part of its history, some 4.6 billion years ago, hoping to unlock a greater understanding of how amino acids brought the first ingredients for life into being. Together, amino acids form proteins that play many vital roles in organisms. This new study was designed to

Is our Universe all there is, or could there be more? Is our Universe just one of a countless multitude, all together in an all-encompassing multiverse? And if there are other universes, what would they be like? Could they be habitable? This might feel like speculation heaped upon speculation, but it’s not as crazy as

Humans have known since the time of the Roman Empire that we’re more readily truthful while under the influence. That’s where the idea behind the term “truth serum” comes from. Truth serum refers to a number of mind-altering drugs that are supposed to make you incapable of lying, but the reality is no drug is

On 1 March 2023, NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew by Jupiter‘s moon Io, coming within 51,500 km (32,030 miles) of the innermost and third-largest of the four Galilean moons. The stunning new images provide the best and closest view of the most volcanic moon in our Solar System since the New Horizons mission flew past Io

Nearly 40 years ago, the world’s worst nuclear disaster turned the Ukrainian city of Pripyat and its nearby power plant, Chernobyl, into a radioactive hot zone – and surprisingly, decades later, a haven for wildlife. Wolves, wild horses, birds, bison, elk, frogs, and dogs roam among the decaying concrete buildings and surrounding forests of what

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Department on March 3 released updated guidelines for safe and responsible space operations. These guidelines were issued Feb. 9 by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a memo that lays out five “tenets of responsible behavior in space.” Austin first released the tenets in July 2021. The update reflects recommendations from

Take a look at Earth from far off in space, you’d notice it looks uniformly bright. Considering the Southern Hemisphere’s disproportionate expanse of dark ocean waters should reflect back less sunlight, this isn’t what we might expect down here on the surface. It’s a mystery that’s been of interest to scientists since the early 1970s,

Chemistry takes effort. Whether it’s by raising the temperature, increasing the odds that compatible atoms will collide in a heated smash-up, or increasing the pressure and squeezing them together, building molecules usually demands a certain cost in energy. Quantum theory does provide a workaround if you’re patient. And a team of researchers from the University

Hunter-gatherers took shelter from the ice age in Southwestern Europe, but were replaced on the Italian Peninsula according to two new studies, published in Nature and Nature Ecology & Evolution today. Modern humans first began to spread across Eurasia approximately 45,000 years ago, arriving from the near east. Previous research claimed these people disappeared when

Mystery silica ejected in huge quantities from Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus is powerful new evidence pointing to heat vents on the floor of a global ocean. According to a new analytical model, internal heating from the moon‘s core creates ocean currents that transport the silica particles, which are ejected from deep-sea hydrothermal vents that also

Our addiction to online shopping is contributing to the recent spike in whale deaths, The New York Times reports. Since early December, 23 whales have washed up dead along the East Coast, according to data the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provided to The Times. Their deaths are due to a confluence of factors, both

SAN FRANCISCO — CesiumAstro won a $5 million contract from the Pentagon’s Space Development Agency to develop active electronically scanned array antennas compatible with the Link 16 tactical data network. The Austin-based startup specializing in phased array technology announced the award March 2. “Once completed, this antenna will be the only multi-beam, active phased array

In a prehistoric forest, some 80 million years ago, a stocky, 5-meter-long armored dinosaur with a spiky back ambles about on four short legs, slowly chewing on a snack of plant material. After it swallows, the flap of skin in its throat that blocks its voice box flips back open, allowing the dinosaur to take

The Standard Model of particle physics is our current best-guess on what the blue-prints for matter looks like. Of all of its predictions, none are as precise as the magnetic moment of the electron. Not only is it precisely predicted, it’s among the most accurately measured of any particle’s properties. And while these two values

Prehistoric stone tools found in a cave in Poland 50 years ago were recentlyidentified as some of the oldest ever discovered in the region. The tools from the Tunel Wielki cave in Małopolska are between 450,000 and 550,000 years old. This dating may allow scientists to learn more about the humans who made them, and

An analysis of the most energetic light in the galaxy has revealed we may be mistaken about star formation rates in the Milky Way. Gamma rays produced by the radioactive decay of isotopes produced during star formation reveal that stars are forming at a rate of four to eight times the mass of the Sun

Antarctic sea ice likely shrunk to a record low last week, US researchers said Monday, its lowest extent in the 45 years of satellite record-keeping.​ The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder said that Antarctica’s sea ice fell to 1.79 million square kilometers (691,000 million square miles) on

Cheaper to produce and better at absorbing higher energy forms of light, perovskite materials have the potential to replace silicon in solar panel technology. Unfortunately scientists are still figuring out how to make these perovskites more stable and longer-lasting. In a new study, scientists have been able to significantly improve the efficiency of a particular

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army has extended its contract with Maxar Technologies to provide 3D geospatial data used to create immersive digital environments, the company announced Feb. 27. Maxar was awarded Phase 3b of the U.S. Army’s One World Terrain (OWT) contract originally awarded in 2019 to Vricon, a company Maxar acquired in 2020. Vricon

The demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea is currently no place for people – which is exactly why, 70 years after the Korean War armistice, rare flora and fauna have flourished on the untouched strip of land. To mark the 70th anniversary of the end of active hostilities between North and South Korea,

If a nuclear bomb were dropped in your city tomorrow, would you know where to take cover? Nuclear war is a terrifying thought, but for a team of researchers at the University of Nicosia in Cyprus, it’s top of mind. In a recent study, the researchers calculated how the blast from a nuclear explosion could

Of the roughly three billion base pairs making up the human genome, only around 2 percent encodes proteins, leaving the remaining 98 percent with less obvious functions. Dismissed by some as useless ‘junk DNA‘, its origins, effects, and potential purpose in the evolution of life has attracted the attention of biologists ever since it was

There are a lot of weird and wonderful planets outside the Solar System, but a newly discovered world is a real space oddity. Exoplanet TOI-5205b is a gas giant about the same size and mass as Jupiter, orbiting the red dwarf TOI-5205. But there’s nothing unusual about that; planets orbit stars all the time. What

Following the February 3 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, users on social media began sharing photos of an ominous black cloud hanging over the town – and fears that the disaster would become the new Chernobyl. A fire engulfed a Norfolk Southern train after 50 of its 150 cars derailed. The train carried 10

Google scientists said Wednesday they have passed a major milestone in their quest to develop effective quantum computing, with a new study showing they reduced the rate of errors – long an obstacle for the much-hyped technology. Quantum computing has been touted as a revolutionary advance that uses our growing scientific understanding of the subatomic

WASHINGTON — U.S. Space Force officials will sit down with industry executives in Los Angeles this week to discuss the fine points of the upcoming national security space launch procurement.  Companies expect to hear details about the Space Force’s plan to attract new launch providers to compete for as many as 70 missions projected for