SCIENCE
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Bizarre Quantum Universe | Scientific American
Bizarre Quantum Universe Even how matter exists in the first place is a mystery to physicists By Andrea Gawrylewski In 2022 three scientists won the Nobel Prize in Physics for proving something astonishing: the universe is not locally real. In other words, particles don’t have fixed properties until they are measured. Although it seems to counter everything we perceive, the…
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Sahara Dust Clouds Are Heading to Florida and Beyond
Sahara Dust Clouds Are Heading to Florida and Beyond Clouds of dust blown off the Saharan Desert into the southeastern U.S. could affect local weather and make sunrises and sunsets particularly vivid By Meghan Bartels edited by Dean Visser Each year, seasonal winds carry tens of millions of tons of Saharan dust across the Atlantic and beyond. On February 18,…
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Upgraded Very Large Array Telescope Will Spot Baby Solar Systems—If It’s Funded
New Mexico’s Plains of San Agustin are otherworldly: Silence, sand and sharp plants reign on the valley floor. Knobbly volcanic rock rises above. Pronghorns’ legs and jackrabbits’ ears break up the landscape. And so, too, does one of the world’s largest telescopes. The plains house the aptly named Very Large Array (VLA)—a radio telescope made of 27 different antennas, each…
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New Infrared Contacts Let You See in the Dark
New Contacts Let You See Infrared Light—Even with Your Eyes Closed Straight out of science fiction, these contact lenses convert infrared light into visible light that humans can see By Elizabeth Gibney & Nature magazine People who tested a new type of designer contact lens could see flashing infrared signals from a light source. Humans have a new way of…
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Trump Leaves Disaster-Struck States Waiting Weeks for Sign-Off on FEMA Aid
CLIMATEWIRE | Public officials have started pleading with the Trump administration for help in recovering from deadly disasters as President Donald Trump triggers frustration in states struck by tornadoes, floods and storms by taking no action on requests for aid. Trump has left states, counties and tribes in limbo as he delays making decisions on formal requests for millions of…
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How Dinosaurs Shaped Fruit Evolution
For Fruit Seeds, Humans Are Modern-Day Dinosaurs By physically engineering their environments, megafauna such as dinosaurs curbed fruit seed sizes—a role that now may be filled by humans By Gayoung Lee edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier What do humans have in common with the dinosaurs that trampled through ancient forests? It turns out that both may have a surprising impact…
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Loneliness Is Inflaming Our Bodies—And Our Politics
Loneliness Is Inflaming Our Bodies—And Our Politics Medical research shows that social isolation is a serious chronic stressor. You can say something similar about its impact on our political system By Kim Samuel Eugene Mymrin/Getty Images Hannah Arendt has been on my mind a lot lately. The 20th-century German-Jewish political philosopher escaped the Nazi Holocaust, and won regard as one…
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How Trump’s National Weather Service Cuts Could Cost Lives
Just more than 100 years ago, on March 18, 1925, a tornado slashed across the U.S. Midwest with no warning at all and killed 695 people—a massive number for a single outbreak. Today those in a twister’s path get a take-cover notice eight to 18 minutes before a strike on average. And as recently as 1992, what looked like a…
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Large Hadron Collider Physicists Turn Lead into Gold—For a Fraction of a Second
Physicists Turn Lead into Gold—For a Fraction of a Second Scientists at Europe’s famous particle collider briefly created gold ions from lead in a modern twist on the alchemical goal By Elizabeth Gibney & Nature magazine LHC experiments don’t create large gold nuggets — but some particles within a beam of lead ions can turn into gold for about a…
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Blood of Man Who’s Had 200 Snakebites Helps Make a Potent Antivenom
Blood of Man Who’s Had 200 Snakebites Helps Make a Potent Antivenom A new snakebite treatment combines an existing drug with antibodies from a hyperimmune reptile collector, raising both hopes and ethical concerns By Katherine Bourzac & Nature magazine A cocktail containing antibodies and an enzyme inhibitor protects mice against the venom of the king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah). Scientists have…
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