Ditch the Super Bowl for a Who's Who of Superb Owls
This Sunday, the subreddit /r/superbowl will host a gathering of hoo-ligans. They’ll be fans of the Nocturnal Flying League. Real birds of a feather. Starting at 6 pm ET, the Superb Owl community will kick off an Ask Me Anything with biologist James Duncan, who has spent his entire adult life studying owls and a…
A New Robot Tracks Sick Bees Wearing Tiny Coded Backpacks
Science hasn’t been giving us a tremendous amount of good news these days. We’re speeding toward climate catastrophe, for one. We’ve screwed up the environment so badly, it’s hard to even call it an environment anymore. And that’s coming back to bite (or sting) us: Bee populations, which we rely on to pollinate our crops,…
New Satellite's Lasers Will Track Tiny Changes in Polar Ice
For almost a decade, NASA hasn't had a satellite watching the planet's melting sea ice. That's slated to change with tomorrow's planned launch of the $1 billion ICESat-2 satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California. Once it settles into orbit 310 miles above the Earth, the satellite will start collecting data using a specially…
Scientists Are Developing a Unique Identifier for Your Brain
Michaela Cordova, a research associate and lab manager at Oregon Health and Science University, begins by “de-metaling”: removing rings, watches, gadgets and other sources of metal, double-checking her pockets for overlooked objects that could, in her words, “fly in.” Then she enters the scanning room, raises and lowers the bed, and waves a head coil…
The Sea May Be Absorbing Way More Heat Than We Thought
Editor’s note, 11/14/18: The journal Nature is reviewing corrections to the study outlined in this story. They are related to the uncertainty in the authors’ measurements. We will update this story with new figures when they become available. The story appears below in its original form. If you ever meet a climate scientist, give them…
Meet the Woman Who Rocked Particle Physics—Three Times
In 1963, Maria Goeppert Mayer won the Nobel Prize in physics for describing the layered, shell-like structures of atomic nuclei. No woman has won since. Quanta Magazine About Original story reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent publication of the Simons Foundation whose mission is to enhance public understanding of science by covering…
An Ebola Outbreak in a War Zone Is About as Bad as It Gets
In July, a 65-year-old woman running a high fever checked into a hospital in the province of North Kivu, along the Democratic Republic of Congo’s border with Uganda. She was later discharged and returned home to her remote town, only to die a few days later. By the time health officials checked in on the…
Your Weather Tweets Are Showing Your Climate Amnesia
Every time someone in a position of power (for example) says that a cold snap in winter proves that climate change is not a thing, a dutiful chorus responds with a familiar refrain: Weather is not climate. Weather happens on the scale of days or weeks, over a distance relevant to cities or states. Climate…
The President Wants a Space Force. He Might Get One.
If policymaking is never easy, and military policymaking is very difficult, it stands to reason that space military policymaking is basically impossible. Yet today, in a speech at the Pentagon, Vice President Mike Pence announced the formation of a sixth branch of the US armed services: a SPACE FORCE! But can that really happen? Well,…
The New ECG Apple Watch Could Do More Harm Than Good
One of the most surprising announcements at Apple's annual hardware event on Wednesday wasn't a new iPhone, or even the new, thinner, next-generation Apple Watch. It was a feature on the Apple Watch. "We've added electrodes into the back sapphire crystal and the digital crown, allowing you to take an electrocardiogram," said COO Jeff Williams,…