Shannon Hall, NewSci
I hope everyone has buckled their seatbelts because the outer solar system just got a lot weirder. Thats what Michele Bannister, an astronomer at Queens University, Belfast tweeted on Monday.She was referring to the discovery of a TNO or trans-Neptunian object, something which sits beyond Neptune in the outer solar system.
William Park, BBC
Chavin de Huantar lies in a narrow valley in the high Andes, 3,200m (10,500ft) above sea level. You can’t see the temple until you’re in it. The dramatic, vertical landscape was the carefully chosen location for this exquisite example of Chavin architecture.
M. Nijhuis, NYer
In January of this year, James Watson, an Australian scientist who works for the Wildlife Conservation Society, noticed an image that had been tweeted by a friend of his, a physician in Sydney. With a chain of progressively larger circles, it illustrated the relative frequency of causes of death among Australians, from the vanishingly rare (war, pregnancy and birth, murder) to the extremely common (respiratory disorders, cancer, heart disease).
Blake de Pastino, W-Digs
The tides have revealed a gallery of petroglyphs on a beach in Hawaii that experts say have never been recorded before.The glyphs are pecked into the sandstone floor of the beach at Waianae, on the western coast of Oahu, which is typically covered with a thick blanket of sand.
Aleszu Bajak, MIT Review
When his son Sam was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at six months of age, Doug Melton was incredulous. “I remember at night, my wife and I pricking his heel, and saying ‘No, this can’t be, this can’t be,’” he says. “It felt like we had lost the lottery.”
Lisa Zyga, PhysOrg
When placed in an acoustic field, small objects experience a net force that can be used to levitate the objects in air. In a new study, researchers have experimentally demonstrated the acoustic levitation of a 50-mm (2-inch) solid polystyrene sphere using ultrasound—acoustic waves that are above the frequency of human hearing.When placed in an acoustic field, small objects experience a net force that can be used to levitate the objects in air. In a new study, researchers have... Читать дальше...
Julie Hecht, SciAm
A few years back, on a night when I thought I was going to dinner with friends, I instead walked into a surprise party for me! My friends were covered in tartan patterns and kilts because I was on my way to the University of Edinburgh in Scotland for a Masters in Applied Animal Behaviour and Welfare.
Matthew Hutson, Atlantic
In tough times, people want more in a leader than intelligence, integrity, or the ability to build really tall walls. They want someone who can make a compelling pitch and inspire a sense of urgency—someone with charisma.
Seth Shostak, Guardian
For more than 50 years, we’ve been scanning the skies with king-size antennas, hoping to pick up a radio signal from space that would prove the existence of other technically adept beings.So far, our efforts have found only senseless static – it’s been a long fishing expedition without so much as a nibble.
Erik Vance, Nat'l Geographic
The ancient city of Holmul isn’t much to look at. To the casual observer it’s just a series of steep, forested hills in the middle of the jungle in northern Guatemala, near the Mexican border. The jungle here in the Petn Basin is thick and warm but drier than you might expect.
