A group of scientists has used a new technique to uncover details in an ancient Etruscan painting. Etruscans were a group of people on the Italian peninsula about 2500 years ago before Rome came to power. A painting of the ancient people had degraded over the eons losing its once colorful detail, becoming essentially a red human-like blob.
A new study was published this week that found a critical current system in the Atlantic Ocean that helps to redistribute heat around the planet is extremely weak. The current is called the Gulf Stream, and according to the researchers on the study, it's moving more slowly now than it has in the last 1600 years. Interestingly, a similar study made the same claim back in 2018.
Health experts have long advised their patients to make dietary changes that reduce their LDL 'bad' cholesterol while increasing their HDL 'good' cholesterol. However, studies have shown a bit of paradox in the sense that raising HDL cholesterol doesn't necessarily reduce heart disease risk -- and the reason, according to the latest research, may be problems associated with big versus small cholesterol particles.
A study released this week shows how the tyrannosaurus consumed different resources at multiple stages of growth. Modern meat-eating mammals can easily be arranged in a chart showing average adult size - each of these animals have a unique effect on their own ecosystem. Given the average size of adult dinosaurs, there appeared to be a massive gap in the middle of the chart from smallest to largest.
Are you one of those people who wear shorts in the dead of winter, goes swimming when everyone else is still wearing jackets, and who finds they can handle winter camping more comfortably than their friends? If so, you may be one of the many people who has a genetic mutation linked to increased cold resilience, a benefit in cold climates, but one that may come with a sacrifice in sports performance.
NASA has begun the next stage of testing for its all-electric plane, with the X-57 Maxwell another step closer to setting a potential blueprint for zero-emissions aircraft in the future. Designed to demonstrate how commuter aircraft could switch from traditional combustion engines to electric motors instead, the final X-57 Maxwell design is expected to feature 14 propellers.
You're not imagining it: "Zoom fatigue" and video calls in general are putting more stress on us, a new study by Stanford researchers has discovered, even when the calls are with friends and family rather than for work. The dramatic uptick in business and socializing being done via video streaming rather than in-person has proved one growth industry during the pandemic, but what's good for the services isn't necessarily so healthy for users. Now, a human interaction expert has come up with four ways to beat video call stress.
Seismologists at Caltech have worked with optics experts from Google to develop a new method to detect earthquakes in the ocean. Together, the team developed a method that allows the use of existing underwater telecommunications cables to detect earthquakes. They believe the new technique could lead to improved earthquake and tsunami warnings around the world.
Scientists often look to the natural world for inspiration and ideas when creating synthetic materials. Plants and animals can rapidly respond to changes in the environment. An example is the way a Venus flytrap can close quickly when touched by an insect. Researchers have printed liquid metal circuits onto a single piece of soft polymer to create an intelligent material that can curl under pressure or mechanical strain and expand when stretched.
Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin say they believe they have definitively closed the case of what killed off the dinosaurs. The team definitively linked the extinction of the dinosaurs to an asteroid that impacted the earth 66 million years ago. The link came when the team found a key piece of evidence in the form of asteroid dust inside the Chicxulub Crater in the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.
Astronomers published new research this week, discovering that small satellite galaxies contain less molecular gas in their centers. The team says that large galaxies are known to strip away gas occupying the space between the stars of smaller satellite galaxies. They now know that the larger galaxies can strip away molecular gas at the center of the smaller galaxies, which is the type of gas the smaller galaxies that need to create new stars.
The NASA Hubble Space Telescope has spied a comet-like object known as a Centaur that has settled near a group of captured ancient asteroids called Trojans orbiting alongside Jupiter. NASA says this is the first time a comet-like object has been spotted near the ancient Trojan population. The Centaur name classifies icy bodies in the space between Jupiter and Neptune that become active for the first time when heated as they approach the sun.