ScIence

Temperatures at north pole 20C above average and beyond ice melting point

Scientists say unusually mild temperatures linked to low-pressure system over Iceland directing strong flow of warm air towards north pole Scientists say they expect the Arctic Ocean to lose sea-ice cover in summer for the first time over the next two decades. Photograph: Jose Luis Stephens/Alamy Temperatures at the north pole soared more than 20C

Making an invisible electric wire: guiding electricity with sound

Researchers from Spain, Finland and Canada have shown for the first time that electric sparks can be guided using ultrasonic waves. In the study electric spark of 4 cm was guided around an obstacle using ultrasonic fields. (Image: Josu Irisarri) Electric sparks are used for welding, powering electronics, killing germs or for igniting the fuel in some car engines. Despit

Northern lights may be visible in 15 states tonight

Auroras may be visible from Alaska to New York as a speedy solar wind and incoming coronal mass ejection are expected to buffet Earth's magnetic field. Auroras may be visible from Alaska to New York as a speedy solar wind and incoming coronal mass ejection are expected to buffet Earth's magnetic field. (Image credit: Map: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, Background added in

The Untapped Potential of the Amazon’s Plastic-Eating Mushroom

Long before there were trees, the Earth was overrun by giant mushrooms. Fungi first showed up over a billion years ago as three-metre-tall fungus fingers that dominated the landscape, while plants have been around for a paltry 700 million years debuting as scruffy shrubs. A billion or so years on, the humble ‘shroom is an unlikely champion in the war against plastic waste thanks to the discovery

Bizarre radio signals that defy physics detected under Antarctica: ‘It’s one of these long-standing mysteries’

Researchers detected mysterious radio waves in Antarctica that seem to defy the rules of particle physics. Now they're searching for a cause. The Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna experiment uses 24 antennas attached to a NASA balloon to study neutrinos. (Image credit: Stephanie Wissel / Penn State) Instruments flying more than 18 miles (29 kilometers) above Antarctic

Vera C Rubin Observatory reveals 1st stunning images of the cosmos. Scientists are ‘beyond excited about what’s coming’

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has released its first images as it begins its 10-year mission conducting the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). The LSST will revolutionize astronomy with one of its primary aims being the investigation of dark energy, the mysterious force driving the accelerating expansion of the universe, and dark matter, the strange substance that accounts for 85% of the

Molecular Jackhammers Drill Pathway to Killing Cancer Cells   

The first-of-its-kind technique could offer a much safer and more effective alternative to current cancer treatments. Image: Rachel Barton/Texas A&M Engineering Just as jackhammers can penetrate concrete, molecular jackhammers (MJH) are nanoscopic machines capable of creating blows so strong that they can crack or rupture the cell membrane, decompensating and killing the

Study: Modest moss supports billions of tons of carbon storage

Plant life plays a crucial role in fighting climate change by absorbing and transforming greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. For instance, over its lifetime, a tree can absorb more than a ton of carbon from the air and store it in wood and roots. The presence of mosses blanketing the soil is actually a positive indication rather than a negative one. Mosses play a crucial role in establishing

CO2 levels just broke another record. Here’s what that means

The CO2 concentration at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii has passed 430 parts per million Geophysicist Ralph Keeling in his lab at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California San Diego, where carbon dioxide levels are tested. (Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego) When man first walked on the moon, the carbon dioxide concentration in Earth's

Wandering outside of the Styx: Surface activity of an iconic subterranean vertebrate, the olm (Proteus anguinus)

Animals living in caves have attracted the interest of naturalists and biologists since the beginning of modern science (Poulson & White, 1969; Vandel, 1964). Caves and other subterranean habitats are often perceived as extreme environments that deserve investigation because their simplified settings can help to understand evolutionary and ecological processes (Howarth, 1993; Mammola, 2019