An excavation site at an ancient watering hole reveals these secrets of the past and more. In north-central Nebraska lies a small park with a big name: Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park and National Natural Landmark. Hidden in the rolling hills, hours from the nearest big city, Ashfall isContinue Reading
On a geological timescale, the emergence of the human “dataome” is like a sudden invasion by extraterrestrials, or an asteroid impact that precipitates a mass extinction. Humans are strange. For a global species, we’re not particularly genetically diverse, thanks in part to how our ancient roaming explorations caused “founder effects”Continue Reading
In Unsettled, Steven Koonin deploys that highly misleading label to falsely suggest that we don’t understand the risks well enough to take action. Steven Koonin, a former undersecretary for science of the Department of Energy in the Obama administration, but more recently considered for an advisory post to Scott PruittContinue Reading
Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine approval is younger teens’ shot at freedom In a long-awaited announcement on Monday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine in adolescents aged 12 to 15. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee of Immunization Practices (ACIP) atContinue Reading
The illegal substance—paired with intensive therapy and hard work—dramatically improves PTSD symptoms A long-awaited study is making worldwide headlines for finding that the outlawed psychoactive drug MDMA is startlingly effective in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). But researchers and study participants say the substance itself, while extremely powerful, catalyzes healingContinue Reading
Debris from the 20-metric-ton booster reportedly splashed down in the Indian Ocean north of the Maldives The Chinese rocket has come down. The 23-ton core stage of a Long March 5B booster crashed back to Earth Saturday night (May 8), ending 10 controversial days aloft that captured the attention ofContinue Reading
They could, in theory. So, why don’t they? Every 40 seconds, someone in the U.S. has a heart attack, which amounts to about 805,000 heart attacks every year. Of course, this statistic applies only to humans. But what about other animals — do they also experience this debilitating and potentiallyContinue Reading
Last year the New York City Police Department (NYPD) began leasing a caninelike robot—a Spot model from Boston Dynamics that the department nicknamed Digidog. Officers deployed the robot in just a few cases, including a hostage situation in the Bronx and an incident at a public housing building in Manhattan.Continue Reading
A cuckoo bird named PJ just broke an impressive record: He traveled more than 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers) in the past five years while migrating to and from the U.K. Common cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) spend their winters in Africa and migrate to the U.K. in the spring to breed, typicallyContinue Reading
Super-rotation could help make tidally locked worlds habitable. Paul M. Sutter is an astrophysicist at SUNY Stony Brook and the Flatiron Institute, host of Ask a Spaceman and Space Radio, and author of How to Die in Space. He contributed this article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Opinions and Insights. AstronomersContinue Reading
