“We put fuel in a rocket, blow it up in a remote location, and measure how big the boom is.” For more than 60 years, nearly every large rocket used some combination of the same liquid and solid propellants. Refined kerosene was favored for its easy handling and non-toxicity,…
Stop trying to make “Clovis First” happen; it’s not going to happen. A landmark site in the peopling of the Americas is several thousand years younger than we thought. While that means very different things about the site itself, it doesn’t change the big picture as much as the…
Massive Western heat wave, potential El Niño raise concerns about unpredictable, extreme weather. Despite being declared the third-hottest year on record, 2025 was a relatively quiet year for climate disasters in the US. No major hurricanes made landfall, while the total number of acres burned in wildfires last year—a way of measuring the intensity…
“Where we are today in space warfare is very similar to where air superiority was in the 1930s.” If a battle is fought in space, it will look nothing like those depicted in the Star Wars franchise, with sleek TIE fighters blasting enemy ships with laser cannons and mag-pulses. Instead,…
Radiocarbon results suggest a single origin and rapid diffusion through cultural transition networks. People in North America adopted the bow and arrow as replacement weapons for the dart and atlatl about 1,400 years ago, according to a new paper published in the journal PNAS Nexus. But the adoption was…
Department of Energy’s attempts to prop up coal can look pretty pointless. In the US, the economics of coal power generation are marginal at best, and a large number of coal plants have shut down as cheaper renewables and natural gas have surged. The Trump administration has used a…
Our view of Neanderthal life keeps getting more complex and vibrant. Neanderthals may have used birch tar as more than just glue; it could have helped them ward off infection and even insect bites. People from several modern Indigenous cultures, including the Mi’kmaq of eastern Canada, use tar from…
Suit: The National Center for Atmospheric Research is to be terminated for no rational reason. On Monday, a consortium that oversees the US’s premier atmospheric research center announced it was suing the Trump administration over plans to shut it down. The National Center for Atmospheric Research, or NCAR, provides…
Meteor’s fiery passage through the atmosphere was captured by a space-based lightning mapper. A large meteor crashed through the sound barrier above northern Ohio on Tuesday morning, producing a large fireball and what local residents described as an extremely loud “boom.” According to various eyewitness reports, the meteor’s bright…
State attorneys general won’t get climate chapter removed from a legal manual. Judges are frequently confronted with cases that hinge upon scientific information that their educational backgrounds may leave them ill-equipped to manage. Because of this challenge, the Federal Judicial Center, a group within the judicial branch of the…
