Can Astronomers and Satellite Operators Learn to Share the Sky? Satellite streaks are ruining astronomical images. Can scientists and space companies find solutions before it’s too late? By Emma R. Hasson edited by Lee Billings Sunlight reflecting off a pair of communications satellites creates two bright flares in this time-lapse photograph of the night sky….
The accelerator tunnel of European XFEL, the facility where the tiny atomic motion was measured XFEL/Heiner Mueller-Elsner For the first time, a stunningly powerful X-ray laser has revealed minuscule atomic motions in a molecule that should otherwise be perfectly still – were it not for the quirks of quantum mechanics. Quantum physics abhors stillness. This…
Some tattoos do age well. More than two millennia ago, a woman sat down for a couple of inking sessions. After, she rocked some sick sleeves — her arms etched with intense hunting scenes of prowling leopards, lanky stags and even a fantastical creature that resembles a griffin, researchers report July 31 in Antiquity. Subtle…
A variation of a puzzle called the “pick-up sticks problem” asks the following question: If I have some number of sticks with random lengths between 0 and 1, what are the chances that no three of those sticks can form a triangle? It turns out the answer to this quandary has an unexpected parallel to…
Cut marks on a foot bone from El Mirador cave in Spain IPHES-CERCA Butchered human remains found in a cave in northern Spain suggest that Neolithic people may have eaten their enemies after killing them in combat. Francesc Marginedas at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) in Tarragona, Spain, and his…
Severe allergic reactions can be swift and deadly. Two new studies of mice, published August 7 in Science, reveal a key step in this terrifying cascade. What’s more, these findings hint at a drug to prevent it. Anaphylaxis is a life-threatening allergic reaction commonly triggered by insect stings, medications and foods such as peanuts or…
Astronomers have found nearly 6,000 exoplanets orbiting other stars. But for every confirmed detection, there are countless mere hints, inconclusive observations that could just as well be blips of cosmic noise or glitches in a telescope. Most are too tenuous to take seriously, but every so often, one of these candidate planets is so tantalizing…
Letting off steam at a laughter yoga session in Kolkata, India SOPA Images Limited/Alamy It seems that laughter therapy is no joke. Structured interventions that aim to tickle our funny bone, like laughter yoga or hospital clowns, really do appear to reduce anxiety and improve life satisfaction. Laughter, which is also common in non-human animals,…
Alpha Centauri A, four light-years from Earth, may host a gas giant. If confirmed, no Earthlike planets orbit in the star’s habitable zone.
A defining memory from my senior year of high school was a nine-hour math exam with just six questions. Six of the top scorers won slots on the U.S. team for the International Math Olympiad (IMO), the world’s longest running math competition for high school students. I didn’t make the cut, but became a tenured…
