Elegantly modeling Earth"s abrupt glacial transitions
Proxy data—indirect records of the Earth's climate found in unlikely places like coral, pollen, trees and sediments—show interesting oscillations approximately every 100,000 years starting about one million years ago. Strong changes in global ice.....»»
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.....»»
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......»»
"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.....»»
Flow of the future: AI models tackle complex particle drag coefficients
Accurately modeling particle movement through fluids is crucial in fields ranging from chemical engineering to aerospace. The drag coefficient, which influences how particles settle and move in fluid environments, is a core factor in these calculatio.....»»
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.....»»
Earth underwent a massive, rapid melting period after the last global ice age, new study suggests
At the end of the last global ice age, the deep-frozen Earth reached a built-in limit of climate change and thawed into a slushy planet. Results from a Virginia Tech-led study provide the first direct geochemical evidence of the slushy planet—other.....»»
New modeling of complex biological systems could offer insights into genomic data and other huge datasets
Over the past two decades, new technologies have helped scientists generate a vast amount of biological data. Large-scale experiments in genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and cytometry can produce enormous quantities of data from a given cellula.....»»
Next-generation space materials blast off for tests on ISS
A new generation of space materials left Earth on November 5 as they head to the International Space Station (ISS) to undergo testing in the brutal conditions of low Earth orbit......»»
Moon waves goodbye to Hera
As ESA's Hera mission for planetary defense departed its homeworld, it looked back to Earth to show the moon orbiting around it. In this sequence of images the terrestrial disk gradually shrinks as the spacecraft recedes away from it, and the moon mo.....»»
Portal to the past: Geologist identifies metamorphic rock as a crucial feature of the ancient Earth"s carbon cycle
If Earth's history were a calendar year, humans would not appear until the last few minutes before midnight on Dec. 31. During the Proterozoic Eon—2.5 billion years to 543 million years ago—the sun was still a young star, much dimmer than today,.....»»
New research estimates carbon emissions from 22 million stream reaches across the US
Using a sophisticated new modeling approach, researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have estimated carbon dioxide emissions from inland waters to 22 million U.S. lakes, rivers and reservoirs. It marks the first time this approach has.....»»
Apophis: A new European space mission could get up close with a large asteroid that"s set to brush by Earth
The European Space Agency has given the go-ahead for initial work on a mission to visit an asteroid called (99942) Apophis. If approved at a key meeting next year, the robotic spacecraft, known as the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses),.....»»
Computer modeling research reveals the changing history of a global ice sheet
Imagine that a massive ice sheet covered Canada and oozed down over a large part of the northern United States, like icing spilling down the side of a cake. That was the situation somewhere between 19,000 and 26,000 years ago. The ice sheet covered l.....»»
China space station crew returns to Earth after 6 months in space
Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth on Monday after a six-month stay on the Tiangong space station, part of China's effort to be a global leader in space exploration......»»
Chinese space station crew returns after six months in orbit
A three-person Chinese crew returned to Earth early Monday after more than six months aboard the Tiangong space station, state news agency Xinhua reported......»»
Geodynamic mantle-flow model explains deformation of continental crust block in North China
Cratons are fascinating yet enigmatic geological formations. Known to be relatively stable portions of the Earth's continental crust, cratons have remained largely unchanged for billions of years. Although cratons have survived many geological events.....»»