In research on people, scientists are typically interested in the group data – the mean, median, and variance of a sample of people. But according to a provocative new paperout in PNAS, the statistics of a group can obscure the variability within individuals, over time. The paper, from Aaron J. Fisher, John […]
What a difference 40 years makes. An enhanced color image of Charon from data gathered by the New Horizons spacecraft in 2015 shows a range of diverse surface features, significantly transforming our view of a moon discovered in 1978 as a “bump” on Pluto (inset) in a set of grainy […]
Two research vessels, the Sally Ride (above) and Roger Revelle, depart from Seattle in August on an oceanographic expedition in a first of its kind study of microscopic plankton and their impacts on Earth’s carbon cycle. Credits: Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego Media are […]
TIM SMITS FOR SPECTRUM Originally published on Spectrum The Research on Autism and Development (RAD) Laboratory is located in a Tetris-like maze of brown wooden buildings, not far from the main campus of the University of California, San Diego. The lab itself is a nondescript warren of small beige rooms. But everything […]
Chimney of the new vent field where hydrothermal activity is visible. Credit: ROV “LUSO”, Portuguese Task Force for the Extension of the Continental Shelf An international team of scientists has discovered a new hydrothermal field near the Gigante Seamount in the Azores, a rare finding they are very excited about. […]
The researchers say cyan could be added or taken away to prevent or encourage sleep GETTY IMAGES The colour cyan – between green and blue – is a hidden factor in encouraging or preventing sleep, according to biologists. University of Manchester researchers say higher levels of cyan keep people awake, […]
Rendering of a Shenzhou spacecraft (left) docked with a Tiangong module (fore). Credit: CMSE HELSINKI, Finland — China has lowered the orbit of its Tiangong-2 space lab , likely in preparation for deorbiting the orbital facility and thus averting a similar scenario to the uncontrolled re-entry of Tiangong-1 earlier this year. Tiangong-2 was […]
According to a new theory argued by Anders Sandberg, Eric Drexler and Toby Ord, the answer to the Fermi Paradox may be simple: humanity is alone in the Universe. Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC The Fermi Paradox remains a stumbling block when it comes to the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI). Named in honor of […]
Antarctica, as seen using Google Earth, and a cut to show the interior of the earth, where the mantle (red and dark red) and the core (yellow) are visible. The Amundsen Sea Embayment is indicated by the red rectangle. On the right, a photo reveals one of the GPS sites […]
The VSS Unity ignites its engine on a powered test flight. Photo Credit: Virgin Galactic Following a successful second supersonic test flight of the Virgin Spaceship (VSS) Unity, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic spacecraft could be on the verge of becoming the first privately funded spacecraft to carry humans into space since SpaceShipOne […]