When Charles Darwin famously visited the Galapagos Islands back in 1835, he discovered a volcanic archipelago that was home to 15 different species of giant tortoise. Today, after killing off more than 100,000 of these strange creatures, we are down to about 10 species, many of which are critically endangered. One was missing for over
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We finally have real evidence about what microdosing psychedelic drugs does to your brain. Long advocated by people who claim that a teensy daily dose of LSD helps them with their high-pressure jobs, microdosing has been shown to reduce depressive symptoms and stress while boosting focus and levels of neuroticism, according to research published in
#Outrageous_Acts Call him the baby whisperer! This pediatrician has developed the perfect technique to calm and quiet a fussy noisy baby. Full Episodes Streaming FREE on Science GO: https://www.sciencechannelgo.com/outrageous-acts-of-science/ More Outrageous Acts! http://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-shows/outrageous-acts-of-science/ Subscribe to Science Channel: http://bit.ly/SubscribeScience Check out SCI2 for infinitely awesome science videos. Every day. http://bit.ly/SCI2YT Join Us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ScienceChannel Follow
This article was first published in the SN Military.Space newsletter. If you would like to get our news and insights for national security space professionals every Tuesday, sign up here for your free subscription. The United States is spending billions developing new strategic missiles, submarines and bombers as part of the nuclear triad. The command authorities also have
Correlation and causation can be tricky to grasp – it’s not always clear how they fit together. Just because two things are linked doesn’t mean that one causes the other… except when sometimes it does. The basics of this rather complicated relationship are put very well in the video below, from MinutePhysics. It uses the
In a sensational test of technological independence, Russia is making plans to cut off its internet from the rest of the world, with a giant ‘unplugging’ experiment that will affect over 100 million Russian internet users. The action – which the nation has boasted of doing for years – would be a temporary test, designed
It’s been snowing in Siberia. But instead of waking to a white winter wonderland, residents in Russia’s coal basin are living through a dark, industrial nightmare. Three separate cities within the coal-mining region of Kemerovo in southwest Siberia have been blanketed in a thick, black deluge of toxic snow, polluted by ever-present coal dust that
Two decades after the hypothetical prediction that it should be possible, scientists have been able to produce fractal light from a laser. Not only that, they’ve shown the fractal light could be created in 3D rather than just 2D. Displaying one of nature’s most common patterns from a very human-made technology could open up opportunities
From above, the Namib Desert in Africa appears afflicted by disease, pocked with patches of bare earth that are either touched by the gods, the dead, or the wildlife, depending on who you ask. Science had all but closed the book on these mysterious ‘fairy circles‘, placing the blame squarely on the soil. To remove
A ‘New Chapter’ in Government Procurement of Satellite Solutions At the end of 2018, division chief Clare Grason and her entire satellite communications team at the Defense Information Systems Agency moved over to work in the same capacity under Gen. John (“Jay”) Raymond at the Air Force Space Command (AFSPC). As she said of the
Something inexplicable has been going on at the Grand Canyon museum, and the truth is stranger than fiction. It all started in March of 2018, when the teenage son of a park employee was testing out their Geiger counter in the museum collection room. As the young radiation enthusiast was wandering around the space, they
Ever since Elon Musk shared his blueprints for the hyperloop – a revolutionary transport system that has the potential to shuttle humans at speeds of more than 1,200 km/h (746 mph) – the engineering community has been in overdrive, with hyperloop prototypes popping up all over the place. And now Musk has put up footage
Airplanes often receive a speed increase from air currents high in the skies, but very few get an insane boost like this: helped by a tailwind of more than 322 km (200 miles) per hour, a Boeing 787-9 jet reached a ground speed of 1,289 km (801 miles) per hour on Monday night. The top
Sleep is pretty great. In humans, evidence suggests it has a whole range of benefits, including this one: it keeps the brain healthy by letting neurons prune unnecessary synaptic connections we make during the day. This process, called synaptic homeostasis, prevents the brain from being overrun by useless memories. It’s possible that it helps to improve
When NASA’s InSight descends to the Red Planet on Nov. 26, 2018, it’s guaranteed to be a white-knuckle event. Rob Manning, chief engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, explains the critical steps that must happen in perfect sequence to get the robotic lander safely to the surface. Download this video: https://images.nasa.gov/details-JPL-20181031-INSIGHf-0001-InSight%20Landing%20on%20Mars.html
From December to April in Yosemite National Park, chilly water from melting mountain snow streams toward the eastern edge of El Capitan and forms what’s known as Horsetail Falls. The cascade is predictably picturesque within the greater grandeur of one of the country’s most stunning national parks. But it becomes truly phenomenal for just a
WASHINGTON — EchoStar wishes it ordered its latest satellite, Jupiter-3, sooner than it did, but won’t seek to play catch up by buying another copy of the satellite in order to meet surging demand for broadband connectivity, executives said Feb. 21. Jupiter-2, EchoStar’s newest broadband satellite on orbit, is already filling up with customers just
Almost a century ago, British geologist and archaeologist Herbert Henry Thomas provocatively claimed he knew where Stonehenge’s famous rocks came from. While his findings and methods have since been disputed, it turns out Thomas was almost right – with new results from a painstaking eight-year excavation project finally identifying where the mysterious megaliths originated. A
#HowItsMade Mondays 9/8c on Science Candy canes are delicious holiday treats that come in all shapes and sizes. See the carefully choreographed production process in action! Full episodes streaming FREE on Science GO! https://www.sciencechannelgo.com/how-its-made/ More How It’s Made: http://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-shows/how-its-made/ Subscribe to Science Channel: http://bit.ly/SubscribeScience Check out SCI2 for infinitely awesome science videos. Every day. http://bit.ly/SCI2YT
With 7.5 billion people currently occupying our planet, it’s almost crazy to think how much visibility is afforded to the culture and lifestyle of just 323 million Americans. But what would the world be like if everyone lived like that? Well, we totally have data to find out. From having loads more sex to spending
China’s Academy of Space Technology is working on an orbital power plant that would capture solar energy in space and beam it back to Earth. The plant would be able to harness solar power even when it’s cloudy back on Earth, since its photovoltaic array would be floating high above any terrestrial weather. With plans to
SpaceX, the aerospace company founded by Elon Musk, is working diligently on a wildly ambitious project: to permanently settle people on Mars. To help make that vision a reality, Musk’s company is developing a colossal, fully reusable launch system called Starship. Starship is envisioned as a 180-foot-tall spaceship that will ride into orbit atop Super Heavy, a
Black holes are the Universe’s most jealously guarded secrets. We all want to know what’s going on inside such exclusive space clubs, yet the best we can do is stand outside and listen to the beat. To do this, scientists host their own parties. Sure, these aren’t as fun as twisted pits of spacetime, but
Is there any dinosaur more iconic than Tyrannosaurus Rex? Its mighty jaws and fierce mien ignite the imaginations of four-year-olds everywhere. It’s the dinosaur poster child – yet this fearsome beast’s beginnings were, new evidence suggests, quite humble. How humble? Well, a little smaller than a kangaroo, as we now know from a newly discovered
By about the time our great-grandchildren have children of their own, we humans will likely have broken a climate record that has stood unchallenged for 56 million years. New research has found that humans are pumping nearly 10 times more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than what was emitted during Earth’s last major warming event, called
For those of us outside the conspiracy, the idea that Earth is flat is so ridiculous, the people who believe it are easy to make fun of. But on forum groups, in YouTube comments, and in person at conferences, flat-Earthers are deadly serious. And one of the biggest sources for renewed interest in flat Earth
First up, let’s just be honest – 95 percent of men and 72 percent of women reading this are just here to feel good about what you’re already doing behind closed doors (hopefully). But if the rest of you have been holding out your entire lives, just waiting for science to give you a reason
At first glance, the two rows of portraits at the top of this article just look like a bunch of average-looking people. The catch is, none of them exist. All of these faces are fakes, put together by artificial intelligence. To be more precise, these faces are created by a generative adversarial network (GAN) developed
The Pentagon estimates it could take at least five years to align personnel and funding for the Space Force until it reaches its projected size of 12,000 to 15,000 people, most of whom would come from existing organizations. WASHINGTON — In a draft proposal to establish a United States Space Force inside the Department of
Sirius, a double-star system and the brightest object in the night sky, will briefly blink out of existence for parts of Earth on Monday evening. In an event called an occultation – when one object in space blocks the light of another behind it – a small asteroid known as (4388) Jürgenstock will slip in front of the
For years, the internet has hemmed and hawed over a mysterious yet universal truth: a grape, sliced nearly in half and placed in the microwave, will suddenly begin to spit plasma. The fiery sight had us mystified for years, garnering millions of views online and a variety of expert opinions, none of which were based
Most of us know that at some point in our evolutionary history around 600 million years ago, single-celled organisms evolved into more complex multicellular life. But knowing that happened and actually seeing it happen in real-time in front of you is an entirely different matter altogether. And that’s exactly what researchers from the George Institute
Years ago, the small, ratlike rodents could be seen scurrying across the sand and coral rubble on the Australian island of Bramble Cay. Fishermen would sometimes see them while visiting the island, which is dotted with a few grass clumps, shorebirds and nesting sea turtles in the Great Barrier Reef. As mackerel fisherman Egon Stewart
Around 13.7 billion years ago, our universe sprang into existence, but what was around before the Big Bang? In a new episode of Star Talk, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking sat down with host Neil deGrasse Tyson to talk about what exactly pre-dated the beginning of our universe. Hawking’s answer put simply? Nothing. But just because an
SpaceX tested its Crew Dragon, a spacecraft under final development and certification through NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) which simulated an emergency abort from a test stand on Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida. The ability to abort from a launch or pad emergency, and safely carry crew
After several years of controversy and debate, researchers in Sweden are more convinced than ever that female Viking warriors once existed. Re-examining a contentious discovery from 2017, the researchers have again determined that the ancient Birka skeleton, found in a 10th-century Viking warrior tomb, did, in fact, belong to a biological female. “The buried person has
If you live in the Southern Hemisphere, next time you get the opportunity, go outside and look at the night sky. Most of that celestial plain is covered in a star cluster that’s been torn apart by galactic tidal forces, and is now flowing past us as a giant river of over 4,000 stars. Although
Researchers in China have developed a new way to remove bacteria from water that they say is both highly efficient and environmentally sound. By shining ultraviolet light onto a two-dimensional sheet of a compound called graphitic carbon nitride, the team’s prototype can purify 10 litres (2.6 liquid gallons) of water in just one hour, killing virtually
To turn President Trump’s Space Force idea into reality, the Pentagon will need strong bipartisan support from both chambers. WASHINGTON — Starting as early as next week, Pentagon officials will sit down with members of Congress and staff to go over the details of how the Pentagon would organize the U.S. Space Force within the
Something about atoms has never added up. Fundamental particles called quarks get kind of sluggish once they’re caught up in crowds of protons and neutrons – and quite frankly, they shouldn’t. For decades, physicists have hunted for clues on the quark’s tendency to slow down in larger atoms, but have come up empty-handed. But now,
Sixty-six million years ago, something changed the world catastrophically. Around 75 percent of the world’s plant and animal species died, wiping out the dinosaurs. This marked the end of the Cretaceous period, and started a new dawn on Earth – the Cenozoic, the age of mammals. But we don’t entirely know what caused it. Fossil
You’re not hallucinating: Yes, the Moon looks brighter than normal, and yes, it looks bigger too. But Tuesday evening will bring the real show: what astronomers at NASA call a “perigean” moon, or “supermoon”. The event will coincide with a full moon that’s often referred to as a “snow moon” or “hunger moon”. It’s not
It might not feel like it, but the adult bladder can hold as much as half a litre (2 cups) of pee before you’ll feel the need to ‘go’. Your body knows how much is in there because your bladder wall is filled with tiny receptors that send a message to your brain when the
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can significantly improve our understanding of the climate and Earth science, says a study by German scientists. AI can be applied to data related to extreme events such as fire spreads or hurricanes, which are very complex processes influenced by local conditions. It can also be applied to atmospheric and ocean transport,
WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying an Indonesian communications satellite, an Israeli lunar lander and a U.S. Air Force smallsat launched Feb. 21 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Falcon 9 lifted off at 8:45 p.m. Eastern, deploying the Beresheet lunar lander 33 minutes later, and the Nusantara Satu telecom satellite with the S5 experimental
We might have a new contender for the youngest person to ever achieve nuclear fusion. Tennessee teenager Jackson Oswalt is not your average 14-year-old. While other kids are playing video games or watching TV, he’s been busy putting together a nuclear laboratory in an old playroom in his house. The budding nuclear engineer has been
Watch as NASA tests a new parachute for landing the Mars 2020 rover on the Red Planet. On Sept. 7, NASA’s ASPIRE project broke a record when its rocket-launched parachute deployed in 4-10ths of a second—the fastest inflation of this size chute in history: https://go.nasa.gov/2Ro4eAL
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists are providing new evidence to answer the longstanding question about why zebras have stripes. It appears stripes make terrible landing strips, bamboozling the fierce blood-sucking flies that try to feast on zebras and carry deadly diseases. FILE PHOTO: Zebras are seen at the Nairobi National Park, near Nairobi, Kenya, December 3,