Science

You can use up all the storage on your phone or max out your computer’s drive, but can you use up all the memory space in your brain? Despite how you might feel before an exam or after a sleepless night before a work deadline, neuroscientists say that for a typical, healthy brain, memory capacity isn’t fixed or easily used …

Volcanic eruptions can destroy essential infrastructure, ground air traffic for days, wipe out entire cities, disrupt the climate for years, and even wipe out life on Earth, so it’s important to know what causes them to blow. New research has revealed that specific features deep within Earth can be linked directly to such cataclysmic eruptions. Thousands of kilometers below Earth’s …

Scientists have detected the most massive merger of black holes ever. This titanic collision, “heard” in ripples in spacetime called gravitational waves, involves black holes so massive that it could challenge current models of the universe. The merger was detected by the gravitational wave detector network LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) on Nov. 23, 2023, during the fourth observing run of these three …

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk‘s plan to terraform Mars is the “stupidest thing” one can pursue, says astrophysicist and author Adam Becker. In an interview last month, Becker explained why the red planet could not and should not be occupied and how billionaires like Musk and Jeff Bezos are selling “sci-fi fantasies.” In his new book ‘More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, …

You are probably familiar with initiatives like Seti@Home, where you donate unused computer power to some science project that needs computer cycles. [Jeff Yoshimi] wants to borrow your most powerful computer: your brain. The reason: cancer research. [Jeff’s] recent book, Gaming Cancer, has three examples: Eterna, Foldit, and Nanocrafter. All three make games out of creating biological molecules. With Foldit, you …

IN A NUTSHELL 🌌 The Quipu superstructure, spanning over 1.3 billion light-years, is the largest known entity in the universe. 🔭 Astronomers utilize X-ray galaxy clusters to map and analyze these massive cosmic formations. 📊 The immense size of superstructures like Quipu can distort critical cosmological measurements, affecting our understanding of the universe’s expansion. ⏳ Despite their current significance, these …

Last year, Pepper, a pet cat who roams the backyards of Gainesville, Florida, helped a scientist discover a new viral strain. Now, the furry feline is back at it again. In a new study, scientists have once again discovered an exotic virus infecting a dead rodent that had been caught by Pepper. This time around, Pepper’s furry hunting trophy helped …

Name: Roman dodecahedron What it is: A 12-sided bronze object Where it is from: Northwestern provinces of the Roman Empire You may like When it was made: Second to fourth centuries A.D. Related: Penguin Vessel: 1,600-year-old Nazca depiction of a cold-water Humboldt penguin that lives in tropical Peru What it tells us about the past: Roman dodecahedrons have baffled archaeologists …

Some intriguing new measurements of salinity in the oceans around Antarctica have set off reams of sensationalist speculations. Maybe some context is helpful… What we’ve been seeing The climate change situation in the Southern Oceans (those seas surrounding Antarctica and connected by the massive Antarctic Circumpolar current) have been anomalous for many years, decades even. While even the earliest climate …

QUICK FACTS Name: Kākāpō (Strigops habroptila), also known as the owl parrot Where it lives: Off the coast of New Zealand on the Codfish, Maud and Little Barrier Islands What it eats: Kākāpō are vegetarians. Their diet varies with the seasons and includes tubers, fruits, seeds, leaf buds, young plant shoots, fungi and moss. The first thing that you’ll notice …