Starlink, a “megaconstellation” of hundreds of Internet satellites launched by the aerospace company SpaceX, has been causing headaches for astronomers by outshining celestial objects. Set to eventually include tens of thousands of spacecraft beaming high-speed Internet to the entire planet, Starlink has a downside for stargazing: the satellites reflect enough sunlight at night to be […]
If I dare to give the coronavirus credit for anything, I would say it has made people more conscious of the air they breathe. A friend texted me recently after going for a jog in the foothills near Boise, Idaho, writing: “My lungs are burning … explain what’s happening!!!” A wildfire was burning to the […]
Bricks are one of the oldest known building materials, dating back thousands of years. But researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have found a new use for bricks: as energy storage units. A team of engineers and chemists have found a way to transform an ordinary house brick into a pseudo-battery—allowing it to conduct […]
Warming could scorch the region Credit: Bryan Christie Design Advertisement Editor’s Note (9/10/20): Wildfires are raging across California and many other parts of the U.S. West. Daytime skies over San Francisco are dark orange from the flames and smoke. A record number of acres have already burned in California, and the wildfire season has a […]
Warming could scorch the region Credit: Bryan Christie Design Advertisement Editor’s Note (9/10/20): Wildfires are raging across California and many other parts of the U.S. West. Daytime skies over San Francisco are dark orange from the flames and smoke. A record number of acres have already burned in California, and the wildfire season has a […]
The U.S. financial system must better prepare for global warming-related shocks, a first-of-its-kind report warns — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com Source link
A sojourn in space is a great way to ruin one’s physique — the microgravity results in dramatic loss of muscle mass. Residents of the International Space Station exercise regularly to stave off the atrophy, but perhaps there’s another way. Scientists have now found that if they treat spacefaring mice with a particular molecule, the […]
Discovering the “on-and-off switch” for good parenting in both male and female mouse brains has earned Catherine Dulac, a molecular biologist at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, one of this year’s US$3-million Breakthrough prizes — the most lucrative awards in science and mathematics. Three other major prizes in biology, plus two in physics and one […]
9 essential facts about the coronavirus pandemic Credit: Scientific American Health & Medicine October 2020 Advertisement The past six months have felt like an eternity for those of us isolating and staying home. And I imagine they’ve also felt like a stressful slog to every essential worker who has showed up day in, day out, […]
Have you seen reports about massive increases in cybercrime during coronavirus: ransomware up 90 percent, data breaches up 223 percent? Noticed many major accounts getting hacked on Twitter? If so, you might be feeling a sense of déjà vu. If you were on the Internet in 2009, you would have heard that cybercrime had doubled. […]