Science

Earth will complete a full rotation in slightly less time than usual on Tuesday, July 22, making it one of the shortest days ever recorded. The difference will be just 1.34 milliseconds less than the standard 24 hours — not something you’ll notice — but it’s part of a puzzling trend in Earth’s rotational behavior that has been unfolding in …

Chinese researchers say they’ve devised a new way to extract water from lunar soil and convert it into fuel. As detailed in a new paper published today in the journal Joule, the team found that their proposed “photothermal strategy” — essentially converting light into heat — could effectively convert carbon dioxide from extracted water into carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and oxygen …

Monitor lizards, also known in Australia as goannas, are some of the most iconic reptiles on the continent. Their lineage not only survived the mass extinction that ended the reign of non-avian dinosaurs, but also gave rise to the largest living lizards on Earth. Today, these formidable creatures pace through forests and scrublands, flicking their tongues as they go. A …

This Blue Laser Just Solved a 150-Year Physics Mystery  SciTechDaily Lasers just unlocked a hidden side of gold, copper, and aluminum  ScienceDaily Hebrew University Detects Magnetic Signals In Metals For Faster Processors  Quantum Zeitgeist A sensitive MOKE and optical Hall effect technique at visible wavelengths: insights into the Gilbert damping  Nature Scientists Achieve the “Impossible” by Detecting Invisible Forces in Ordinary Metal  The Debrief Source …

Building a long term base on the Moon has always stumbled over one stubborn shortage, water. A study recently published describes a device that heats lunar soil to pull water out of the dirt and, in the same chamber, uses that water to turn exhaled carbon dioxide into oxygen and materials for fuel. “We never fully imagined the ‘magic’ that …

In the relatively short time that the James Webb Space Telescope has been operational, there’s seemingly no end to its list of accomplishments. And if you’re like us, you were sure that Webb had already achieved the first direct imaging of a planet orbiting a star other than our own a long time ago. But as it turns out, Webb …

Asia In Brief Japan’s National Astronomical Observatory last week announced the discovery of a small body with an orbit beyond Pluto’s, and scientists think its presence means the “Planet 9” theory should be revisited. The Observatory named the body 2023 KQ14 and explained its FOSSIL (Formation of the Outer Solar System: An Icy Legacy) project spotted it during 2023 using …

I think I’m a few years late to the walking-treadmill-under-desk bandwagon. While under-desk treadmills burst onto the scene over the COVID lockdowns, we remote and hybrid employees still need to get our steps in while working our silly little email jobs. Even though the trend has died down, I’m an under-desk treadmill convert. I recently got my first treadmill — …

Are you seeing brown recluse spiders? Here’s how to recognize them and stay safe  Wichita Eagle Source link

Microscopes have long been scientists’ eyes into the unseen, revealing everything from bustling cells to viruses and nanoscale structures. However, even the most powerful optical microscopes have been limited by a fundamental physical rule known as the diffraction limit, which prevents them from clearly seeing anything smaller than about 200 nanometers—far too large to capture single atoms. This limitation has …