Science

Satellite Images Reveal Striking New Hole In Yellowstone National Park

Satellite Images Reveal Striking New Hole In Yellowstone National Park

Observant visitors to Yellowstone National Park’s Norris Geyser Basin, the home of the park’s famous Steamboat Geyser and the hottest and most dynamic geyser basin in the park, might notice something new this year: a gaping hole filled with milky blue water. The hole was discovered by Yellowstone geologists back in April during their first visit to the Norris Basin …

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Forget Carbon Capture—This Bacteria Turns CO₂ Into Rock in Just Hours

Forget Carbon Capture—This Bacteria Turns CO₂ Into Rock in Just Hours

A soil-dwelling microbe has shown a surprising ability to trap carbon dioxide and turn it into rock. Scientists have discovered that Bacillus megaterium, a common bacterium long known for its role in biotechnology, can convert CO₂ gas into solid calcium carbonate with an efficiency rarely seen in either nature or industry. The process, recently detailed in a study led by …

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Ancient elk petroglyphs in Mongolia show 12,000-year shift from realism to wolf-like symbols

Ancient elk petroglyphs in Mongolia show 12,000-year shift from realism to wolf-like symbols

A new study, published in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal by Dr. Esther Jacobson-Tepfer, reveals an astonishing transformation in elk images in 12,000 years of Altai rock art in western Mongolia. Once drawn in realistic detail, elk gradually evolved into stylized, nearly unrecognizable wolf-like figures, reflecting deep transformations of environment, mobility, and identity. Stylized elk. Credit: Gary Tepfer, in Jacobson-Tepfer, Cambridge …

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A Marine Researcher Found Black Goo Inside a Ship. Turns Out It’s a New Lifeform.

A Marine Researcher Found Black Goo Inside a Ship. Turns Out It’s a New Lifeform.

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: While performing routine maintenance on the Large Lake Observatory’s R/V Blue Heron, a marine superintendent found a mysterious goo. Microbial biologists at the University of Minnesota Duluth found that the goo was a new species of archaea that thrived in the semi-warm and anaerobic environment of the ship’s rudder housing. The …

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My mother gave me away to the cleaner’s sister at six weeks old. She never wanted me – I cannot now grieve her death: After a loveless childhood SUSANNAH JOWITT admits the unthinkable

My mother gave me away to the cleaner’s sister at six weeks old. She never wanted me – I cannot now grieve her death: After a loveless childhood SUSANNAH JOWITT admits the unthinkable

For the past few weeks, I have been wearing a necklace that was a gift from my mother, Juliet, on my wedding day. She repurposed a brooch she herself had inherited into a pendant for me: a finely-wrought gold dragon holding a glowing red little ruby in its mouth. It’s beautiful and I have felt strangely compelled to wear it …

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