SCIENCE
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Elephants Call Their Relatives by Name across the Savanna
Elephants Call Each Other by Name Across the Savanna Female elephants address one another with individualized rumbles By Marta Zaraska Humans have a long history of inventing names for elephants. There is Disney’s Dumbo, of course, and Jumbo, a 19th-century circus attraction, and Ruby, a famed painting elephant from the Phoenix Zoo in Arizona. But new research suggests wild African…
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Why More Space Launches Could Be a Good Thing for the Climate
The weather was mild on the evening of May 25 at the southern tip of the Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand. The wind was gentle, the sky was clear, and even conditions in the Earth’s upper atmosphere were calm. It was, in every way, a promising night for a rocket launch. And at 7:41 P.M. local time that promise was…
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Exotic Quantum ‘Bose-Einstein Condensate’ State Finally Achieved with Molecules
Exotic Quantum State Achieved after Decades-Long Quest Molecular Bose-Einstein condensates could help to provide the answers to fundamental questions or form the basis of new quantum computers By Elizabeth Gibney & Nature magazine Velocity-distribution data for a gas of rubidium atoms before, during and after the appearance of a Bose–Einstein condensate. The peak forms as all the atoms occupy the…
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Fossils from an Ice Age ‘Tree Spa’ Discovered
Ice Age ‘Spa’ Kept Trees Alive in Freezing Conditions Fossils from an ice age “spa” reveal a cluster of hot springs kept trees alive in the frozen Alps By Tom Metcalfe An ice age “spa” like the one shown in this artist’s conception may have existed long ago in what is now the Czech Republic. Illustration by Jiří Svoboda A…
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Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday Glacier’ Is Melting Even Faster Than Scientists Thought
Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday Glacier’ Is Melting Even Faster Than Scientists Thought Warming waters are reaching several miles into Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier—nicknamed the “doomsday glacier” because of its potential impact on sea-level rise By Sachi Kitajima Mulkey & Grist At the bottom of the Earth sits a massive bowl of ice you may know as the West Antarctic ice sheet. Each day,…
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The 2024 Hurricane Season Could Be a Dangerous One
The 2024 Hurricane Season Could Be a Dangerous One The National Hurricane Center’s hurricane season outlook for the Atlantic Ocean forecasts 17 to 25 named storms in 2024 because of an expected combination of warm ocean temperatures and a La Niña climate pattern By Jhordanne Jones & The Conversation US In this satellite image captured by ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst…
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How the Guinness Brewery Invented the Most Important Statistical Method in Science
“One Guinness, please!” says a customer to a barkeep, who flips a branded pint glass and catches it under the tap. The barkeep begins a multistep pour process lasting precisely 119.5 seconds, which, whether it’s a marketing gimmick or a marvel of alcoholic engineering, has become a beloved ritual in Irish pubs worldwide. The result: a rich stout with a…
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At Least Two Countries Have Lost All Their Glaciers
At Least Two Countries Have Lost All Their Glaciers Two countries—Slovenia and Venezuela—have lost all of their glaciers. It is a grim benchmark showing the progression of climate change By Francisco “A.J.” Camacho & E&E News CLIMATEWIRE | Slovenia and Venezuela are the first two countries to lose their last-standing glaciers in a period of climate change induced by people…
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Gas Stove Pollution Lingers in Homes for Hours Even outside the Kitchen
Gas Stove Pollution Lingers in Homes for Hours Even outside the Kitchen Gas stoves spew nitrogen dioxide at levels that frequently exceed those that are deemed safe by health organizations By Allison Parshall Nearly 40 percent of U.S. homes have gas stoves, which spew a host of compounds that are harmful to breathe, such as carbon monoxide, particulate matter, benzenes…
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3 Ways Scientific Thinking Could Help Save the World
A physicist, a philosopher and a psychologist walk into a classroom. Although it sounds like a premise for a joke, this was actually the origin of a unique collaboration between Nobel Prize–winning physicist Saul Perlmutter, philosopher John Campbell and the psychologist Rob MacCoun. Spurred by what they saw as a perilously rising tide of irrationality, misinformation and sociopolitical polarization, they…
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