Facing an ever-increasing din of background noise from traffic and other human activities, many animals are adapting by changing their behavior or just moving to quitter locales. In turn, noise pollution is altering the landscape of plants and trees, which depend on noise-affected animals to pollinate them and spread their seeds. Some plants do worse…
Officials at the U.S. space agency NASA say they uncovered the secrets of the supernova. New data from the Swift orbiting telescope have revealed exactly what leads to Type Ia supernovas, which astronomers now believe start as a white dwarf orbiting a companion star that pulls a stream of matter from it. As the gas…
Illegal logging generates $10-15 billion around the world, according to new analysis from the World Bank. Its report, Justice for Forests, says that most illegal logging operations are run by organized crime, and much of the profit goes to corrupt officials. The bank says that pursuing loggers through the criminal justice system has made a…
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, religion lost influence, but the religious impulse lingered on. Some people sought salvation in the secular religions of politics — in Communism, fascism and various utopian experiments. Others saw artists, musicians and writers as Holy Men, who could provide transcendence and meaning, revealing timeless truths on how to…
From Adam Frank at 13:7: Sometimes nature just throws you a loop. All your carefully laid plans, all your exquisite calculations, all your deeply held beliefs and expectations get blown away in the simple eloquence of real data from the real world. That is how Dark Energy made its appearance into the world of cosmology. Its…
The dream of using hydrogen gas as a clean fuel, on a large scale, just got a little bit closer. Chemists have developed a new molecule that can drive chemical reactions to store and release hydrogen under mild temperatures and pressures. No harmful emissions are released when hydrogen is burned; only water and energy are…
Since the 1930s, doctors have been jolting the brains of depressed patients with electricity to relieve their symptoms. The treatment, known as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), works, but it can cause memory loss and confusion and lead to difficulty forming new memories. Today, physicians generally limit it to patients who are severely ill, including those at…
Archaeologists develop large-scale method to identify ancient human settlements.
Researchers believe they have identified why a mutation in a particular gene can lead to obesity. Mouse experiments suggested the body’s message to “stop eating” was blocked if the animals had the mutation. The study, published in Nature Medicine, said the brain’s response to appetite hormones was being disrupted. The Georgetown University Medical Center researchers hope…
The new science of religion tells us where secularists are going wrong.