All posts tagged: discoveries

From astronaut health to space weather: the discoveries changing our understanding of the universe | Driving Change. Inspiring Potential

From astronaut health to space weather: the discoveries changing our understanding of the universe | Driving Change. Inspiring Potential

Published by skeptic

Many of us grow up fascinated by space and the universe. The question of whether there’s intelligent life out there is a continuing preoccupation among scientists and citizens alike. But research into space goes far beyond the hunt for extraterrestrial life – there are many different areas that students and researchers are investigating, from space weather and space law, to astronaut health and satellite communication. At Northumbria University, Newcastle – which is developing NESST, a new £50m North East Space Skills and Technology Centre – academics are working across a range of projects that could transform our understanding of space. For many people, their only experience of space weather is seeing the stunning phenomenon of the aurora borealis, more commonly known as the northern lights. “The northern lights are part of space weather,” says Clare Watt, professor of space plasma physics. “When there’s a significant storm or disturbance in space, the aurora lights up.” Prof Clare Watt. Photograph: Simon Veit-Wilson Space weather forecasts can help experts to predict when and where the northern lights will …

Some of the greatest cosmic discoveries have come about by accident

Some of the greatest cosmic discoveries have come about by accident

Published by skeptic

FOR a $10 billion instrument, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) spends a lot of its time staring at nothing. The shots of deep space this produces are remarkably beautiful, transforming an apparently empty sky into a field flecked with thousands of distant galaxies, some seen as they were just a few hundred million years after the big bang. The first results of these surveys of the early universe have surprised astronomers, as the galaxies seem brighter than had been expected, with more star formation and larger black holes. Yet maybe we shouldn’t have been too startled to find… Source link

10 Discoveries from Sutton Hoo’s Anglo-Saxon Ship Burial

10 Discoveries from Sutton Hoo’s Anglo-Saxon Ship Burial

Published by skeptic

  Edith Pretty, one of England’s first female magistrates, owned a huge estate in south-east Suffolk known as Sutton Hoo. Pretty had been aware for some time that there was something intriguing about her Suffolk estate. Round mounds of earth loomed across it and in 1937, she decided the time had come to learn something about them. She contacted the Ipswich Museum, hoping to find a professional to excavate the mounds. The museum sent amateur archaeologist Basil Brown to Mrs. Pretty’s estate. Shortly thereafter, Brown began excavating, eventually uncovering the Anglo-Saxon world of Sutton Hoo.   1. The Sutton Hoo Mounds Aerial overview of the Anglo-Saxon burial ground at Sutton Hoo. Source: British Museum   It took nearly two years from the time of Mrs. Pretty’s initial invitation to Brown to find the riches of Sutton Hoo. The Anglo-Saxons had created an eye-catching burial ground along the River Deben. It would have caught the attention of medieval travelers and it continued to intrigue twentieth-century passersby.   Seventeen or eighteen burial mounds stood within the burial …

The Story of Earth’s Climate review: 25 discoveries tell tangled tale

The Story of Earth’s Climate review: 25 discoveries tell tangled tale

Published by skeptic

Once the first life took hold on Earth, it started influencing the climate Shutterstock/Silvae The Story of Earth’s Climate in 25 DiscoveriesDonald R. Prothero (Columbia University Press, out 12 March) IT IS is a truism to say that life and climate are intertwined. Living organisms can change Earth’s climate by, say, pumping out or absorbing the greenhouse gases that warm the planet. Equally, climate affects life by making conditions too hot, too cold or too dry for some organisms to survive. This means that the story of life is also the… Source link

Scientists may have finally solved the mystery of consciousness – their discoveries are troubling

Scientists may have finally solved the mystery of consciousness – their discoveries are troubling

Published by Sam

Is there a computer in your head? Detector built by the Brookhaven National Laboratory in the 1960s, used to construct an image of an active brain – Brookhaven National Laboratory Throughout history, attempts by mere mortals to plumb the inner recesses of the soul have been seen as hubristic. Shakespeare had Hamlet express this powerfully when he rages against those who “would pluck out the heart of my mystery”. He accuses Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of trying to play him like some kind of instrument, rather than treating him as a human being. “How unworthy a thing you make of me,” he chides. Today, there are no such taboos. Hamlet refers to himself metaphorically as “this little organ” but now we dissect the self by studying a very literal organ: the brain. Neuroscientists are trashing the long-held view that what lies deep inside can only be seen from within. A new exhibition at the Francis Crick Institute, chirpily titled Hello Brain!, celebrates this desecration of the psyche’s inner sanctum, revealing the many ways in which the …

African discoveries of natural gas pose vexing climate challenge

African discoveries of natural gas pose vexing climate challenge

Published by Sam

SAINT LOUIS, Senegal — As a young geologist working for Senegal’s state-owned petroleum company in the 1990s, Macky Sall was charged with prospecting for oil and gas in this West African nation. For years, he and his colleagues came up empty. But more than two decades later, after Sall was elected to be Senegal’s president, an American energy company found a gas deposit so big that he has called it a “game changer.” The 15 trillion cubic feet of gas found in 2015 has turned Senegal into one of Africa’s biggest potential producers of natural gas — and turned Sall into a global champion for the right of developing nations to use their resources, including fossil fuels, to industrialize and develop. After multiple delays, Senegal is now set to start producing gas from the reserves later this year, according to oil and gas giant BP, which is leading the operation. The World Bank estimates that Africa was home to 40 percent of natural gas discoveries between 2010 and 2020, including one off Senegal’s coast near …

7 Mind-Blowing Recent Discoveries About the Brain and Human Behavior

7 Mind-Blowing Recent Discoveries About the Brain and Human Behavior

Published by José

The human brain, a marvel of nature, continues to be a source of endless fascination and mystery. Recent scientific studies have peeled back layers of this complexity, offering fresh insights into how our brains shape our behavior and perceptions. Let’s delve into seven of these groundbreaking discoveries that are reshaping our understanding of the human mind. A study has found that individuals experiencing symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) reported significant improvements after participating in an Ayahuasca retreat. Ayahuasca, a plant-based psychedelic brew traditionally used in South American spiritual practices, appears to have a notable effect on ADHD symptoms, suggesting a potential new avenue for exploring treatments for this condition. (Click here to read more.)   In a surprising twist, researchers have discovered a link between the ratio of finger lengths and certain psychopathological traits. The study suggests that the length ratio of the index to ring finger, a trait determined before birth, might be associated with a predisposition to certain psychological characteristics, opening a new perspective on how early developmental factors can influence …

The peculiar discoveries reviving the search for human pheromones

The peculiar discoveries reviving the search for human pheromones

Published by skeptic

The search for sexual human pheromones may be a false trail Janina Steinmetz/Getty Images YOU may think you can mask it with a shower and a bit of deodorant, but every time you walk into a room, a whiff of your body odour drifts in your wake. It might be musty, mouldy, milky and metallic, or oily, heavy and animalic – these are just a few words that trained perfumers have used to classify the different “flavours” of natural BO. While it is clear that odour and perfumes can alter the moods of those around you, it remains a mystery whether there are any unique agents produced by the human body, namely pheromones, that specifically alter other people’s mood, behaviour or physiological arousal. The idea makes sense. We know that other mammals use pheromones for communication and that they play an important role in mating. But after a flurry of studies hinted that humans shared this trait, researchers started to pick holes in the data and the idea seemed to be left to rest. Quietly, …

A Poem by Erica Funkhouser: ‘The Pianist Upstairs’

A Poem by Erica Funkhouser: ‘The Pianist Upstairs’

Published by skeptic

Miki Lowe Published in The Atlantic in 2005 By Erica Funkhouser Illustrations by Miki Lowe January 21, 2024, 6 AM ET The poet Erica Funkhouser grew up on a farm in Massachusetts, and it was there—many times while wandering through the woods—that she grew enchanted by language. She loved the music of words, “the kind of clang of them together and the sound and the playfulness of them,” she later said in an interview. Throughout her career, she has continued to describe, joyfully, the natural world, “where all the discoveries, wondrous or desperate, come without names.” At some point, though, she also realized that writing can fail to capture real brutality. “The risks are innumerable: sentimentality, over-generalization, over-simplification, distortion, and preaching, to name a few,” she wrote in a 2005 essay on war poetry. The same year, she published “The Pianist Upstairs,” a poem in which she sounds exhausted, doubtful of the essential goodness of language or even of the possibility that art can heal much at all. Listening to her neighbor play the piano, …

I’ve made secret discoveries on my doorstep: a year-long journey across my local OS map | United Kingdom holidays

I’ve made secret discoveries on my doorstep: a year-long journey across my local OS map | United Kingdom holidays

Published by skeptic

There’s a special place near where I live. To get there, you head down the road with all the fly-tipping, go through the motorway underpass, then turn left by the second-hand car garage and the greasy spoon cafe with a spelling mistake in its name. When you reach the factory with the rusting metal pipes and enormous concrete chimney, push through the scraggy bushes opposite and you have arrived. Blond reedbeds surround you, head high, whispering in the wind. The call of cuckoos sounds like time gone by. In summer, swifts shriek overhead and sand martins swoop over the pools where endangered water voles make their home. Wandering through the marshland is like being transported to a wilder, quieter, more hopeful world. This secret discovery, or one like it, lies on the outskirts of towns across the country, part of the forgotten edge lands that we travellers ignore in favour of more exotic destinations. I spent a year searching for wildness closer to home than ever before – and it was a fascinating journey. We …