Scientists Say: Metal
These substances conduct electricity and heat, can be shaped and are often shiny. Metal (noun, “MET-al”) Metals are substances that have three major things in common. First, they can conduct electricity and heat. Metals can also be shaped. Some are hammered into flat sheets or can be pulled into wires.
Chip Shortage Could Slow Electric Vehicle Rollouts
And no one is certain how long the shortage will last An automotive chip shortage has led to production cuts around the globe, just as many carmakers are gearing up to expand their fleets of electric vehicles. The shortage is a result of pandemic-related constraints on supply chains and other
Wave Power Charges Ahead with Static Electricity Generators
An ocean-powered buoy brings technology closer to the dream of obtaining energy from the sea One key to harvesting the ocean’s clean energy—at least a little of it—may lie in static electricity. A team of researchers in Portugal has now successfully used it to run small generators inside a navigational
5G Wireless Could Interfere with Weather Forecasts
Satellite tracking of water vapor, critical for accurate forecasts, may be foiled by cellphone tower transmissions Federal agencies are competing with one another over radio waves used to help predict changes in the climate as the sky is increasingly cluttered with noise from billions of smartphones. On one side are
These weird, thin ice crystals are springy and bendy
Scientists grew nearly defect-free fibers of frozen water with counterintuitive properties. Try to bend an icicle and it’ll snap in two. With its tendency to crack into shards, ice’s reputation for being stiff and brittle seems well-established. But thin, pristine threads of ice are bendy and elastic, scientists report in
Mixing trees and crops can help both farmers and the climate
Maxwell Ochoo’s first attempt at farming was a dismal failure. In Ochieng Odiere, a village near the shores of Kenya’s Lake Victoria, “getting a job is a challenge,” the 34-year-old says. To earn some money and help feed his family, he turned to farming. In 2017, he planted watermelon seeds
How does the summer solstice affect animals?
Does it keep them up later? The summer solstice, which marks the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, happens Sunday (June 20) at 11:32 p.m. EDT (Monday, June 21 at 03:32 UTC). This event happens when Earth’s tilt toward the sun is at its maximum and the
Climate ‘tipping points’ could push us past the point-of-no-return after less than 2 degrees of warming
Knock-on effects could transform the Amazon rainforest into savannah As climate change continues to heat the planet, ice sheets and ocean currents could destabilize each other, leading to a climate domino effect impacting 40% of the world’s population, according to new research. And these effects could be seen at way
Dramatic images capture rapid slide of Antarctic glacier
The ice shelf on Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier lost about one-fifth of its area from 2017 to 2020, mostly in three dramatic breaks. Pine Island Glacier, one of the fastest-shrinking glaciers in Antarctica, hastened its slide into the sea between 2017 and 2020, when one-fifth of its associated ice
Gut bacteria influence brain development
Complex interplay: the gut-immune-brain axis The early development of the gut, the brain and the immune system are closely interrelated. Researchers refer to this as the gut-immune-brain axis. Bacteria in the gut cooperate with the immune system, which in turn monitors gut microbes and develops appropriate responses to them. In
This deworming drug won’t treat COVID-19, but it might kill you, CDC warns
Calls to poison control centers regarding exposure to ivermectin have increased five-fold in recent months. Thousands of Americans may be taking potentially dangerous doses of an anti-parasitic drug because of misinformation that it will prevent or treat COVID-19, according to a new warning from the Centers for Disease Control and
COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness dropped to 66% against delta, CDC finds
But health professionals say you should still get vaccinated. The delta variant has dealt a blow to COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness, which has dropped by about 25 percentage points since the variant became the dominant strain of coronavirus in the U.S., a new study among healthcare workers finds. The study, from
How a Salmonella outbreak ravaged a Michigan restaurant for 11 years
The restaurant had to be closed and the building where it was located is barred from housing food production. A Michigan restaurant was the source of an unusual Salmonella outbreak that lasted more than a decade, according to a new report. Finding the source of this prolonged outbreak, which infected
Black holes born with magnetic fields quickly shed them
New simulations show one way the voids might lose their ‘hair’ Like a shaggy dog in springtime, some black holes have to shed. New computer simulations reveal how black holes might discard their magnetic fields. Unlike dogs with their varied fur coats, isolated black holes are mostly identical. They are
The tiny dot in this image may be the first look at exomoons in the making
A new finding is some of the strongest evidence yet that planets around other stars have moons New telescope images may provide the first view of moons forming outside the solar system. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chile glimpsed a dusty disk of potentially moon-forming material around a baby
The latest picture of a black hole captures Centaurus A’s massive jets
The Event Horizon Telescope offers an unprecedented look at the streams of plasma The Event Horizon Telescope is expanding its portfolio of black hole images. In 2019, the telescope unveiled the first image of a black hole, revealing the supermassive beast 55 million light-years from Earth at the center of
Souped-up supernovas may produce much of the universe’s heavy elements
Analysis of a rare, ancient star suggests a new birthplace for elements like uranium and silver Violent explosions of massive, magnetized stars may forge most of the universe’s heavy elements, such as silver and uranium. These r-process elements, which include half of all elements heavier than iron, are also produced
Ancient remains found in Indonesia belong to a vanished human lineage
The 7,200-year-old burial was found in a cave. A woman buried 7,200 years ago in what is now Indonesia belonged to a previously unknown human lineage that doesn’t exist anymore, a new genetic analysis reveals. The ancient woman’s genome also revealed that she is a distant relative of present-day Aboriginal
Babylonians used Pythagorean theorem 1,000 years before it was ‘invented’ in ancient Greece
The tablet is the earliest discovered example of applied geometry. A 3,700-year-old clay tablet has revealed that the ancient Babylonians understood the Pythagorean theorem more than 1,000 years before the birth of the Greek philosopher Pythagoras, who is widely associated with the idea. The tablet, known as Si.427, was used
Cathedral’s stained-glass windows ‘witnessed’ medieval murder of Archbishop of Canterbury
Four of the panels date as far back as 40 years before Thomas Becket’s grisly death. The stained-glass windows of England’s Canterbury Cathedral are so old that they “witnessed” one of medieval England’s most infamous murders, a new study reveals. The analysis shows that some of the cathedral’s stained-glass windows,
Farmer discovers 2,600-year-old stone slab from Egyptian pharaoh
A farmer living near Ismailia in Egypt has uncovered a 2,600-year-old stela erected by pharaoh Apries, who ruled from about 589 B.C., to 570 B.C., the Egyptian antiquities ministry reported. The farmer found this ancient slab of sandstone while preparing his land for cultivation, about 62 miles (100 kilometers) northeast