Month: September 2022

  • Potential first traces of the universe’s earliest stars | HeritageDaily

    Potential first traces of the universe’s earliest stars | HeritageDaily

    Astronomers may have discovered the ancient chemical remains of the first stars to light up the Universe. Using an innovative analysis of a distant quasar observed by the 8.1-meter Gemini North telescope on Hawai‘i, operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, the scientists found an unusual ratio of elements that, they argue, could only come from the debris…

  • Harvard scientists prove sea level fingerprints do exist – Harvard Gazette

    Harvard scientists prove sea level fingerprints do exist – Harvard Gazette

    When glacial ice sheets melt, something counterintuitive happens to sea levels. Logic might suggest that nearby levels would rise, but instead they fall. Thousands of miles away, however, they do go up in a kind of seesaw effect. Why? The answer is that water disperses away owing to the loss of gravitational pull toward the…

  • Gas flares aren’t as efficient at burning off methane as assumed

    Gas flares aren’t as efficient at burning off methane as assumed

    In many oil and gas producing regions, flames light the sky. The flares burn off 98 percent of the escaping natural gas, oil and gas companies claim. But observations of three U.S. oil and gas fields show efficiency is only around 91 percent, scientists report in the Sept. 30 Science. Making up the difference would…

  • Study finds higher rates of traumatic injuries for outdoor workers during hotter weather

    Rates of traumatic injury among workers in the Oregon agricultural and construction sectors are significantly higher during periods of high heat compared with periods of more moderate weather, a recent study found. Continue Reading News Source: www.sciencedaily.com

  • Josep Cornella breaks boundaries to make new and better catalysts

    Josep Cornella breaks boundaries to make new and better catalysts

    Josep Cornella doesn’t deal in absolutes. While chemists typically draw rigid lines between organic and inorganic chemistry, Cornella, a researcher at Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, believes in just the opposite. “You have to be open to cross boundaries,” he says, “and learn from it.” The fringes are “where the rich…

  • Jacky Austermann looks to the solid earth for clues to sea level rise

    Jacky Austermann looks to the solid earth for clues to sea level rise

    It’s no revelation that sea levels are rising. Rising temperatures brought on by human-caused climate change are melting ice sheets and expanding ocean water. What’s happening inside Earth will also shape future shorelines. Jacky Austermann is trying to understand those inner dynamics. A geophysicist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Austermann didn’t always know she…

  • Big questions inspire the scientists on this year’s SN 10 list

    Big questions inspire the scientists on this year’s SN 10 list

    Inspiration doesn’t play by any set rules. It can come from anywhere and strike when it’s least expected. A first hint of a big idea can hang on in the recesses of the mind and push people ahead in roundabout ways. Our SN 10: Scientists to Watch list is a brief study in inspiration. For…

  • Tina Lasisi wants to untangle the evolution of human hair

    Tina Lasisi wants to untangle the evolution of human hair

    Though humans’ nearly hairless bodies stick out like a cowlick among other primates, our nakedness isn’t unique in the world of mammals. Dolphins and whales are naked, says biological anthropologist Tina Lasisi of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. There are naked mole-rats. “Elephants, depending on how you look at them, are kind…

  • Huijia Lin proved that a master tool of cryptography is possible

    Huijia Lin proved that a master tool of cryptography is possible

    A long-sought “holy grail” in cryptography is poised to change the way we protect sensitive information. Today’s standard encryption schemes take an all-or-nothing approach. Once scrambled, your data become inaccessible to anyone without the secret key. This has allowed for secure e-mail communication, the proliferation of online transactions and digital signatures. It allows tax and…

  • Can animals feel hurricanes? Sharks are one example.

    Can animals feel hurricanes? Sharks are one example.

    Weeks before we even think about getting sandbags or boarding up windows to prevent hurricane damage, an underwater evacuation begins. Sharks, sea snakes, and other wildlife will make preparations to escape becoming trapped or hurt as massive storms approach a coast.  Much of Florida’s aquatic life—including species as diverse as manatees and alligators—know what to…