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sciencehabit writes:
Venus, Earth’s nearest planetary neighbor, is volcanically active, new research suggests. In 2010, researchers reported that several regions on Venus appeared to be relatively fresh lava flows (which they estimated as having formed within the past 2.5 million years), but they couldn’t pin down their precise age. Then, in 2012, astronomers reported another hint of volcanic activity: a 2007 spike in atmospheric sulfur dioxide that faded during the 5 years that followed. Now, scientists have the strongest evidence yet for ongoing volcanism: relatively small “hot spots” on the venusian surface that displayed big changes in temperature over just a few days. These spots lie along the edge of an area called Ganiki Chasma, a feature long suspected to be a volcanic rift zone.
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sciencehabit writes:
To scientists, he is “Kennewick Man.” To Native Americans, he is the “Ancient One.” More than a decade ago, Native Americans lost their claim for custody of this 8500-year-old skeleton from Washington state, when a federal appeals court ruled there was no evidence he was related to any modern tribe. Now, after several false starts, researchers have succeeded in sequencing Kennewick Man’s genome. Their conclusion: The Ancient One is closely related to at least one of the five tribes that originally fought to rebury him on spiritual grounds.
73727943
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sciencehabit writes:
The old tales may be true: There is brimstone in the underworld, and lots of it. Brimstone, the biblical name for sulfur, is often found near hot springs and volcanic fissures on Earth’s surface (above). But scientists studying the formation of Earth’s core have shown that the lightweight nonmetal might also be present there in vast quantities, answering a question that has long troubled earth scientists: How could Earth’s core—predominantly made of the heavy elements iron and nickel—appear as light as it does when analyzed using seismic waves?
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sciencehabit writes:
A team of astronomers has found the best evidence yet for the very first generation of stars, ones made only from ingredients provided directly by the big bang. Made of essentially only hydrogen and helium, these so-called population III stars are predicted to be enormous in size and to live fast and die young. Until recently, many astronomers had thought they would never be able to see such stars, because they would have all burned and died in the universe’s early history—too far for us to see. But using new instruments on the world’s top telescopes, the team found a uniquely bright galaxy that seems to bear all the hallmarks of containing population III stars.
73699665
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sciencehabit writes:
Researchers have built devices that harness changes in atmospheric humidity to generate small amounts of electricity, lift tiny weights, and even power a toy car. In the grand scheme of things, that captured energy is not free, but it’s pretty darn close. The study suggests that evaporation could be used to operate a variety of gadgets that don’t require a lot of power, scientists say.
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sciencehabit writes:
The earliest definitive dinosaurs arose sometime between 245 million and 230 million years ago at high latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, yet none appeared in North America and other then-tropical regions for another 30 million years. What kept them out? Now, an interdisciplinary team of paleontologists, geologists, and other scientists suggests a dramatic answer: During the Late Triassic period between about 215 million and 205 million years ago, Ghost Ranch and other dinosaur-rich locations in North America were subject to carbon dioxide levels many times higher than today’s. These regions, which were much closer to the equator back then, at about the latitude of today’s southern India, were subject to raging wildfires and extreme fluctuations in temperature and vegetation growth. All of this made life inhospitable for larger, energy-hungry dinosaurs, the team argues .
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sciencehabit writes:
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, France detonated four nuclear bombs on the Fangataufa atoll—a ring-shaped island of coral in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The detonations—the largest, a hundred times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Nagasaki—destroyed just about all life in the region, setting up an “unthinkable” ecological experiment: If life had to start fresh, would it develop the same way again? A new study of the aftermath of the blasts suggests it would not.
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sciencehabit writes:
Alcoholic beverages are imbibed in nearly every human society across the world—sometimes, alas, to excess. Although recent evidence suggests that tippling might have deep roots in our primate past, nonhuman primates are only rarely spotted in the act of indulgence. A new study of chimpanzees with easy access to palm wine shows that some drink it enthusiastically, fashioning leaves as makeshift cups with which to lap it up. The findings could provide new insights into why humans evolved a craving for alcohol, with all its pleasures and pains.
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sciencehabit writes:
The cupboards of the Natural History Museum in London hold spectacular dinosaur fossils, from 15-centimeter, serrated Tyrannosaurus rex teeth to a 4-meter-long hadrosaur tail. Now, researchers are reporting another spectacular find, buried in eight nondescript fossils from the same collection: what appear to be ancient red blood cells and fibers of ancient protein. Using new methods to peer deep inside fossils, the study in this week’s issue of Nature Communications backs up previous, controversial reports of such structures in dinosaur bones. It also suggests that soft tissue preservation may be more common than anyone had guessed.
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sciencehabit writes:
Some galaxies are so distant, they appear only as featureless points of light to observers on Earth. But thanks to another closer galaxy acting as a magnifying lens, astronomers have been able to see star-forming regions in one such distant galaxy—known as SDP.81—dating to 2.4 billion years after the big bang. This is the most detailed image obtained of a galaxy that far back in the universe’s history.
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sciencehabit writes:
Can’t remember every viral infection you’ve ever had? Don’t worry, your blood can. A new test surveys the antibodies present in a person’s bloodstream to reveal a history of the viruses they’ve been infected with throughout their life. The method could be useful not only for diagnosing current and past illnesses, but for developing vaccines and studying links between viruses and chronic disease.
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sciencehabit writes:
Comets striking the moon may have left more than craters: Their tenuous atmospheres may have scoured away loose soil, thus brightening the lunar surface when viewed from certain angles, a new study suggests. So-called “lunar swirls” of lighter-than-average terrain, some of them thousands of kilometers long, have mystified astronomers for decades. Many of these sinuous swaths don't seem to be linked to craters or other obvious features of the moon’s landscape, but in the 1970s, some were found to be associated with unusually strong spots in the moon’s magnetic field. Some researchers at the time proposed that those fields somehow protected the surface from the solar wind (the influx of charged particles streaming from the sun), rendering it brighter. But now, an analysis suggests that the pale swirls result when the gaseous shroud of a comet washes across the lunar surface. While the nucleus of the comet leaves a crater, the atmosphere that surrounds it blasts—and, in essence, airbrushes—fine dust away. This process may even help explain the oddities in the moon's magnetic field associated with the swirls.
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sciencehabit writes:
Of the handful of startup companies trying to achieve fusion energy via nontraditional methods, Tri Alpha Energy Inc. has always been the enigma. Publishing little and with no website, but apparently sitting on a cash pile in the hundreds of millions, the Foothill Ranch, California-based company has been the subject of intense curiosity and speculation. But last month Tri Alpha lifted the veil slightly with two papers revealing that its device, dubbed the colliding beam fusion reactor, has shown a 10-fold improvement in its ability to contain the hot particles needed for fusion over earlier devices at U.S. universities and national labs. “They’ve improved things greatly and are moving in a direction that is quite promising,” says plasma physicist John Santarius of the Fusion Technology Institute at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
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sciencehabit writes:
Close your eyes and imagine a scientist: peering into a telescope, flicking a glass vial in a lab, or sitting at a computer typing out a grant proposal. Did you picture a man or a woman? The answer depends on where you live, according to a new study. Researchers have found that people in some countries are much more likely to view science as a male profession, with the Netherlands coming in at the top of the list. Regardless of location, though, the stereotype persists that science is for men.
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sciencehabit writes:
The gates at American prisons can seem like revolving doors. People come in, do their time, and—within 3 years—half are back behind bars, according to U.S. Department of Justice statistics. Now, a scientist says he has nailed down one potential risk factor. An intriguing natural experiment that followed ex-cons displaced by Hurricane Katrina suggests that when former prisoners wind up moving to the same neighborhood, they are more likely to return to a life of crime.
