an electron within a molecule gets excited to a higher-energy state, the electron de-transitions back to the lower energy state, where it emits light of a very specific wavelength in the process. Then, pumped or injected energy re-excites an electron within that very same molecule back into that higher-energy state, over and over.
On Jan. 7, while aboard the International Space Station, I experienced a medical event that required immediate attention from my incredible crewmates. Thanks to their quick response and the guidance of our NASA flight surgeons, my status quickly stabilized.
In the vacuum of space, the amount of debris-spent rocket stages, splintered satellites, micrometeoroids- numbers in the millions, all zooming about, often at 17,000 mph speeds. They're also constantly hitting each other in a tsuris of exponential littering. Most of these pieces are tiny, and many are not anywhere near the altitude of the ISS. But the area isn't completely clean.
I'm less interested in topics than in questions, and I'm less interested in publishing than I am in curation. When I've testified before Congress or dealt with an appropriations bill or a budget negotiation, this question, of what is the return on investments when you're doing R&D, comes up quite often. It's been asked by economists in very formal ways since at least the 1950s, but the data and the methods that were available were really not very strong.
A growing number of AI tools can detect fraudulent elements in papers, but they can be expensive to use. Such tools are probably better deployed by journal publishers rather than individual reviewers, says Elisabeth Bik, a science-integrity consultant in San Francisco, California, especially because feeding unpublished content into AI tools can compromise confidentiality and is generally frowned on during peer review.
One of the most exciting aspects is the rich chemistry we detect. We see dozens of different molecules, including some complex organic molecules that contain carbon, the same element that forms the basis of life on Earth. From ACES, we are learning more about how the ingredients for planets, and potentially life itself, can arise in the universe.
'There exists nothing today that says any alien or any alien machine has ever landed on the planet Earth. If you believe otherwise, you are being misled.' Dr. Lee emphasizes that despite widespread UFO claims, no credible evidence supports alien visitation to Earth, and alternative explanations exist for reported phenomena.
Squeaking occurs across various contexts including shoes, bike brakes, rubber tires, and biomedical implants when soft and hard surfaces contact each other. Researchers used high-speed photography to study a rubber block sliding across hard acrylic to identify the source of these sounds. The investigation revealed that pulses similar to earthquake dynamics drive the squeaking phenomenon.
We demonstrate how the apparent magnetic field induced lattice and CDW intensity change can be explained as a consequence of two independent experimental artifacts: a reconfiguration of atoms at the STM tip apex that alters the amplitudes of CDW modulations, and piezo creep, hysteresis and thermal drift, which artificially distort STM topographs.
Although Kansas has no active volcanoes, the region marks the southern reach of the Midcontinent Rift System, a massive tectonic event that nearly split North America apart in Earth's distant past. When magma forced its way through the crust during that period, it left behind hardened igneous rock and deep fractures that remain buried thousands of feet underground.
We were not expecting to find so much richness and depth from a physics point of view underneath the sole of a shoe, says Adel Djellouli, a scientist at Harvard University and co-lead of the study. In a new study, scientists explore the physics that give rise to the familiar squeak of basketball shoes sliding on a hard surface.
A grand aspiration of cavity quantum materials research is to uncover fundamentally new routes for controlling properties of matter by judiciously tailoring the quantum electromagnetic environment. Experiments with dark cavities revealed modified transport properties in the integer and fractional quantum Hall states of a 2D electron gas, as well as cavity-assisted thermal control of the metal-to-insulator transition in charge-density-wave systems.
We now recognize that even ideas like "when" and "where" are subject to the laws of Einstein's relativity, and that in relativity, space and time are not absolute quantities, but rather are relative to each and every unique observer.
I expect Punch will be under careful observation by the keepers, and it sounds like they are trying various approaches to find a way to keep Punch in the group, which is best practice. If it looks like he is at risk of physical harm he would be removed from the group. As macaques are highly social intelligent primates this would be the last resort, only if he were deemed to be at risk of physical harm.
Recent examination of some ancient rocks from the west coast of Scotland have now overturned that thinking, suggesting there were periods during snowball Earth when the climate woke up. Close-up views of thin, repeating rock layers known as varves, each thought to represent a single year of sedimentation during the snowball Earth period.
NASA has revealed it repurposed the processor the Perseverance rover used to communicate with the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, to help the rolling robot navigate the Red Planet autonomously "for potentially unlimited distances." The aerospace agency revealed the hack last week in a post that says it used the rover's Helicopter Base Station (HBS) because its processor is 100 times faster than the rover's other kit.
Biology is undergoing a transformation. After centuries of studying life as it evolves naturally, researchers are now using a combination of computation and genome engineering to intervene, generating new proteins and even whole bacteria from scratch. The use of artificial-intelligence tools to design biological components, an approach known as generative biology, is set to turbocharge this area of research. Just last year, scientists used AI-assisted design to produce artificial genes that can be expressed in mammalian cells.
In a sudden turn of events last Wednesday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration agreed to review Moderna's new mRNA flu vaccine, according to the company. The announcement came roughly a week after Moderna revealed that the FDA had rejected its application. The company said the agency originally called the plan for the vaccine's phase 3 trials acceptable, But its position changed after top FDA official Vinay Prasad overruled the agency's reviewers, according to STAT.
Elon Musk has confirmed that Starship will fly again next month, reiterating SpaceX's aggressive timeline for the first launch of its Starship V3 rocket. Musk shared the update in a brief post on X, writing, "Starship flies again next month." The CEO's post was accompanied by a video of Starship's Super Heavy booster being successfully caught by a launch tower in Starbase, Texas. The timeline is notable.
He has been filmed multiple times being dragged and chased by older Japanese macaques inside the enclosure. Early clips showed him wandering alone with the toy after being pushed away by other monkeys, and clutching it tightly while being harassed. Viewers were briefly relieved when later videos emerged of another monkey grooming and comforting him. However, just days later, new footage showed Punch once again being targeted this time dragged aggressively in a circle by a much larger monkey.
The flock of 50 or so pigeons lifts from the barn roof as one. The loud clapping of wings makes the horses jump, even though this happens several times a day. I scan the sky for a peregrine but can't see signs of danger. They swirl once, then settle back on to the corrugated metal roof. These farmyard pigeons are a mix of feral and wood pigeons that hang out happily together.
But what, exactly, is a blizzard? A blizzard doesn't always mean "a lot of snow," though it can certainly bring heavy snowfalls, as this storm is expected to along parts of the East Coast. Rather, the National Weather Service defines it as a snowstorm with winds regularly above 35 miles per hour and "considerable falling" or blowing snow for at least three hours.
The first major astronomical event visible in 2026 is a total lunar eclipse, or "blood moon." This phenomenon is highly prized by stargazers because the entire lunar disk takes on a reddish color for a few moments. The total lunar eclipse will occur on March 3. It will be clearly visible in North and Central America, while in Central and South Asia it will only be partially visible.
Martschenko's argument is largely that genetic research and data have almost always been used thus far as a justification to further entrench extant social inequalities. But we know the solutions to many of the injustices in our world-trying to lift people out of poverty, for example-and we certainly don't need more genetic research to implement them. Trejo's point is largely that more information is generally better than less.
Those of us who watch the Olympics as bystanders tend to smugly judge athletes for succumbing to pressure without understanding what we even mean by the term. The first thing to know about pressure is that it has actual physical properties. Feeling it is not a sign of a too-thin veneer of character. Pressure might as well be a snakebite, given its very real qualities in the bloodstream and how it can paralyze even the strongest legs. The way to deal with pressure, and become
I've thought about it so much, Larkin said. It's what everyone wanted, this matchup in a gold-medal game. Yeah, I've thought about it a lot. Those thoughts become reality Sunday when the North American countries that have become the preeminent global hockey powerhouses face off in a titanic final of a best-vs.-best tournament with many of the NHL's biggest stars. The U.S. against Canada on the biggest stage in sports should be hard-hitting, quick-skating, must-see entertainment.
