America’s carbon dioxide emissions have fallen consistently over the last 15 years in large part because power companies have swapped coal for natural gas. Now it appears that those CO2 reductions might be smaller than previously thought. A recent study by the Environmental Defense Fund found that 3.7% of natural gas produced in the Permian Basin leaked […]
After looming above the Arctic for nearly a month, the single largest ozone hole ever detected over the North Pole has finally closed, researchers from the European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) reported. “The unprecedented 2020 Northern Hemisphere ozone hole has come to an end,” CAMS researchers tweeted on April 23. The hole in the ozone layer—a portion of […]
This is Scientific American’s Science Talk, posted on May 5, 2020. I’m Steve Mirsky. On this episode: LIVIO CLIP That’s Mario Livio. He’s an astrophysicist and the author of popular science books. His last appearance here was in 2017 to discuss his book Why? What Makes Us Curious. He’s back to talk about his new […]
In their own voices, health care workers from across the country reflect on coping with the coronavirus — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com Source link
Some four years ago, when Ann-Marie Madigan first encountered the idea that there might be an undetected massive planet lurking beyond Pluto’s orbit, she felt excited but skeptical. The evidence for such a world was then—and now remains—circumstantial: strange patterns in the orbits of small objects at the outskirts of the known solar system. Proponents […]
New bones suggest Spinosaurus is the only known aquatic dinosaur. A new fossil of one of the most unusual dinosaurs, Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, suggests it was a swimming predator powered by a fin-like tail. The find comes after decades of debate on how much of its life Spinosaurus would have spent in the water, and […]
Dozens of antibody tests for the novel coronavirus have become available in recent weeks. And early results from studies of such serological assays in the U.S. and around the world have swept headlines. Despite optimism about these tests possibly becoming the key to a return to normal life, experts say the reality is complicated and […]
How can we possibly grapple with the onslaught of information about virus spread, stock market nosedives, canceled plans and uncertainty about the future? Some people wallow in the fear, anxiety and sadness, checking news sites and social media constantly. Others try to suppress it all and ignore the outside world (I’m guessing that Instagram has […]
Global warming isn’t just causing glaciers to melt—it’s making some collapse suddenly. That’s what scientists believe happened at Alaska’s Flat Creek Glacier, deep in the mountains of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. In August 2013, a 1,600-foot tongue of ice suddenly detached from the bedrock near the bottom of the glacier. It sent a […]
Globe-trotting humans were the culprits Credit: Martin Krzywinski Advertisement The world struggled to understand how COVID-19 spread during the pandemic’s first four months, but genetic sequences of the coronavirus reported by laboratories tell the real story—when the virus arrived in each place and where it came from. The sequences, which advance from left to right […]