Science

Flash flooding: Droughts Need Water, Just Not so Fast

Credit: UnsplashAfter weeks of scorching heat and dry conditions in the majority of the UK, with drought announced in parts of England, it seems that a big downpour is what we need.However, the heavy rainfall and thunderstorms predicted by the Met Office this week might be a threat.Researchers are warning that the storms can...

Is it Possible to Revive an Extinct Spices? These Scientists Think They Can

Two Thylacine in a cage. Credit: WikipediaScientists in Australia and the United States are starting a multi-million dollar project to bring the Tasmanian tiger back from extinction.The last known Tasmanian Tiger, technically named Thylacine, passed away in the 1930s.The group behind the effort claims it can accomplish this using stem cells and gene-editing technology....

Three Papers Highlight the Results Of Record 1.3 Megajoule Yield Experiment

On the one-year anniversary of achieving a yield of more than 1.3 megajoules at LLNL’s National Ignition Facility, the scientific results of this record experiment have been published in three peer-reviewed papers: one in Physical Review Letters and two in Physical Review E. This stylized image shows a cryogenic target used for these record-setting inertial fusion experiments. Credit:...

At Long Last, Mathematical Evidence That Black Holes Are Stable

Mehau Kulyk / Science SourceThe solutions to Einstein's formulas that describe a spinning black holes will not explode, even when poked or prodded.In 1963, the mathematician Roy Kerr discovered a solution to Einstein's formulas that precisely described the space-time outside what we currently call a rotating black hole. (The term wouldn't be created for...

Look Out for These Symptoms! A Deadly Kind of Bacteria Has Been Found in US Soil and Water

Times 5 magnification of colonies of Burkholderia pseudomallei on Ashdown's agar after 4 days' incubation. Credit: wikipediaFor the first time, a possibly fatal strain of bacteria has been identified within the United States's soil and water, causing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ask healthcare professionals to look out for signs and...

A Particle New To Physics Could Solve the Dark Matter Mystery

Anomalies in nuclear physics experiments may show signs of a new force.A team of scientists in Hungary currently published a paper that hints at the presence of a previously unknown subatomic particle. The group first reported finding traces of the particle in 2016, and they now report more traces in a different experiment.If the...

Why Does Gravity Travel at the velocity of Light?

Two neutron stars collide; the resulting gravitational wave spread at the speed of light. Credit: National Science Foundation/LIGO/Sonoma State University/A. Simonne.The dead cores of 2 stars collided 130 million yrs earlier in a galaxy somewhat far away.The crash was so extreme that it originated a wrinkle in space-time-- a gravitational wave. That gravitational wave...

Physicists Confirm the Existence Of Two-Dimensional Particles Called ‘Anyons’

After decades of exploration in nature's most minor domains, physicists have finally found proof that anyons exist. 1st predicted by theorists in the early 1980s, these particle-like objects arise in realms confined to two dimensions and then under certain circumstances-- like at temperatures near absolute zero and in the existence of a solid magnetic...

Graphene is a Nobel Prize-winning “wonder material”

Will graphene (shown) be replaced by graphyne? Credit: Forance / Adobe StockGraphene is a "wonder material" entirely made of carbon atoms with tremendous potential in the semiconductor industry. A related molecule referred to as graphyne might be even better. Graphyne, however, is challenging to create. Now, chemists have found a way to produce it...

Amber Fossil Reavels ‘Hell Ant’ Was Unlike Anything Alive Today

A 99-million-year-old piece of amber trapped this worker hell ant grasping an ancient relative of modern cockroaches in its unique jaws, which swung upwards unlike all modern ants.The 99-million-yr-old ant had scythe-like jaws that swung upward to pin prey against a horn-like head appendage.Some 99 million years back, an ant, unlike any alive today,...