Cosmic history can explain the properties of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars
Astronomers have managed to link the properties of the inner planets of our solar system with our cosmic history: with the emergence of ring structures in the swirling disk of gas and dust in which these planets were formed. The rings are associated.....»»
New Mac mini has a slotted & removable SSD -- but don"t expect upgrades
Apple isn't soldering the SSD to the logic board in the M4 Mac mini, but given the company's history with Apple Silicon, don't expect upgrades.A Mac mini and a disassembled Mac mini - Image credit: KianWee Lim/iFixit and AppleOlder Intel-based Mac mi.....»»
Planetary Boundaries framework gains traction in sustainability science
The Planetary Boundaries (PB) framework is a pivotal tool for tackling the climate crisis and safeguarding humanity's future on Earth. For the first time, the full story of the Planetary Boundaries is now being told from its beginning......»»
Cracked earth in Greece"s saffron heartland as drought takes toll
At a field outside Kozani, northern Greece, the strikingly blue-and-purple petals of saffron give off an intoxicating scent that underscores the value of one of the country's most lucrative crops......»»
Hera burns towards Mars
ESA's Hera mission has completed the first critical maneuver on its journey to the Didymos binary asteroid system since launch on 7 October......»»
Astronaut’s photo shows Earth as you’ve never seen it before
NASA's oldest serving astronaut has shared an image taken from the space station that shows Earth in a most unusual way......»»
Advances in plate tectonics research provide a new view of deep Earth"s carbon emissions
From time to time, when Earth's tectonic plates shift, the planet emits a long, slow belch of carbon dioxide. In a new modeling study published in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, R. Dietmar Müller and colleagues show how this gas released from.....»»
Quasiperiodicity changes the ground-state properties of 1D narrow-band moiré systems, study demonstrates
Moiré materials, such as twisted bilayer graphene, are materials generally formed by stacking two or more layers of 2D materials on top of each other with a small lattice mismatch. This slight mismatch creates a unique pattern known as the moiré pa.....»»
2024 "virtually certain" to be hottest year on record: EU monitor
This year is "virtually certain" to be the hottest in recorded history with warming above 1.5C, EU climate monitor Copernicus said Thursday, days before nations are due to gather for crunch UN climate talks......»»
Mercury Weather can now provide notifications for rain and snow
Mercury Weather is a cool indie app that works as an alternative to Apple’s Weather app. Following an update in August that added new features to the app, there’s now another update available – and this one provides notifications about weather.....»»
Nearly three years since launch, Webb is a hit among astronomers
Demand for observing time on Webb outpaces supply by a factor of nine. From its halo-like orbit nearly a million miles from Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope is seeing farther.....»»
SpaceX reveals date for next flight of Starship megarocket
The Elon Musk-led spaceflight company will attempt to catch the Super Heavy booster for a second time as it returns to Earth......»»
Experiment reveals how Earth"s magnetic field influences flow in planet"s core
A trio of physicists, two with Coventry University, in the U.K., and the third with Laboratoire National des Champs Magnétiques Intenses, in France, has demonstrated how Earth's magnetic field may be influencing internal flow, using what they descri.....»»
Ancient unicellular organism indicates embryonic development might have existed prior to animals" evolution
Chromosphaera perkinsii is a single-celled species discovered in 2017 in marine sediments around Hawaii. The first signs of its presence on Earth have been dated at over a billion years, well before the appearance of the first animals......»»
Making farming better for bees: Can we breed crops that produce more nectar and pollen?
Where once there were vast areas of forest and other natural habitats, farmland now covers much of Earth—including 70% of the UK. This transition has helped feed a growing number of people......»»
Microbial slime: The ultimate system to understand our planet
Billions of years ago, Earth was home to extreme environments, including intense UV radiation, frequent volcanic eruptions, and very high concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Yet, under these conditions, biofilms formed and within thes.....»»
Gamma radiation converts methane into complex organic molecules and could explain the origin of life
Gamma radiation can convert methane into a wide variety of products at room temperature, including hydrocarbons, oxygen-containing molecules, and amino acids, according to a new article published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.....»»
Earth 2 at 30: A look back at NBC’s big swing at sci-fi in the early ’90s
A long-forgotten sci-fi series premiered on NBC 30 years ago this month, but it paved the way for some of the shows that came after it......»»
These LumiCharge smart lamps make excellent multi-purpose gifts — they’re also on sale
Some of the coolest gifts are multi-functional. Allow me to explain. Quirky gifts are great, but that actually provide value to the person you’re giving them to are even better. Multi-functional gift ideas, or gadgets, and gizmos that achieve m.....»»
"The nastiest soils on Earth" are getting recognized as a bigger problem
Acid sulfate soils are characterized by their orange hue and their tendency to kill surrounding vegetation and fish. Anders Johnson's extensive research along Sweden's coastline reveals the widespread presence of these soils, underscoring their signi.....»»
Testing thousands of RNA enzymes helps find first "twister ribozyme" in mammals
The "RNA world" hypothesis proposes that the earliest life on Earth may have been based on RNA—a single-stranded molecule similar in many ways to DNA—like some modern viruses. This is because, like DNA, RNA can carry genetic information, but, lik.....»»