Technology

Meteorologist Thea Sandmael watched the storm close in. It was near enough for her to spot a rotating dome of clouds emerging from its dark underbelly — the quickening of a tornado. By the time the spinning mass was 10 minutes…

On August 8, the Japanese Meteorological Agency issued its first-ever “megaquake alert,” after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake rocked the Miyazaki prefecture in southern Japan earlier that day. The Miyazaki quake injured at least 16…

Extreme Climate Survey Science News is collecting reader 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? Most…

Chocolate, cheese and migraines — Science News, August 10, 1974 A new study of migraine and food ingestion … is reported in the July 26 Nature. studied a group of migraine sufferers, administering placebos and capsules…

Slimy heralds of hope are hopping around Yosemite National Park. Being a frog hasn’t been easy in the High Sierra or in many other places ever since a fungal parasite began exterminating frogs in the United States, Australia…

Flying can be a nerve-wracking experience for many people but a new study out Thursday finds commercial air travel keeps getting safer, with the risk of death halving every decade. HT Image The fatality rate fell to 1 per every 13.7…

To leave a lasting trail, meteors need to aim low. A new survey of shooting stars shows that meteors that blaze through 90 kilometers up in the sky leave a persistent afterglow, unlike those that burn up at greater heights.…

For millennia, humans have seen inexplicable things in the sky. Some have been beautiful, some have been terrifying, and some — like auroras and solar eclipses before they were understood scientifically — have been both. Today’s…

In A.D. 79, a massive volcano in southern Italy suddenly, explosively awoke, leading to one of the ancient world’s deadliest natural disasters. Ash and gas from the eruption killed at least 1,500 people in the ancient cities of…

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef faces critical danger from back-to-back bouts of extreme ocean heat. Ocean heat in the Coral Sea is at its highest in four centuries, scientists report in the Aug. 8 Nature. The researchers…

Bengaluru, ISRO on Wednesday said its latest earth observation satellite EOS-08 will be launched onboard the third and final developmental flight of its Small Satellite Launch Vehicle -D3 on August 15. The primary objectives of the EOS-08…

The ancestors of cobras and related snakes first emerged in Asia roughly 35 million years ago. Many researchers thought the Elapoidea superfamily of snakes evolved in Africa before slithering their way across the globe. But new…

Then I Am Myself the WorldChristof KochBasic Books, $30 The human brain is the most complex information integrator known in the universe. With 86 billion neurons and 100 trillion connections between them, the brain gives us…

Aug 06, 2024 10:18 PM IST The spacecraft, designed to operate in Circular Low-Earth Orbit at 475 km altitude and an inclination of 37.4 degrees, has a mission duration of one year. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)…

Tropical cyclones are synonymous with destruction. But at least one seabird may take advantage of them as feeding opportunities. The Desertas petrel, a small and threatened seabird native to the North Atlantic Ocean, has long…

Science fiction fans, philosophers, and physicists have been captivated by the idea of parallel universes, often known as multiverses, for many years. According to this intriguing theory, there are other universes, each existing in a…

Waterpower may have given a big lift to builders of Egypt’s oldest known pyramid, the nearly 4,700-year-old Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara. Ancient architects built a hydraulic system for hoisting stone blocks that were used…

During mating, some male poison frogs embrace their partner’s face in a love-potion-laced hug.  The amorous amphibians may create pheromones in glands in their fingers, researchers report July 21 in Molecular Ecology,…

Extreme Climate Survey Science News is collecting reader 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? Amid all…

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) has warned about a giant building-sized asteroid named '2024 OC', which is set to make a close approach to Earth on Sunday, August 4, around 9:40 pm IST. The enormous space rock…

Snake venom can be remarkably diverse in composition and potency, not only between one species and another but also within the same species. Because of biogeographic variation, commercially available antivenom in India may neutralise the…

Alzheimer’s disease is hard to diagnose. But proteins in the blood might provide clarity. A series of recent findings, presented at the annual Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Philadelphia and in research…

Artifacts from the ruins of a medieval laboratory are spilling a famous scientist’s secrets. A chemical analysis of broken glassware belonging to 16th century Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe revealed elevated levels of nine…

Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla has been picked to fly on an upcoming Indo-US mission to the International Space Station (ISS), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has announced. Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla.(Wikimedia…

Human know-how derives in part from our nose for novelty — we’re curious creatures, whether looking around corners or testing scientific hypotheses. For artificial intelligence to have a broad and nuanced understanding of the…

An ancient Egyptian mummy, dubbed the “Screaming Woman” for what appears to be an open-mouthed look of pain or fear, might have had that expression fixed in place by a rare muscle reaction when she died. Sudden muscular…

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tightened rabies regulations for dogs coming into the country. The new regulations, which went into effect August 1, come as the temporary suspension of importing dogs from…

Clues to deepfakes may be in the eyes. Researchers at the University of Hull in England reported July 15 that eye reflections offer a potential way to suss out AI-generated images of people. The approach relies on a technique…

Birds do it. Bees do it. Even butterflies and moths do it. As lepidopterans flutter their wings, friction with the air causes them to accumulate static electricity — enough to potentially pull pollen from nearby flowers,…

Forever chemicals are everywhere.  They’re in school uniforms, food packaging, cosmetics and personal care products (SNE: 11/18/22; SN: 6/4/19; SN: 6/15/21). They seep into our food and drinking water. And now new research…