Since the version of the article initially published, the copyright line has been amended to North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and James Napoli, under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.
The reason we can gracefully glide on an ice-skating rink or clumsily slip on an icy sidewalk is that the surface of ice is coated by a thin watery layer. Scientists generally agree that this lubricating, liquidlike layer is what makes ice slippery. They disagree, though, about why the layer forms. Three main theories about the phenomenon have been debated over the past two centuries. Last year, researchers in Germany put forward a fourth hypothesis that they say solves the puzzle.
I've always had what I would consider a hacker mindset, a curiosity to take things apart, understand them, and use that knowledge to solve problems. That mindset took me on a circuitous route into the cybersecurity industry; after being kicked out of high school for hacking computer systems, I worked a range of jobs, managing office supply companies by day and cracking Wi-Fi networks by night until I started a Digital Forensics degree which led me to the world of security research.
Particularly when it comes to stepping out of the spacecraft - the agency has yet to pick between Blue Origin and SpaceX's offerings in that regard - staying protected from the extreme temperature swings, space radiation, and lack of atmosphere is extremely challenging. That's not to mention the physical limitations of an extremely bulky spacesuit, which could physically tax astronauts even more than stepping outside of the International Space Station during a spacewalk.
Entrants will be required to write three- to five-page white papers that explain their idea and how they would shape markets and strengthen the space economy or national security. Papers are due by June 30, and judging will be complete by August 15. As an additional incentive, the best ideas will be briefed to relevant policymakers, including key members of Congress, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, and Saltzman, of the Space Force.
Battery degradation on high-mileage EVs is not as big a deal as some might make you believe. Real-world data shows that EVs with over 150,000 miles are still going strong, with minimal degradation. Older EVs are more affected by high mileage, but technology has made newer models more resilient. Battery degradation is inevitable, but new research shows that EV owners should just keep driving their cars without worrying about what happens with the thousands of cells that live in their cars' floors.
If you were asked to build a future bestselling author, how would you go about it? Chances are, you'd start young, scouting for early signs of promise. You'd probably reinforce that raw talent right away, sending your protégé to writing workshops and private tutors. You might line their shelves with Pulitzer winners, assign the classics, fast-track an English degree - tracing a path right up to the gates of publishing.
Measuring around the same size as Great Britain, this huge mass of ice in West Antarctica is one of the largest and fastest changing glaciers in the world. Worryingly, research has shown that if it collapses, the glacier will cause global sea levels to rise by a whopping 2.1ft (65cm) - plunging entire communities underwater. For this reason, it has been nicknamed the 'Doomsday Glacier'.
The condition is the result of repeated traumatic brain injuries, which can happen repeatedly over the course of a football season. According to Dr. Daniel Daneshvar, a Harvard University professor and co-director of sports concussion at Mass General Brigham in Boston, CTE easily flies under the radar because it can only be diagnosed via brain analysis after a person's death.
The eighth H3 rocket lifted off from Tanegashima Island in southern Japan on December 22, local time, carrying a roughly five-ton navigation satellite into space. The rocket was supposed to place the Michibiki 5 satellite into an orbit ranging more than 20,000 miles above the Earth. Everything was going well until the H3 jettisoned its payload fairing, the two-piece clamshell covering the satellite during launch, nearly four minutes into the flight.
Y.W. designed the experimental protocols, performed experiments, analysed the data and wrote the manuscript. Y.H., X.K., D.C., J.X.X. and W.Z. performed experiments and edited the manuscript. Y.C. and S.P. edited the manuscript. M.J., X.P. and J.D. proposed the experimental concept, designed experimental protocols and proofread and edited the manuscript. All authors contributed with discussions and checking the manuscript. Corresponding authors Correspondence to Min Jiang or Xinhua Peng.
Decades of successful scientific collaboration could be at risk if Europe-US political relations continue to fray over trade and defense issues. For more than 30 years, Arctic nations have worked together across the physical, biological and social sciences to understand one of the world's fastest changing regions. Since the late 1970s, the Arctic has lost around 33,000 square miles of sea ice each year roughly the same area as Czechia.
Metaphors are linked to how we experience the world around us, according to seminal work by researchers George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. In English, we "move forward" with our lives and don't "retreat into" the past. We speak about people who are "cold as ice" and "heavy" matters we need to resolve. Some of these metaphorical expressions are more than just, well, expressions-they are actually based on our sensory experiences. This mind-body link is called "embodied cognition."
In the animal kingdom, one of the most bizarre discoveries of all-time was the platypus. When reports of the platypus reached the western hemisphere, most leading naturalists at the time assumed it was a hoax, including the first European scientists to examine a specimen in 1799. It was an animal that laid eggs, yet it was a mammal. It had the bill of a duck, but the tail of a beaver.
For decades, scientists have observed a consistent pattern: women typically live about five years longer than men and exhibit slower cognitive decline as they age. Now, groundbreaking research from the University of California, San Francisco has uncovered a surprising biological mechanism that may explain this disparity. The discovery centers on what researchers once dismissed as a dormant structure, the so-called "silent" X chromosome that exists in every female cell.
By the end of the year, Northwood, based in El Segundo, California, had shown the ability to build eight of these Portal arrays a month. And in January the company had deployed operational Portal antennas across two continents. These deployments, which comprise an area of 8 to 15 meters, have the equivalent capability of a 7-meter parabolic dish, said Griffin Cleverly, co-founder and chief technical officer of Northwood.
Chabot's Observation Deck will be open and accessible each of these nights from 7:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m. for the center's Free Public Telescope Viewings. The NASA Ames Visitor Center here - the East Bay outpost of Mountain View's NASA Ames Research Center - will also stay open late for movie attendees to explore. The 18+ movie program "was born from a desire to offer something fun just for our adult audiences," said Lillith Era, Chabot's Lead Public Programs Developer.
The agency's Artemis 2 mission will see a crew of four astronauts travel far beyond the dark side of the Earth's natural satellite, reaching the farthest point that humans have ever traveled from Earth. They will get unfettered views of the Moon's surface during the flyby, getting within just 4,600 miles of its far side, before making their four-day return to Earth.
The pioneering technology means one of the oldest forms of energy storage, hydropower, can be used to store and release renewable energy using even gentle slopes rather than the steep dam walls and mountains that are usually required. The design means the principles of hydropower could be used as a form of long duration energy storage in many more locations across the UK, and the world, than traditional hydropower dams. The projects could be quicker and cheaper to build too.
The Northeast Passage was expected to open first due to the Coriolis effect. As the world turns to the east, in the Northern hemisphere, flowing water will veer to the right. Warm, salty Atlantic water flows into the Arctic Ocean through the Barents Sea Opening between Norway and Svalbard, and the Fram Strait between Svalbard and Greenland, then bends right along the Arctic coasts of Norway and Russia.
In the originally published version of this article, Extended Data Fig. 4 contained inadvertent duplications introduced during figure assembly: panel 4c (the bottom of the second column) erroneously reused images from panel 4a (the bottom of the third column); panel 4c (the upper panel of the third column) erroneously reused images from panel 4a (the upper panel of the rightmost column);
NASA is setting up an anomaly review board to look into the fate of its Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft, which was last heard from on December 6. Attempts to make contact with the Mars orbiter are ongoing. The final fragments of data indicated that the spacecraft was tumbling and had possibly changed trajectory. The MAVEN team is analyzing snippets of data recovered from a December 6 radio science campaign to develop a timeline of possible events.
It might come as a surprise to learn that the brain responds to training in much the same way as our muscles, even though most of us never think about it that way. Clear thinking, focus, creativity, and good judgment are built through challenge, when the brain is asked to stretch beyond routine rather than run on autopilot. That slight mental discomfort is often the sign that the brain is actually being trained, a lot like that good workout burn in your muscles.
The lava heron also has a much thicker bill than other closely related herons - an adaptation linked to feeding among sharp volcanic rocks and hard-shelled prey. "What we learned was something that hadn't been reported before," Mendales said. The discovery underscores how much remains unknown, even in iconic places like the Galápagos, said John Dumbacher, the Academy's curator of birds and mammals and Mendales' thesis adviser.
A passerby discovers it first - and lets out a piercing call. Within seconds, everyone in earshot rushes to the scene. It's mayhem... or so it seems. Crows are intelligent, and super chatty. They watch out for one another within tight-knit groups. As adults it's pretty rare for crows to be killed. So when one dies the others notice. Are they just scared? Or is something deeper going on.
Dinosaur fever gripped the Western world during the early 1900s, fueled by the discovery of new, ever larger and more spectacular dinosaurs in Europe and especially in North America. Interest in these fossils was not merely driven by academic curiosity. Dinosaur skeletons and research had become a status symbol for museums and their financiers, whether government or private, and colonial powers turned to their areas of influence to find new remains.
