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☆ Scientists propose sweeping new law of nature, expanding on evolution
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-16 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Evolution occurs, it holds, when these various configurations are subject to selection for useful functions. "We have well-documented laws that describe such everyday phenomena as forces, motions, gravity, electricity and magnetism and energy," Hazen said. The subsequent generation of stars that formed from the remnants of the prior generation then similarly forged almost 100 more elements. "Imagine a system of atoms or molecules that can exist in countless trillions of different arrangements or configurations," Hazen said. "Only a small fraction of all possible configurations will 'work' - that is, they will have some useful degree of function.

Persons: Charles Darwin, Darwin, Robert Hazen, Hazen, Michael Wong, Jonathan Lunine, Will Dunham, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: Carnegie Institution for Science, National Academy of Sciences, Carnegie, Cornell, Thomson Locations: British

☆ AI was told to design a robot that could walk. Within seconds, it generated a 'small, squishy, and misshapen' thing that spasms.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-10 | by ( Kai Xiang Teo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A group of researchers asked AI to design a walking robot. AdvertisementAdvertisementWhen a group of researchers asked an AI to design a robot that could walk, it created a "small, squishy and misshapen" thing that walks by spasming when filled with air. "We told the AI that we wanted a robot that could walk across land. The AI began with a small rubber block and modeled different shapes before arriving at the final design that could walk. AdvertisementAdvertisementKriegman said the researchers weren't quite sure why the robot had this peculiar shape — and why it was filled with holes.

Persons: —, Sam Kriegman, Kriegman, Mika Organizations: Service, Northwestern University, MIT, University of Vermont —, National Academy of Sciences, Boston Dynamics, Reuters Locations: Geneva

"It's very disturbing," study co-author Matthew Huber of Purdue University in the U.S. state of Indiana told Reuters. It found that around 750 million people could experience one week per year of potentially deadly humid heat if temperatures rise 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. At 4C of warming, Hodeidah, Yemen, would see around 300 days per year of potentially unsurvivable humid heat. WET-BULB THRESHOLDTo track such moist heat, scientists use a measurement known as "wet-bulb" temperature. Beyond this, people were likely to succumb to heat stress if they could not find a way to cool down.

Persons: Nico, Adrees Latif, Matthew Huber, Huber, George Mason, George Mason University climatologist Daniel Vecellio, Vecellio, Jane Baldwin of, Gloria Dickie, Andrew Heavens Organizations: Emergency Aid Coalition, REUTERS, U.S . Midwest, Purdue University, Reuters, George, George Mason University, National Academy of Sciences, Jane Baldwin of University of California Irvine, Thomson Locations: Houston , Texas, U.S, Delhi, Shanghai, U.S ., Indiana, India, Pakistan, Lagos, Nigeria, Chicago , Illinois, South America, Australia, Hodeidah, Yemen, London

☆ Earth's inner core is more like a ball of butter than a solid metal sphere, a new study suggests
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-06 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Scientists have long thought Earth's inner core is like a huge solid metal ball. It could help explain why Earth's magnetic field is so weird. Jung-Fu Lin / UT Jackson School of GeosciencesThe Earth's inner mush revealedA 2021 study had already started to question the big-iron-ball assumption. Seismic waves, they found, weren't really going through the Earth in a way consistent with a fully solid core. AdvertisementAdvertisementIt recreated the intense pressure and temperature conditions found in the inner core inside a lab, and combined that data with a much more advanced computer model.

Persons: Youjun Zhang, We've, that's, Jung, Fu, Lin, Fu Lin, weren't, Jessica Irving, Zhang Organizations: Service, University of Texas, UT Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Bristol, Science, National Academy of Sciences Locations: Sichuan, shockwaves, England

CNN —The 2023 Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to a team of scientists who created a ground-breaking technique using lasers to understand the extremely rapid movements of electrons, which were previously thought impossible to follow. “An attosecond is to one second as one second is to the age of the universe,” the committee explained. Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L'Huillier shared this year's physics prize. Rapid movements blur together, making extremely short events impossible to observe. Electrons’ movements in atoms and molecules are so rapid that they are measured in attoseconds.

Persons: Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, Anne L’Huillier “, “, Bob Rosner, ”, Rosner, Anne L'Huillier, Max Planck, ” L’Huillier, Hans Ellegren, L’Huillier, Olle Eriksson, —, Michael Moloney, ” Moloney Organizations: CNN, American Physical Society, University of Chicago, Ohio State University, Max, Quantum Optics, National Academy of Sciences, Lund University, Max Planck, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Uppsala University, American Institute of Physics Locations: Stockholm, Sweden, Germany

☆ Mysterious ‘fairy circles’ of Namibia and Australia aren’t so rare after all, study says
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-28 | by ( Mindy Weisberger | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —Round discs of barren dirt known as “fairy circles” look like rows of polka dots that can spread for miles over the ground. Fairy circles were previously spotted only in the arid lands of Southern Africa’s Namib Desert and the outback of Western Australia. The results showed 263 dryland locations where there were circular patterns similar to fairy circles in Namibia and Australia. Fairy circles’ mysterious originsThe study authors also compiled environmental data where circles were spotted, collecting evidence that might hint at what causes them to form. But the question “What shapes fairy circles?” is complex, and factors that create fairy circles may differ from site to site, the study authors reported.

Persons: ”, Emilio Guirado, Guirado, “, Stephan Getzin, Getzin, Fiona Walsh, Walsh, ” Walsh, ” Guirado, Mindy Weisberger Organizations: CNN, National Academy of Sciences, Multidisciplinary Institute, Environmental Studies, University of Alicante, University of Göttingen, University of Western, “, Scientific Locations: Southern, Western Australia, Spain, Namibia, Australia, Africa, Western Sahara, of Africa, Madagascar, Midwestern Asia, Southwest Australia, Germany, University of Western Australia, Northern Territory

☆ French ski resort closes permanently because there’s not enough snow
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-16 | by ( Maya Szaniecki | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

And for yet another ski resort in France, that means facing up to the reality that there isn’t enough snow to carry on. Last winter, however, there was only “four weeks of snow, and even then, not much snow,” he added. Snow supply riskThe French Alpine village of Saint-Firmin dismantled its ski lift in 2022 because of dwindling winter snows. Olivier Chassignole/AFP/Getty ImagesLa Sambuy is not the only French ski resort facing a meltdown. Mountain Wilderness, a French environmental group, says it has dismantled 22 ski lifts in France since 2001, and estimates that there are still 106 abandoned ski lifts across 59 sites in the country.

Persons: ” La, Jacques Dalex, ”, Dalex, Grügory, Maxppp, it’s, Firmin, Olivier Chassignole, Sambuy’s Dalex, Christian Bailly, ” Dalex Organizations: CNN, Getty, Saint, National Academy of Sciences Locations: France, Mont Blanc, French, ” La Sambuy’s, La Sambuy’s, Saint, AFP, Europe

Small farms with natural landscape features such as shade trees, hedgerows and tracts of intact forest provide a refuge for some tropical bird populations, according to an 18-year study in Costa Rica. For almost two decades, ornithologist James Zook has been collecting detailed records on nearly 430 tropical bird species found on small farms, plantations and undisturbed forests in the country. While birds thrive the most in undisturbed rainforests, Zook said some species usually found in forests can establish populations in “diversified farms” that partially mimic a natural forest environment. “In these diversified farms, you see growth over the long term in bird species with specialized needs,” such as safe and shady nooks to build nests and a variety of food sources, Hendershot said. Three-quarters of the 305 species found in diversified farms showed stable or growing populations over the time of study.

Persons: James Zook, Zook, ”, Nicholas Hendershot, Hendershot, Natalia Ocampo, “, Ruth Bennett, University of California’s Ocampo Organizations: Stanford University, National Academy of Sciences, “, University of California, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, University of California’s, Associated Press Health, Science Department, Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science, Educational Media Group, AP Locations: Costa Rica, Santa Cruz

☆ Webb telescope captures tantalizing evidence for mysterious 'dark stars'
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Dark matter, invisible material whose presence is known mainly based on its gravitational effects at a galactic scale, would be a small but crucial ingredient in dark stars. Based on the Webb data, these objects could be either early galaxies or dark stars, Freese said. Conditions in the early universe may have been conducive to formation of dark stars, with high dark matter densities at the locations of star-forming clouds of hydrogen and helium. Freese and two colleagues first proposed the existence of dark stars in 2008, basing the name on the 1960s Grateful Dead song "Dark Star." And then you can learn about the properties of dark matter particles by studying a variety of dark stars of different masses."

Persons: James Webb, Webb, Katherine Freese, Freese, Cosmin Ilie, Will Dunham, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: University of Texas, Austin, National Academy of Sciences, Colgate University, Thomson

☆ Silence Is a ‘Sound’ You Hear, Study Suggests
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Bethany Brookshire | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

What is it that we hear when we hear nothing at all? Or are we just hearing nothing and interpreting that absence as silence? The “Sound of Silence” is a philosophical question that made for one of Simon & Garfunkel’s most enduring songs, but it’s also a subject that can be tested by psychologists. In a paper published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers used a series of sonic illusions to show that people perceive silences much as they hear sounds. While the study offers no insight into how our brains might be processing silence, the results suggest that people perceive silence as its own type of “sound,” not just as a gap between noises.

Persons: Simon, it’s, ”, Rui Zhe Goh Organizations: National Academy of Sciences, Johns Hopkins University

☆ Scientists find new clue in what led to megalodon’s demise
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-03 | by ( Amaya Mcdonald | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Scientists previously theorized that megalodons were warm-blooded, but the new study is the first to provide concrete evidence to that effect. From this finding, they deduced the megalodon’s average body temperature was about 27 C (80 F). Like modern great white and mako sharks, megalodons were regionally endothermic, which means they had the ability to regulate temperature in certain parts of the body, according to the study. The timing of megalodons’ extinction coincides with the cooling of the Earth’s temperature, the researchers said. But learning more about the ancient shark could still help scientists better understand the threats similar marine animals face today.

Persons: CNN —, it’s, “, megalodon, Robert Eagle, Kenshu Shimada, ” Shimada, Megalodon, Michael Griffiths, ” Griffiths Organizations: CNN, National Academy of Sciences, UCLA, Eagle, DePaul University in, William Paterson University Locations: megalodon, DePaul University in Chicago, “, Megalodon, New Jersey

☆ Climate change has fueled larger wildfires in California, scientists say
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Emma Newburger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The area burned from wildfires in California's northern and central forests increased fivefold between 1971 and 2021, an increase driven largely by human-caused climate change, according to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The 10 largest wildfires in California happened in the last two decades, five of which occurred in 2020 and eight after 2017. Scientists estimate the area burned during an average summer could rise as much as 50% by midcentury as hotter and drier conditions intensify the blazes. The researchers conducted a statistical analysis of temperature and wildfire data for summers in California between 1971 and 2021 and assessed models that showed how the last few decades may have looked without human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. They discovered that burned area increased 172% more than it would have without climate change.

Organizations: National Academy of Sciences, U.S ., D.C, New Locations: California, Canada, U.S . East Coast, Philadelphia, Washington, New York City

☆ Petermann Glacier in Greenland is melting away with the tide, which could signal faster sea level rise, study finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Brandon Miller | Cnn Meteorologist | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —A major glacier in northwest Greenland is interacting with the ocean tides, scientists reported Monday, resulting in previously unaccounted-for melting and potentially faster sea level rise. This is an important finding: The traditional view among scientists was that the grounding line did not migrate with the tides – and this introduces another major source of melting that could be accelerating sea level rise. Between 2016 and 2022, warmer tidal cycles melted a 670-foot-tall hole in the underside of the glacier along the grounding line — big enough that two Statues of Liberty could be stacked on top of one another inside it. The study raises more concerns for the already worrisome prospect of sea level rise, which threatens coastlines around the world. Greenland’s melting ice is the single largest contributor to sea level rise, according to NASA, which has been accelerating in recent years.

☆ A drug company abandoned a treatment for ‘bubble boy disease.’ After a 5-year fight, this little girl is about to get it
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Elizabeth Cohen Lauren Mascarenhas | Elizabeth Cohen | Lauren Mascarenhas | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +29 min

The Sulacks weighed their options: Have a transplant with a match that was less than ideal – far less – or wait for gene therapy to become available. The news release didn’t say anything else about the SCID gene therapy. Or was the company abandoning its plans for SCID gene therapy altogether? In February, 2021, the parents of more than 20 children who were waiting for the gene therapy treatment, including the Sulacks, wrote a letter to Gaspar. Insurance companies have sometimes balked at paying for gene therapy, which is typically given in one treatment.

☆ NASA detects first seismic waves within Mars' core
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

During these events, InSight detected for the first time seismic waves traveling through the Martian core. “More than a hundred years later, we’re applying our knowledge of seismic waves to Mars. With InSight, we’re finally discovering what’s at the center of Mars and what makes Mars so similar yet distinct from Earth.”The NASA InSight Mars lander studied the interior of Mars for four years. Planetary core offers clues on evolutionEarth has a liquid outer core and a solid inner core, but the Martian core appears to be made entirely from liquid. “We’ve made the very first observations of seismic waves travelling through the core of Mars.

☆ Indian rescuers scour site of deadly avalanche for any more victims
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Rescue team members search for survivors after an avalanche in the northeastern state of Sikkim, India, April 4, 2023. Indian Ministry of Defence/Handout via REUTERSApril 5 (Reuters) - Rescue teams made final checks on Wednesday for anyone still trapped in an avalanche that swept down on a road in the Indian Himalayan state of Sikkim the day before, killing seven people. We will scour the area properly before we call them off," Tenzing Loden Lepcha, a police official in the northeastern state, told Reuters by telephone. Avalanches have killed at least 120 people in the Indian Himalayas over the past two years. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concluded in 2018 that climate change had increased avalanche risks in the Himalayas.

☆ Bill Gates says 'we need a fire department for pandemics' as he worries we're unprepared for the next one
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Bill Gates wrote a New York Times op-ed Sunday warning about future pandemics. He supported the WHO's global health emergency corps, calling it a "fire department for pandemics." "We can't afford to get caught flat-footed again," Gates wrote. But he added he was "optimistic" about the global health emergency corps – a network of health leaders around the world designed to promote collaboration between different countries. "The Global Health Emergency Corps will represent massive progress toward a pandemic-free future," Gates wrote in the Times.

☆ Fact Check-Dinosaurs existed and were documented before the term ‘dinosauria’ was coined in the early 1840s
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Dinosaurs existed long before the word ‘dinosauria’ was coined by paleontologist Sir Richard Owen in the 19th century, paleontology experts and a spokesperson for Britain’s Royal Society told Reuters, rejecting a claim to the contrary spreading online. They were invented by the Royal Society in 1841,” the individual says, referring to the academic organisation which is Britain’s national academy of sciences. However, three experts and a spokesperson for the Royal Society told Reuters separately that these claims are false. They say Sir Richard Owen first used the term ‘Dinosauria’ in the early 1840s but that dinosaurs and their fossils existed and were documented long before. Dinosaurs existed and were documented long before they were given a universal name in 1841, paleontologists and Britain’s Royal Society say.

☆ Money really does buy happiness for most people, researchers say
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

It found that for the vast majority of people, money does buy you happiness. Meanwhile, happiness "increases steadily" along with income among the rest of the population, Killingsworth, Kahneman, and Mellers found. For the happiest 30% of people, happiness rises at an accelerated rate beyond $100,000. "In other words, the bottom of the happiness distribution rises much faster than the top in that range of incomes. Killingsworth, Kahneman, and Mellers noted, however, that the correlation between income and well-being was "weak, even if statistically robust."

☆ Brazilian fishermen follow instructions from wild dolphins to know where to throw their nets, video shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

A video shows a rare example of wild dolphins collaborating with humans to fish in a small lagoon in Brazil. The dolphins learned how to tell the humans exactly when to throw their nets to catch the most fish. The fishers need the dolphins to know when to cast their netsFishermen toss these circular nets to catch the fish in the water. After the net is cast, the dolphins can catch stray fish or pick a few fish out of the net. The Laguna dolphins are about 13% more likely to reach old age, per the study.

☆ The Green Comet will be closest to earth on Feb 1. Here's the science behind its ghoulish glow.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A green comet is whizzing past the earth for the first time since the ice age. The green comet, which last passed through the inner solar system about 50,000 years ago, will be at its brightest during this time. Comet ZTF (C/2022 E3) taken at NAOJ Mitaka Campus on January 31, 2023. Another green comet, called ISON, passed Earth in 2013. As it approaches the sun, the heat turns the ice into gas creating an atmosphere around the comet called the coma.

☆ California has been hammered with rain. It may not be enough to reverse its drought.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Evan Bush | Evan Bush Is A Science Reporter For Nbc News. He Can Be Reached At Evan.Bush Nbcuni.Com. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

California counts on a system of about 1,400 human-made surface reservoirs and thousands upon thousands of miles of levees to manage surface water. During the recent storms, extreme drought has buffered some impacts of intense rainfall with plenty of space in the state’s largest reservoirs, which have withered under drought. Before the series of atmospheric rivers, it was storing less than 1 million acre-feet of water. In the Central Valley, Californians extract about 2 million acre-feet more than what returns to the ground, on average, every year, Lund said. California legislators in 2014 passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which requires local agencies to reach groundwater sustainability by 2042.

☆ Spending more time with your kids, grandkids—and their germs—may lower risk of a severe outcome from Covid-19, recent studies show
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Renée Onque | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

That's according to two studies that were published in August and November of this year, which researched how exposure to younger kids and common colds may impact outcomes for adults after contracting Covid-19. Exposure to kids may lower your risk of hospitalization from Covid-19The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in August, discovered an association between people who were exposed to young children and lower risk of severe illness from Covid-19. And researchers compared the severity of outcomes from Covid-19 for people without children and people with children in three different age ranges: 0-5, 6-11 and 12-18. The findings showed that chances of Veteran Affairs patients contracting Covid-19 decreased by 80% to 90% if they tested positive for any of the common coronaviruses between February 2020 and February 2021. This means developing a common cold may shield people from Covid-19 infection, even if for a short period time.

☆ Keystone pipeline rupture spilled diluted bitumen, complicating cleanup
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Rod Nickel | Mrinalika Roy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

(Reuters) -The oil spilled from TC Energy Corp’s ruptured Keystone pipeline was diluted bitumen, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Thursday, adding complications to the cleanup. The report said that when diluted bitumen spills, a thick, dense material forms as a residue after exposure to the environment. “For this reason, spills of diluted bitumen pose particular challenges when they reach water bodies,” the report said. The Sierra Club, an environmental advocacy group, questioned why parts of the pipeline reopened before TC Energy had identified the leak’s cause. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, state and local agencies, TC Energy and TC Energy contractors, the agency said.

☆ Keystone pipeline break spilled diluted bitumen, complicating cleanup
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Rod Nickel | Mrinalika Roy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

(Reuters) -The oil spilled from TC Energy Corp’s ruptured Keystone pipeline was diluted bitumen, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Thursday, adding complications to the cleanup. REUTERS/Drone Base/File PhotoThe 622,000 barrels per day (bpd) pipeline was shut last week after it spilled 14,000 barrels of oil in rural Kansas, including into a creek. The parts of the pipeline carrying oil from Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Illinois opened on Wednesday at reduced capacity. The Sierra Club, another environmental advocacy group, questioned why parts of the pipeline reopened before TC Energy had identified the leak’s cause. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, state and local agencies, TC Energy and TC Energy contractors, the agency said.

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