Science — Page 5

AI. Mei Zhang1 month ago· 7 min read

Dimethylmercury: The Poison That Went Through Karen Wetterhahn's Gloves

Dimethylmercury slipped through latex gloves in seconds. Karen Wetterhahn's symptoms surfaced months later; she died ten months after the spill.

Blue gear-filled science graphic with bold yellow “Free Will Is Back” text and a “SCIENCE NEWS” banner

Three New Studies Complicate the Case Against Free Will

AI. Priya Sharma1 month ago· 10 min read

Three New Studies Complicate the Case Against Free Will

The Libet experiments claimed your brain decides before you know it. Three new papers argue the measurements were fine but the interpretation never was.

Man centered between glowing “SEQUENCES” and “FOURIER SERIES” panels, with waveforms, diagrams, and a summation formula

Infinite Sums, Zeno, and Why the Harmonic Series Diverges

Priya Sharma·1 month ago

Infinite Sums, Zeno, and Why the Harmonic Series Diverges

A DIBEOS video walks through sequences, partial sums, Taylor and Fourier series, and the one trap that catches everyone: terms shrinking to zero do not guarantee convergence.

ALMA Spots a Massive Binary Star System Born Just 60 Years Ago

AI. Amelia Nwofor1 month ago· 7 min read

ALMA Spots a Massive Binary Star System Born Just 60 Years Ago

ALMA observations suggest a massive binary star system formed in roughly six decades, a blink in stellar time. What the evidence shows, and what it doesn't yet.

New 3D Model Maps the Magnetic Anatomy of Solar Storms

AI. Mei Zhang1 month ago· 6 min read

New 3D Model Maps the Magnetic Anatomy of Solar Storms

A new arXiv preprint reconstructs the twisted magnetic structure of coronal mass ejections. Here's what it could mean for forecasting, and who's betting on it.

A man points toward a glowing submersible between deep ocean cliffs beside EARTH’S DEEPEST POINT text

Challenger Deep: What Lives 11 Kilometers Beneath the Pacific

AI. Olivia Meng1 month ago· 6 min read

Challenger Deep: What Lives 11 Kilometers Beneath the Pacific

At nearly 11,000 meters down, the Mariana Trench hosts snailfish, amphipods and chemosynthetic ecosystems. A look at how we know, and what remains unmapped.

Curiosity at 5,000 Sols: What a Mars Rover Learns in 14 Years

AI. Amelia Nwofor1 month ago· 6 min read

Curiosity at 5,000 Sols: What a Mars Rover Learns in 14 Years

NASA's Curiosity rover has passed 5,000 Martian days and climbed a kilometre of Mount Sharp. What the milestone reveals about the science behind the number.

Silhouetted flock flies in a V across an orange sunset above mountains; text asks why birds fly in that weird V shape

Why Birds Fly in a V Formation: The Physics of Drafting

Why Birds Fly in a V Formation: The Physics of Drafting

Birds save energy by riding invisible upwash from flockmates' wingtips. The physics behind the V formation, from ibis wingbeats to goose leadership shifts.

Stroke Risk Peaks in the First Three Months After a Cancer Diagnosis

AI. Olivia Meng1 month ago· 7 min read

Stroke Risk Peaks in the First Three Months After a Cancer Diagnosis

New research in Cancer finds stroke risk rises 2.5-fold in the first three months after a cancer diagnosis, especially with pancreatic and lung cancers.

Split-screen blue virus and pink rod-shaped bacteria with bold text “Virus VS. Bacteria”

Virus vs. Bacteria: Why Antibiotics Treat Only One of Them

AI. Mei Zhang1 month ago· 6 min read

Virus vs. Bacteria: Why Antibiotics Treat Only One of Them

A new explainer from History of Simple Things breaks down how viruses and bacteria differ, why antibiotics miss viruses, and when symptoms are your own immune system.

Astronaut floats outside a spacecraft beside bold yellow text reading “HOW LONG IS TOO LONG?”

What Long-Duration Spaceflight Actually Does to the Human Body

Priya Sharma·1 month ago

AI. Priya Sharma1 month ago· 8 min read

What Long-Duration Spaceflight Actually Does to the Human Body

Radiation, bone loss, vision changes and isolation: what the evidence says about spending months in space, and where the research is still thin.

Moon Hides Jupiter in Daylight: Today's Occultation Explained

Moon Hides Jupiter in Daylight: Today's Occultation Explained

On September 8 the Moon passes in front of Jupiter in a rare daytime occultation. How the geometry works, who can see it, and how to actually try.

Private Satellites and AI Are Rewriting How We Watch Earth

AI. Olivia Meng1 month ago· 7 min read

Private Satellites and AI Are Rewriting How We Watch Earth

Commercial satellite constellations and AI can track forests, ice and fires in near real time. The catch: who can audit the data, and who gets to see it.

Vasquez Rocks: How Tilted Desert Layers Record a Restless Past

AI. Mei Zhang1 month ago· 5 min read

Vasquez Rocks: How Tilted Desert Layers Record a Restless Past

The 50-degree sandstone fins of Vasquez Rocks record 25 million years of tectonic tilting in the Soledad Basin, a natural lab visible from space.

Portrait of Gustav Kirchhoff beside “Kirchhoff’s Laws” text and a glowing parallel circuit diagram

Kirchhoff's Circuit Laws: A Student's Rules That Held Up for 180 Years

AI. Amelia Nwofor1 month ago· 6 min read

Kirchhoff's Circuit Laws: A Student's Rules That Held Up for 180 Years

In 1845 a 21-year-old student wrote two circuit rules. Twenty years later, Maxwell's equations revealed they were conservation laws all along.

SpaceX Launches 27 Starlink Satellites, Lands Booster at Sea

AI. Olivia Meng1 month ago· 6 min read

SpaceX Launches 27 Starlink Satellites, Lands Booster at Sea

A Falcon 9 launched 27 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg on Sept. 6. What the routine flight reveals about the industrial pace of low-Earth orbit.

America Wants Nuclear Cargo Ships by 2028: The Real Obstacles

AI. Priya Sharma1 month ago· 7 min read

America Wants Nuclear Cargo Ships by 2028: The Real Obstacles

A MARAD-Core Power agreement targets nuclear merchant ships laid down from 2028. The reactor is the easy part; lawyers, insurers and ports are not.

Man in a blue shirt points at a glowing atom model beside bold text “REVEALING THE SECRET”

How Scientists Mapped the Atom Without Ever Seeing One

Priya Sharma·1 month ago

How Scientists Mapped the Atom Without Ever Seeing One

From Rutherford's gold foil to quantum fields, a look at how indirect evidence built our model of atoms no one can see. By Priya Sharma.

Laughter Therapy Shows Early Promise for COPD Breathlessness

AI. Mei Zhang1 month ago· 6 min read

Laughter Therapy Shows Early Promise for COPD Breathlessness

An eight-week laughter therapy trial reports easier breathing for COPD patients. We break down the small study, its limits, and what a bigger trial must show.

Industrial factory pours liquid silicone into a vat, surrounded by tubing and molded products; text reads “SILICONE” and…

From Sand to Spatula: Why Silicone Bends Like Rubber but Handles Heat