At the right point of the orbit and stellar cycle, the star’s chromosphere brightens. For most of human history, our view of “close to the Sun” was defined by the orbit of Mercury, with its 88-day orbit and barren, baking surface. But from the moment we started discovering exoplanets,…
Europeans are baking under their second heat wave of the summer. Europe is in the midst of its second big heat wave of the year, and it’s breaking more records. France just recorded its hottest day ever, with temperatures exceeding 44° Celsius in some places. Around 40 people have…
Colossal Biosciences will be biobanking tissues from all of them as well. The US Endangered Species Act compels the government to identify species at risk of extinction and devise plans to restore populations and the habitats they depend on. It has seen some spectacular successes, such as the restoration…
“There is no natural explanation,” says paleoanthropologist John Hawks. All the Homo naledi skeletons in Rising Star Cave are female, and that probably didn’t happen by accident. In 2013, a team of anthropologists led by Lee Berger unearthed the remains of more than 20 small-bodied hominins (ancient relatives of…
The small bit of air in the bottle sees oxygen and other chemicals move in and out. Most people perceive a cork in a bottle of wine as a simple plug meant to keep the liquid in and the outside world out. In the recent study published in Science…
Climate.us has now restored everything taken down by the government. Over decades, researchers in the US government and programs it sponsored built up a tremendous number of climate resources, from comprehensive analyses to massive datasets to basic explainers meant to inform the public. And people within the government built…
Current amphibian development may not have been typical of early land vertebrates. For decades, biologists thought that early tetrapods, ancient vertebrates that started conquering the land over 300 million years ago, developed like modern amphibians—beginning their lives as purely aquatic tadpoles and then metamorphosing into terrestrial adults. “A lot…
The purpose of Starfall is to support the “transport and delivery of goods through space.” A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off on Tuesday to test a new reentry vehicle designed to deliver cargo anywhere in the world from low-Earth orbit. The company developed the new saucer-shaped reentry pod,…
The Space Force wants to cut the time to field new satellites from years to weeks, days, or hours. Rocket Lab quietly launched a small satellite from New Zealand on Friday in a high-flying military exercise to test the US Space Force’s ability to rapidly respond to a crisis…
At least three coal plants have been repeatedly cited for violating environmental regulations. In 2023, after years of pollution, equipment failures, and health concerns, the Cumberland Fossil Plant in Tennessee was slated to close within the decade. The coal-fired plant had been part of a multibillion-dollar settlement in 2011…
