Science

In a study published recently in the Journal of Burn Care Research, a team of researchers reviewed all pavement burn injury admissions into a Las Vegas area burn center, and compared the outdoor temperatures at the time of each patient admission to, in essence, determine how hot is too hot. …

Plant-based dietary patterns — especially when they are enriched with healthful plant-based foods (such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts) — are beneficial for the primary prevention of type 2 diabetes, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis of previous observational studies, published online this month in the …

  The Kepler planet-hunting satellite is long gone, but NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is just getting started. This satellite has spotted a few exoplanets early in its mission, and the most recent batch includes some extremely weird worlds along with yet another super-Earth. The super-Earth is scorching hot, …

  Slowly but surely, the Mars 2020 rover is taking shape at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Engineers have attached some of the rover’s many cameras, its wheels, and now it’s time to give its robotic arm a test run. This arm will have to do some heavy lifting on …

An international team of scientists has mapped and analyzed the entire genome of the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis), the largest extant monitor lizard. The Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis). Image credit: Gary Chambers. Komodo dragons can grow to 10 feet (3 m) in length and run up to 12 mph (20 kmh), …

A 17-kg chondrite meteorite that landed on Earth less than 1,000 years ago has been discovered by chance in the Australian state of Victoria. The Maryborough meteorite. Image credit: Rodney Start / Museums Victoria. In May 2015, gold prospector David Hole discovered a 17 kg single mass of a stony meteorite …

A team of marine biologists with the Nautilus Expedition succeeded in filming Asperoteuthis mangoldae, a recently discovered deep-sea squid species, at a depth of 3,151 feet (930 m) near Jarvis Seamount in the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.   “On July 5, 2019, diving at 3,151 feet depth on …

  The sun is easy to spot in the sky, and it’s not very far away in astronomical terms. So, scientists have spent a great deal of time studying our local life-giving star. However, the sun is also a nuclear inferno that will eradicate any people and most robots that …

As anatomically modern Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa and around the rest of the world, they met and interbred with at least four different hominin species, according to new research from the University of Adelaide, Australia. Strikingly, of these hominins, only Neanderthals and Denisovans are currently known; the others …

While quantum physics continues to raise new questions concerning Einstein’s theory of general relativity, a recent analysis of a giant black hole at the center of the Milky Way demonstrates that general relativity continues to prove itself under more extreme conditions than initially expected. Space.com spoke with Andrea Ghez, an …