Jennifer Nalewicki, Smithsonian
The world is awash with mysteries both great and small, but one could argue that many of the planet's most baffling wonders are best viewed from the sky: geoglyphs. Having been etched or otherwise built onto the earth by mankind thousands of years ago, these ancient designs give us a glimpse into societies of the pastand often still leave researchers with more questions than answers.
Scott Johnson, Ars Technica
If you follow climate science news, you know that one of the hotter topics is climate sensitivitythe precise amount of warming you get for a given increase of greenhouse gases. A few years ago, a couple papers caused a stir by trying to estimate this sensitivity based on simple equations for the recent past, coming up with a lower warming sensitivity than numerous other studies based on climate models or paleoclimate records.
Ella Koeze, FiveThirtyEight
Researchers have long argued that where we live can help predict how we die. But how much our location affects our health is harder to say, because death certificates, the primary source for mortality data, are not always complete.
Yvette d'Entremont, Outline
On her website Goop, actress-turned-lifestyle maven Gwyneth Paltrow dispenses alternative health advice for the upper-class Los Angeleno set with the certain something that could only come from someone who is just another woman trying to manage multiple homes.
Melissa Davey, The Guardian
Researchers who studied the bones of Homo floresiensis, a species of tiny human discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, say their findings should end a popular theory that it evolved from an ancestor of modern humans.
Wellerstein & Geist, Physics Today
No bomb design has been as much maligned or otherwise disparaged as the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon. Detonated in August 1953, the bomb, officially tested under the name RDS-6s but usually known as Sloika or layer cake (the name Andrei Sakharov coined for it), was nothing to sneeze at. Shown in figure 1 and able to be dropped from aircraft, it released the explosive equivalent, or yield, of almost half a megaton of TNT.
Ross Pomeroy, RealClearScience
Let's face it, when more than half of undergraduates believe that a full moon causes people to behave oddly, when two-thirds of them believe that Bigfoot exists, and when students of all ages have a "dismaying" inability to tell fake news from real news, it's obvious that critical thinking education is failing. Students are being sent out into a modern world rife with misinformation without the needed skills to tell fact from faction.
Mitch Waldrop, Nat Geo
Albert Einstein was already a world-famous physicist when the FBI started keeping a secret dossier on him in December 1932. He and his wife Elsa had just moved to the United States from their native Germany, and Einstein had been very vocal about the social issues of his time, arguing publicly against racism and nationalism.By the time of Einstein's death on April 18, 1955, that FBI file would be 1,427 pages long. Agency director J. Edgar Hoover was deeply suspicious... Читать дальше...
Kacey Deamer, Live Sci
Meet Sandy the dingo, owner of the world's most interesting genome.The wild-born, pure Australian desert dingo recently took first place in the World's Most Interesting Genome competition, and will have her DNA decoded thanks to the Pacific Biosciences SMRT Grant Program. The grant provides genome sequencing for "a particularly fascinating plant or animal."In a public poll, Sandy secured 41 percent of the votes to beat out a pit viper, a solar-powered sea slug, an explosive beetle and a pink pigeon for the top prize.
Elie Dolgin, Nature News
Leonid Mirny swivels in his office chair and grabs the power cord for his laptop. He practically bounces in his seat as he threads the cable through his fingers, creating a doughnut-sized loop. It's a dynamic process of motors constantly extruding loops! says Mirny, a biophysicist here at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.Mirny's excitement isn't about keeping computer accessories orderly. Rather, he's talking about a central organizing principle... Читать дальше...
Morelle & Amos, BBC
A UK-led team of scientists is rolling out a project to monitor every land volcano on Earth from space.Two satellites will routinely map the planet's surface, looking for signs that might hint at a future eruption.They will watch for changes in the shape of the ground below them, enabling scientists to issue an early alert if a volcano appears restless.
Stephen Skolnick, Physics Central
This week, we had a reader write in:Why has no one developed a battery that can be attached to a recumbent bike to gather energy when someone is pedaling? Thousands of hours of manual work is being wasted (not counting the health benefits)The short answer is "conservation of energy"if you're putting work into charging a battery, it's going to make it harder to get where you're going by pedaling. However, some people have tried creating an electric bike with a motor and regenerative brakes... Читать дальше...
Joshua Sokol, SM
Sam Ting speaks softly and deliberately as he gets ready to deliver some juicy news to his audience. "You normally cannot hear me anyway," jokes the physicist at the start of a talk this past December at CERN, the particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, while a technician fiddles with his microphone.Ting may be soft-spoken, but few would call him retiring. Two decades ago, Ting persuaded funders to spend $1.5 billion to build the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS). Читать дальше...
