‘Oumuamua—a mysterious, interstellar object that crashed through our solar system two years ago—might in fact be alien technology. That’s because an alternative, non-alien explanation might be fatally flawed, as a new study argues. But most scientists think the idea that we spotted alien technology in our solar system is a long shot. In 2018, our solar […]
Democrats released their strongest climate platform in history, but any celebration from the left was soured by news that party officials had removed a provision that called for an end to subsidies and tax breaks for fossil fuel companies. The last-minute drama follows months of negotiations between climate activists and party insiders over the Democratic […]
In Botswana, farmers graze their cattle at the edge of the Okavango Delta. The region is teeming with wildlife, including hungry predators with a taste for beef. “Lions and leopards, in particular, are ambush predators. They often rely on the element of surprise to creep up and take down their prey.” University of New South […]
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An article about women engineers, published in 1908, has a promising start: If women are attending technical schools and are not legally blocked from working in a forge or firm, why do they face so many obstacles to employment? A reader in 2020 who discovers such a socially progressive question in the archives of Scientific […]
A newly discovered car-sized asteroid just made the closest-known flyby to Earth without hitting our planet. On Sunday (Aug. 16), the asteroid, initially labeled ZTF0DxQ and now formally known to astronomers as 2020 QG, swooped by Earth at a mere 1,830 miles (2,950 kilometers) away. That gives 2020 QG the title of closest asteroid flyby ever recorded that didn’t end with the […]
It was not just a knee pinned to George Floyd’s neck that killed him. Or gunshots that killed Breonna Taylor. Or a chokehold that killed Eric Garner. It was also centuries of systemic racism that have festered in U.S. society and institutions, including our overly punitive, adversarial system of policing. And videos of the recent […]
Scientific American editor Alfred Ely Beach revealed the secretly built wonder in 1870 — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com Source link
Sports are being played in empty stadiums. The Olympics have been postponed. Professional athletics teams are being isolated and their seasons reduced—to varying levels of success. But athletics organizations are not the only ones trying to determine what competition looks like in the time of COVID-19. Youth STEM competitions may have a smaller footprint and […]
What, exactly, makes music to the ears? Time will tell, according to a new study of five centuries’ worth of compositions. Using techniques derived from statistical mechanics—typically used to study large groups of particles—a team of physicists has mathematically measured the “time irreversibility” of more than 8,000 pieces of Western classical music. Published in Physical […]
On a moonless night, a team of researchers boarded a rigid inflatable boat in the coastal city of Plymouth, England. As they left the illuminated city about three kilometers behind them and entered the darkness of the River Lynher, the notion that light pollution could reach deep below the water’s surface seemed dubious at first. […]