SCIENCE
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Boeing’s Starliner Crew Mission Returns to Earth, but Its Astronauts Are Still in Space
September 7, 2024 5 min read Starliner Spacecraft Safely Returns to Earth, sans Astronauts Starliner’s first crewed test flight has concluded with a successful touchdown—and two astronauts still in orbit awaiting a different ride home By Lee Billings A view of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft as it approached the International Space Station (ISS) in early June 2024. The spacecraft’s crew, NASA…
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Scientists Make Living Mice’s Skin Transparent with Simple Food Dye
September 5, 2024 5 min read Scientists Make Living Mice’s Skin Transparent with Simple Food Dye New research harnessed the highly absorbent dye tartrazine, used as the common food coloring Yellow No. 5, to turn tissues in living mice clear—temporarily revealing organs and vessels inside the animals By Lauren J. Young Skin normally scatters light, a phenomenon represented by white…
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Earthquakes May Forge Large Gold Nuggets
September 2, 2024 4 min read Earthquakes May Forge Large Gold Nuggets Scientists propose that large chunks of gold could form from earthquakes’ pressure By Kate Graham-Shaw A gold nugget “trapped” in quartz Pierre Longnus/Getty Images Solid gold bars stacked in bank vaults, layers of plating on this summer’s Olympic medals or even your own pieces of golden jewelry could…
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Buy Experiences instead of Possessions to Build Social Connection
August 30, 2024 4 min read Buy Experiences instead of Possessions to Build Social Connection Shared experiences, more than material things, bring people together By Amit Kumar The human being is a “social animal,” as Aristotle suggested. We have a fundamental need to belong. Yet we are living in a time when the U.S. Surgeon General has warned about an…
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Adult Drowning Deaths Are Increasing. Swimming Lessons and Reduced Alcohol Use Could Prevent Them
August 27, 2024 4 min read Adult Drowning Deaths Are Increasing Most fatal drowning incidents in the U.S. involve adults, not children, and they often involve alcohol By Erica Westly More than 4,500 people in the U.S. lost their lives in drowning accidents in 2022, the most recent year for which data are available, and more than 70 percent of…
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Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday Glacier’ Won’t Collapse in Worst-Case Scenario
August 23, 2024 5 min read Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday Glacier’ Isn’t as Vulnerable to Collapse as We Thought Antarctica’s riskiest glacier is a disaster in slow motion. But in a rare bit of good news, the worst-case scenario for its collapse may be off the table By Mathieu Morlighem & The Conversation US The calving front of Thwaites’ ice shelf. The…
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West Nile Virus Proliferates where Climate Change Brings Warm, Wet Weather
August 21, 2024 3 min read West Nile Virus Proliferates where Climate Change Brings Warm, Wet Weather Houston’s warm, wet spring, driven in part by climate change, was a boon for mosquitoes and West Nile virus By Ariel Wittenberg & E&E News Cars are submerged and the tops of mailboxes are visible along a residential street in Woodloch, 30 miles…
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How Food Banks Prevent Climate Change by Averting Carbon Emissions
August 17, 2024 4 min read How Food Banks Prevented 1.8 Million Metric Tons of Carbon Emissions Last Year Redistributing food to food banks before it’s tossed or wasted doesn’t just fight hunger—such efforts also fight climate change By Frida Garza & Grist Volunteers stack bags of potatoes at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank in San Francisco, Calif., on May…
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Tardigrade Fossils Reveal When ‘Water Bears’ Became Indestructible
August 15, 2024 2 min read Tardigrade Fossils Reveal When ‘Water Bears’ Became Indestructible 252 million years ago, tardigrades may have escaped extinction using this one weird trick By Mindy Weisberger An artistic reconstruction of two tardigrade fossil specimens that were preserved in amber and analyzed in a recent study. “Cretaceous Amber Inclusions Illuminate the Evolutionary Origin of Tardigrades,” by…
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West Nile Cases Are Rising. Here’s How to Protect Yourself
August 12, 2024 3 min read West Nile Cases Are Rising. Here’s How to Protect Yourself West Nile is the most common mosquito-borne disease in the U.S. Here’s what to know about the infection By Meghan Bartels West Nile disease starts with a mosquito bite—but when bad luck strikes, the infection can end with dire illness and even death. West…
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