Vastly bigger than the Black Summer: 84 million hectares of northern Australia burned in 2023
It may come as a surprise to hear 2023 was Australia's biggest bushfire season in more than a decade. Fires burned across an area eight times as big as the 2019–20 Black Summer bushfires that tore through 10 million hectares in southeast Australia......»»
Journal that published faulty black plastic study removed from science index
Chemosphere cut from Web of Science, which calculates impact factors. The publisher of a high-profile, now-corrected study on black plastics has been removed from a critical index.....»»
A family reunion 150 million years in making: Paleontologists identify nearly 50 hidden relatives of Pterodactylus
Christmas is the time for families to come together, and in the midst of the festive season, University of Leicester paleontologists have announced that they have reunited a family that has been separated for 150 million years......»»
More than 1,300 Hajj pilgrims died this year when humidity and heat pushed past survivable limits—it"s just the start
Every year, hundreds of thousands of Muslims undertake the Hajj—the sacred pilgrimage to Mecca. In 2024, the pilgrimage took place in mid-June, the start of the Saudi summer......»»
NASA payload aims to probe moon"s depths to study heat flow
Earth's nearest neighboring body in the solar system is its moon, yet to date, humans have physically explored just 5% of its surface. It wasn't until 2023—building on Apollo-era data and more detailed studies made in 2011–2012 by NASA's automate.....»»
7 good things humanity did to combat climate change in 2024
Advocating for climate change action can sometimes feel like pushing a huge boulder up a hill. News headlines are filled with breaking climate records, while governments, including Australia's, are still approving new fossil fuel developments. Advert.....»»
Faster way to calculate electron structure makes it easier to discover new materials
Figuring out certain aspects of a material's electron structure can take a lot out of a computer—up to a million CPU hours, in fact. A team of Yale researchers, though, are using a type of artificial intelligence to make these calculations much fas.....»»
Ransomware in 2024: New players, bigger payouts, and smarter tactics
In 2024, ransomware remained the top cybersecurity threat to organizations worldwide. New groups filled the void left by law enforcement crackdowns, targeting businesses with record-breaking ransom demands and sophisticated tactics. In this article,.....»»
Distant blazar discovery supports rapid black hole formation in the early universe
Astronomers have discovered an important piece of the puzzle of how supermassive black holes were able to grow so quickly in the early universe: a special kind of active galactic nucleus so distant that its light has taken more than 12.9 billion year.....»»
Massive volcanic eruptions did not cause the extinction of dinosaurs, say climate scientists
Massive volcanic eruptions on the Indian peninsula have long been proposed as an alternative cause for the demise of the dinosaurs. This phase of active volcanism took place in a period just before Earth was struck by a meteorite, 66 million years ag.....»»
NASA finds "sideways" black hole using legacy data and new techniques
NASA researchers have discovered a perplexing case of a black hole that appears to be "tipped over," rotating in an unexpected direction relative to the galaxy surrounding it. That galaxy, called NGC 5084, has been known for years, but the sideways s.....»»
Study finds aquatic vegetation removal benefits health and economy
Turning aquatic vegetation near agricultural land into compost simultaneously eradicates habitat for disease-carrying snails while improving agricultural output and increasing incomes in northern Senegal, Cornell researchers have found......»»
Nintendo Switch Year in Review 2024 is live: Here’s how to see your stats
Are you curious about how you spent your time on the Nintendo Switch this year? If so, you'll want to check out your Year in Review 2023. Here's how to do it......»»
Where"s my qubit? Scientists develop technique to detect atom loss
Quiet quitting isn't just for burned out employees. Atoms carrying information inside quantum computers, known as qubits, sometimes vanish silently from their posts. This problematic phenomenon, called atom loss, corrupts data and spoils calculations.....»»
Aerosols could be weakening summertime circulation in the Northern Hemisphere
Over the past several decades, summer jet streams (or west to east wind flow) and weather systems in the Northern Hemisphere have weakened. Projections suggest the trend will continue, which could make extreme heat events more likely and affect air q.....»»
Trust in US media hit an all-time low in 2024. New survey shows Black midwesterners have found other sources
In 2024, Gallup reported Americans' trust in media was at an all-time low......»»
How a giant prehistoric elephant skull helped untangle an evolutionary mystery
About 400,000 years ago, early humans in Europe, Asia and Africa lived alongside giant straight-tusked elephants, far bigger than their modern-day cousins. Their evolution has long been a mystery to paleontologists, but an extraordinary, enormous and.....»»
Melting sea ice in Antarctica causes ocean storms, scientists say
The record-breaking retreat of Antarctic sea ice in 2023 has led to more frequent storms over newly exposed parts of the Southern Ocean, according to a study published Wednesday......»»
Numbers don’t lie: EA Sports College Football 25 is 2024’s bestselling game
EA College Sports Football 25 is this year's bestselling game, but Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is right behind......»»
Spiderweb protocluster captured by Webb shows supermassive black holes can halt star formation
An international research team has used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe massive galaxies discovered by the Subaru Telescope in a corner of the early universe known as the Spiderweb protocluster. The JWST results confirm what had been.....»»
Machine learning framework improves groundwater recharge estimates in Western Australia
A new study led by Griffith University has unveiled a machine learning-based framework to accurately estimate groundwater recharge in the Perth Basin, with a particular focus on the Gnangara groundwater system......»»