Science

A new study published in the journal Scientific Reports provides evidence that sun bears (Helarctos malayanus), a typically solitary species, have the ability to mimic the expressions of their conspecifics and that they do so by matching the exact facial variants they interact with. It is the first time exact …

  The Sun is a relatively quiet G-type star (G2V), but the key word is “relatively.” While it avoids the massive storms known to affect so-called flare stars, it occasionally releases both solar flares and coronal mass ejections. On March 20, NASA detected such a flare with an associated CME. …

  NASA is fast running out of seats on Russian Soyuz capsules, so the long-delayed Commercial Crew Program will soon be the only way to get astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX is on-target to get its Dragon II capsule ready for crewed flights this summer, …

  Technology has made it easier than ever to create content, be it photos, video, or an angsty Tumblr blog. You might have a device in your pocket right now that can record 4K video at dozens of megabits per second. In 2018, humanity created 33 zettabytes (that’s 33 billion …

  Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have to deal with hazards associated with living and working in an environment completely inhospitable to humans. If anything happens to the station’s thin skin, it could spell disaster for the crew. As if that’s not enough danger, bacteria become more pathogenic …

The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis, also known as Clovis comet hypothesis, posits that the hemisphere-wide debris field of a large, disintegrating asteroid (or comet) struck North America, South America, Europe, and western Asia approximately 12,800 years ago. This event triggered extensive biomass burning, brief impact winter, climate change, and contributed …

NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission made the first-ever close-up observations of particle plumes erupting from the surface of an asteroid. This view of asteroid Bennu ejecting particles from its surface on January 19 was created by combining two images taken on board NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. …

Drinking hot tea elevates the risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, one of the two major types of esophageal cancer, by about 90%, according to a new study. Drinking hot tea increases the risk of esophageal cancer. Image credit: Fxxu. “Our results substantially strengthen the existing evidence supporting an association …

Tunneling, a key feature of quantum mechanics, is when a particle that encounters a seemingly insurmountable barrier passes through it, ending up on the other side. A series of experiments carried out by physicists from Griffith University, Lanzhou University, the Australian National University, Drake University and Korea’s Institute for Basic …

An international team of neuroscientists and geoscientists from Caltech, the University of Tokyo, Princeton University and Tokyo Institute of Technology has discovered that the human brain can detect Earth-strength magnetic fields. Wang et al report a strong, specific human brain response to ecologically-relevant rotations of Earth-strength magnetic fields. Image credit: …