If, like Elon Musk, you’ve been dreaming of a future where large populations of humans can live on the Moon, you’re likely to be disappointed. Although there could be trillions of pounds of water trapped inside tiny glass beads scattered across the lunar surface, scientists estimate this won’t be enough to sustain a large city … Read more
For obvious reasons, it is impossible to imagine life on Earth without oxygen. But will it ever end? And if so, how long will our planet continue to have oxygen? There are a few scenarios in which we could imagine the end of life on Earth: climate change, rising CO2, an asteroid impact, the constant … Read more
Crows in the spotlight: A noisy presence and a puzzling reputation As dusk falls over Charlottetown, the skies above Victoria Park fill with thousands of crows and their close relatives, the rooks. Their loud choruses disturb many residents, who try in vain to scare away the birds. Solitary crows, although less numerous, also roam the … Read more
ATLANTA – Scientists have suspected for almost 60 years that Tyrannosaurus rex was warm-blooded. When a fossilized T. rex footprint turned up in Alaska in 2022, it added to evidence that these predators could thrive in frigid environments, where most cold-blooded reptiles could not. Now, researchers have put a figure on the temperature that tyrannosaurs … Read more
It was a tragic sight. One day last July, a newborn humpback whale calf lay motionless at the bottom of the sea, just a kilometer off Australia’s Gold Coast. The encounter was captured via underwater video. For more than an hour, the mother repeatedly returned to the same spot, gently touching the calf with her … Read more
How quickly could rabbits multiply if nothing stopped them? The answer is surprising and is a question that has intrigued mathematicians for centuries. Italian mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci was reflecting on the reproductive potential of rabbits as early as 1201. In his Book of Calculations, he explored how a population could grow from a single pair, … Read more
In July 2020, a gigantic Arctic shelf collapsed in Canada, losing more than 40% of its surface in just two days. The Milne Ice Sheet acted like a dam, trapping a layer of fresh water over the Arctic Ocean. A few months after its dissolution, that freshwater lake flowed into the ocean and disappeared completely. … Read more
The crater, named in honor of the late Thomas McGetchin, former director of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, is three times larger than the previous record found by the LRO a decade ago. Pockmarked since ancient times, the moon has some of the largest impact craters in the solar system, including one that … Read more
Russia today (September 16) launched a cargo mission to the International Space Station, delivering the cargo spacecraft to orbit for a three-day rendezvous trip. The Progress 96 robotic spacecraft lifted off on a Soyuz rocket from the Russian Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today at 9:33 a.m. EDT (1333 GMT). From the ignition of the engine … Read more
It’s 5:52 a.m. at Moynihan Train Hall. I’m balancing a bowl of fruit and my water bottle in one hand while tightening the straps of a backpack that’s carried by two laptops with the other. It’s the start of my twice-weekly commute between New York City and Washington, DC. I’m five months into this super … Read more