Dust pollution is known to contribute to asthma and heart and lung disease. But dust blowing from the Great Salt Lake in Utah can cause an additional unwanted shock. Metals in dust and sediments around the Great Salt Lake are more reactive than dust from nearby lake beds, researchers report in November. Atmospheric Environment. When … Ler mais
TV stars and terrorists may seem to have little in common. But after watching YouTube videos by members of a violent terrorist organization, Yotam Ophir realized that the two groups used similar tactics to connect with distant audiences. The terrorists dressed casually, looked into the camera when they spoke, and recounted their pasts in a … Ler mais
Electric vehicles promise to help us move away from fossil fuels, but they present a new problem: how to get enough lithium that EV batteries require (SN: 5/7/19). Materials scientist Chong Liu of the University of Chicago has some ideas. Existing technology can only extract lithium from sources with highly concentrated ions, such as solid … Ler mais
Extreme Climate Survey Scientific news is collecting readers’ questions about how to navigate our planet’s changing climate. What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events? “I remember standing there just looking at it,” says Zeng, a climate scientist at the University of Maryland. He recalls … Ler mais
While SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are enabling Internet access and mobile communications around the globe, they are also posing a threat to radio astronomy, a new study suggests. In several wavelength bands, the inadvertent leakage of electromagnetic radiation from the latest generation of satellites is more than 30 times brighter than emissions from earlier versions, Cees … Ler mais
Imagine Victorian London, but its skies are filled with airplanes. Steam robots crowd the streets, mingling with people in hats and cloaks. This kind of retrofuturistic mash-up is the fantasy realm of steampunk, a genre of literature, film, and other creative media. Theoretical physicist Nicole Yunger Halpern sees her specialty, the field of quantum thermodynamics, … Ler mais
Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse! The red supergiant that marks Orion’s left shoulder may have a tiny, unseen companion. Two independent studies found evidence of a star the same mass as the sun, orbiting Betelgeuse about once every 2,100 days. “It was very surprising,” says astrophysicist Morgan MacLeod of the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, … Ler mais
The word “bionic” conjures up sci-fi visions of humans grown to superhuman levels. It is true that engineering advances such as better motors and batteries, along with modern computing, mean that the necessary mechanical and electronic systems are no longer a barrier to advanced prostheses. But the field has struggled to integrate these powerful machines … Ler mais
An asteroid heading toward Earth can be deflected without ever touching a spacecraft. The trick is to use X-rays to deflect the space rock, researchers report Sept. 23 Nature Physics. In laboratory experiments, scientists heated the surfaces of free-falling artificial asteroids with X-ray radiation, producing steam plumes that blew the objects away. Later computer simulations … Ler mais
Clostridioides difficile is an extremely nasty intestinal bug, with few effective treatments and no approved vaccines. But the same technology that enabled the first COVID-19 vaccines has shown early promise in mouse experiments against the deadly infection, which kills 30,000 people in the United States each year. An mRNA vaccine designed to target C. difficile … Ler mais