Above the cloud tops, storms blow with a complex and frenetic light show of high-energy radiation. A view from a refurbished spy plane flying 20 kilometers up revealed storms glowing and flickering in gamma rays, high-energy light invisible to the […]
As dust from the Sahara blows thousands of kilometers across the Atlantic Ocean, it becomes progressively more nutritious for marine microbes, a new study suggests. Chemical reactions in the atmosphere grind iron minerals into dust, making them more soluble in […]
Dozens of runaway stars were caught escaping from a dense star cluster in a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. The cluster of fast-moving stars may mean that such runaways had a greater influence on cosmic evolution than previously thought, […]
As artificial intelligence explodes in popularity, two of its pioneers have been awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics. The award goes to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton “for fundamental discoveries and inventions enabling machine learning with artificial neural networks,” […]
Naloxone has saved thousands of lives by reversing opioid overdoses. But its success depends on someone nearby who can administer the medicine quickly (SN: 5/3/24). Many people are alone when they overdose. A new implant may one day solve this […]
Displacement is in the nature of a river. But when a river breaks from its channel and carves a new path across the landscape, devastating floods can descend on communities with little or no warning. For decades, researchers have struggled […]
Planetary astronomer Bonnie Buratti remembers exactly where she was the first time she heard that Jupiter’s icy moon Europa might host life. It was the 1980s, and Buratti was a graduate student at Cornell University studying images of the planet’s […]
To feed artificial intelligence’s voracious appetite for energy, tech companies are turning to small nuclear reactors. Last week, Google and Amazon announced deals with companies that are developing small modular reactors. These reactors would produce less power than current reactors, […]
It’s one of the most massive migrations on Earth: a huge biomass of tiny plankton traveling from the deep sea to the surface. However, not all of these organisms have limbs to propel themselves up. So how some of them […]
Smallest number of American teens and tweens in 25 years are currently using tobacco products. According to the 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey, only 8 percent of middle and high school students — or 2.25 million — reported using tobacco […]