This weekend, children armed with pillowcases and plastic pumpkins will haul in millions of pounds of Halloween candy wafting familiar scents like chocolate, peanut butter and the luxurious, uniquely enticing aroma of caramel. Until recently, scientists did not know precisely how humans process this rich, buttery smell. But now a […]
Month: October 2021
Firefighting Robots Go Autonomous – Scientific American
Firefighting, one of the nation’s most tradition-bound professions, is poised for an influx of eccentric assistants. They range from contraptions the size of a toy wagon to two-ton beasts that resemble military tanks and can blast out 2,500 gallons of water per minute. Some move on rubber tires, some on […]
COVID Vaccine Authorized for Kids Age 5 to 11
Nearly a year after the first COVID vaccines became available for adults in the U.S., the moment millions of parents have been waiting for has arrived: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine against COVID for use in children ages 5–11. An FDA advisory committee […]
The Infrastructure Bill Is Desperately Needed, Engineers Say
After months of negotiation and debate, the U.S. House of Representatives could be poised to pass a two-part legislative package aimed at overhauling the country’s notoriously aging infrastructure. But House Democrats (who hold a majority in the chamber) have yet to reach an agreement on one part: a bill that […]
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Is Surprisingly Deep
Jupiter, king of the gods in Roman mythology, shrouded himself in clouds to hide his true nature. But his wife, the goddess Juno, was able to peer past this veil and reveal his mischievous behavior. It is fitting, then, that the NASA spacecraft now circling Jupiter the planet is named […]
Muddier Rivers Are Jeopardizing Dams and Water Quality for Millions
The Tibetan Plateau and surrounding mountains are nicknamed the “Third Pole” or the “Water Tower of Asia” because of the immense volumes of ice stored in the area’s snowpack, glaciers and permafrost. Annual spring thaws send meltwater into the tributaries of many of Asia’s largest rivers, such as the Yangtze, […]
Latest Juno Data Study Reveals an Unexpected Feature of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot may extend even deeper into the planet’s atmosphere than scientists thought. NASA’s Juno spacecraft zipped past the Great Red Spot – an anticyclone large enough to swallow Earth – twice in 2019. Measurements from those flights are now revealing the storm’s structure in far more detail […]
Pioneering Study Constructs The First Body-Map For Hallucination Sensations
Roughly 1 in 30 people will experience at least one psychotic episode in their lives. While the conversation about such hallucinations typically focuses on the auditory and visual, many who live with psychosis know how limited this perspective can be. Now researchers have turned their attention to the rich palette of experiences […]
Physicists Finally Made The Weird ‘Superionic Ice’ That Could Exist on Alien Worlds
Shooting a drop of water with one of the world’s most powerful lasers might not be an obvious way to make an ice cube. But it is one way, at least if you want the kind of ice you might find deep inside planetary giants. Scientists have known about […]
Could Humans Really Survive The Harsh Deserts of Dune’s Arrakis? We Found Out
Dune, the epic series of sci-fi books by Frank Herbert, now turned into a movie of the same name, is set in the far future on the desert planet of Arrakis. Herbert outlined a richly detailed world that, at first glance, seems so real we could imagine ourselves within it. […]
We May Finally Know The Enigmatic Origins of Ancient Mummies Discovered in China
There’s a a desert land in the very heart of Eurasia, dry enough to naturally mummify human remains. A Bronze Age discovery has now revealed the secret origins of the people who once called this region of China home. The Xiaohe people’s cattle-focused economy and difference in appearance have […]