Scientists Say: Cosmic rays

In a darkened room in Rochester, N.Y., a baby girl in a pink onesie watches a computer screen. Wherever she looks, an eye tracker follows. It records what she looks at and for how long. The baby, about 6 months old, is neither deaf nor hard of hearing. And she’s never seen any kind of…

Yellowstone National Park is known for its bubbling hot springs and steaming geysers. These hydrothermal wonders are powered by a massive cauldron of partly melted rock deep underground. It holds enough seething magma to build several Mount Everests. Yellowstone’s volcano last erupted 70,000 years ago. If it did so again, it could bury a vast…

This is another in our series of stories identifying new technologies and actions that can slow climate change, reduce its impacts or help communities cope with a rapidly changing world. When Gijsbert Cirkel coached his son’s soccer team, he remembers the kids laying in the shade after a game. They’d put their feet in the air and cry,…

Objective: Determine the relationship between musical note frequency and air cavity volume when blowing over the top of a partly filled bottle Areas of science: Music Difficulty: Medium intermediate Time required: 2–5 days Prerequisites: None Material availability: Readily available Cost: $20–50 Safety: No issues Credits: Andrew Olson, Ph.D., and Teisha Rowland, Ph.D., Science Buddies Some…

The word orangutan means “person of the forest” — a good name for a group of primates that spend most of their time in trees. These great apes have long arms and long, curling fingers and toes for grasping branches. This helps them move easily through forest treetops on the Southeast Asian islands of Sumatra…

Magnetosphere, (noun, “mag-NET-tuh-sfear”) The magnetosphere is a planet-wide magnetic field. It protects Earth from high-energy particles from space, such as solar winds and cosmic rays. Other planets can have magnetospheres, too. Examples include Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury. But of the rocky planets, Earth has the strongest one. That’s a big part of why we live…

NASA’s Perseverance rover has bagged its first hint of ancient Martians. If they existed, these creatures were small. Very small. As in, microbes. “We’re not able to say that this is a sign of life,” says Katie Stack Morgan. “But this is the most compelling sample we’ve found yet.” Morgan is the deputy project scientist…

This is another in a year-long series of stories identifying how the burgeoning use of artificial intelligence is impacting our lives — and ways we can work to make those impacts as beneficial as possible. Clues to which images are deepfakes may be found in the eyes.  Deepfakes are phony pictures created by artificial intelligence, or AI. They’re…

After a summer with plenty of outdoor play, the school year brings a major shift. Students suddenly spend more of their days indoors surrounded by other students. It’s usually only a matter of weeks before someone gets the sniffles. And that will kick off months of illnesses that circulate through students, teachers and their families….

Each year, 2 million Americans injure their shoulder’s rotator cuff. That includes many teens, who may hurt their shoulder while participating in sports, such as baseball, volleyball and swimming. Many of these injuries are hard to treat. Only about one in three get surgical fixes. But a new type of device — inspired by snake…

Waterpower may have given a big lift to the builders of Egypt’s first pyramid.   It was built for King Djoser, the first ruler of Egypt’s Third Dynasty. That was nearly 4,700 years ago. The structure’s stone platforms get smaller as they rise from the ground. The six levels stand roughly 62 meters (200 feet) tall…

A shooting star is normally a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it event. That space rock, or meteor, leaves a fiery trail of light as it zips through the atmosphere. Then it’s gone. But sometimes, a lasting afterglow remains for minutes. For more than a century, astronomers have wondered why some meteors leave such “persistent trains.” Now, they at last…

Hurricanes don’t swirl ferociously just at Earth’s surface. The ionosphere — an upper layer of the atmosphere charged by solar radiation — also contains cyclones.  Scientists sometimes refer to these as “space hurricanes.” The first was seen three years ago. It swirled for hours above Earth’s northernmost magnetic site, or pole. Now, research has turned…

This is another in our series of stories identifying new technologies and actions that can slow climate change, reduce its impacts or help communities cope with a rapidly changing world. The ocean is Earth’s climate hero. For decades, ocean waters have helped slow the rate of global warming. Indeed, over the past 250 years the seas have absorbed…

You’re lying in bed at night, looking at the ceiling. Out of the corner of your eye, you catch sight of something — a shadow, or a dim light. When you shift your gaze to investigate, it’s gone. Maybe nothing, you think. But when you go back to looking up, it’s there again in your…

Archaeologists, take note. There may be brains hiding inside excavated human skulls. New data show that human brains can resist decay for at least 12,000 years. When scientists find ancient preserved brains, they often call their finds unique or one-of-a-kind, says Alexandra Morton-Hayward. A forensic anthropologist, she studies human remains to tell stories of the…

Four thousand years ago, the world’s last woolly mammoth took its final breath. But the reason for that may not be what many scientists had long suspected. The last of this species lived on Wrangel Island. That’s off the coast of what is now Siberia. Being cut off from other mammoths could have led this…

Komodo dragon teeth are ironclad. For real. These animals — the largest living lizards — have razor-sharp teeth. What’s more, a layer of iron lines the tips and saw-like edges of these chompers. That’s the finding of a July 24 study in Nature Ecology & Evolution. That metal coating may strengthen each tooth. It would help…

Finding planets around other stars used to be extremely difficult. In fact, scientists found the first black hole and countless distant galaxies before spotting any worlds beyond our solar system. The first exoplanet wasn’t discovered until 1992. Now, astronomers have identified well more than 5,000 distant worlds. But we still know little about these exoplanets. Many illustrations…

Earth’s Cretaceous Period is well-known for its huge, lumbering dinosaurs. But many smaller organisms were shaping the landscape at the same time. And the results of these battles can still be seen in today’s woods and gardens.   This period is when the first flowering plants appeared. Some insects developed a taste for those and other…

Have you ever struggled with a task because having two arms just wasn’t enough? If so, you might appreciate a new device that could lend a helping hand — literally. You strap on this robotic arm, then control it with the muscle you use to breathe. Right now, the robotic arm is worn in the…

We may be one step closer to adding a new element to the periodic table.  The table currently lists 118 chemical elements. Each has a different number of protons in the nucleus of its atoms. They range from one proton (in hydrogen) to 118 (in oganesson). Some of these elements have been found in nature….

Telomere (noun, “TELL-oh-meer”) Telomeres are protective caps at the tips of DNA in chromosomes. DNA is a molecule that contains the instructions for how to make and maintain a specific organism. It is made up of chemical building blocks called nucleotides. Inside cells, DNA strands are wrapped into bundles called chromosomes. And telomeres are chains…

Stargazers may be in for a rare treat this summer. What looks like a new star could appear in the constellation Corona Borealis. The brightening point of light will not really be a new star. It will be light from a stellar eruption called a nova and will occur in a star that’s not usually…

Superman is faster than a speeding bullet and more powerful than a train. His one weakness? Kryptonite, a radioactive mineral found on the fictional planet Krypton. A power stone that can sap the Man of Steel of his superhuman powers, kryptonite is often shown as a glowing green crystal.   Explainer: Radiation and radioactive decay Earth…

Growing up in Nigeria, Sunday Agbonika always had a dog. One of these was a German shepherd named Skipper. Skipper did everything with his family, says Agbonika. But his experience was unusual. “[Pet] dogs weren’t such a thing in Nigeria at the time,” says Agbonika. “[Let alone] having a trained dog.” Skipper inspired him to…

A science-fiction inspired spacesuit converts astronauts’ urine into water fit to drink. In the series Dune, a group called the Fremen live on the arid planet Arrakis. These desert dwellers recycle their bodies’ moisture using specially designed outfits called stillsuits. “I’ve been a fan of the Dune series for as long as I can remember,”…

Fractal (noun, “FRAK-tal”) A fractal is a geometric shape made from parts that repeat at smaller and smaller scales. Consider the leafy fronds of a fern. If you look closely, you’ll notice that each frond appears to consist of repeating smaller fronds. This pattern is one way fractal shapes occur in nature. The structures of…

If you’ve never had COVID-19, you’re not alone. Others, too, have dodged the infected for more than four years. And some may have achieved this with some help from a newly discovered immune response. That’s the finding of a new study. In that study, people volunteered to get infected with the virus — yes, on…

Oil spills at sea pose risks to aquatic life and people. Every year, such toxic spills taint the water at more than 150 U.S. sites alone. Attempts to remove that oil tend to be messy, costly and often not very effective. But scientists in China and Israel think they’ve found a new way to “sponge”…