Gallery: 5 Times Science Inspired Art
Posted on February 15, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 678 words
| Patria Henriques
The ScreamEdvard Munch painted the iconic composition "The Scream" in 1893 after writing in his diary that he was inspired by a roiling, blood-red sky he saw one night while walking with friends in Norway. The striking atmosphere and the fact that Munch said he was inspired by a real sunset has led to multiple theories about what caused the sky to look so tumultuous that fateful evening.
One popular hypothesis is that Munch was seeing the aftereffects of the 1883 eruption of Mount Krakatoa in Indonesia, which threw so many aerosol particles in the air that it cooled the entire planet — and created brilliant sunsets as light reflected off the particulate matter.
[Read More]Gallery: Medieval Africa's Astounding Riches
Posted on February 15, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 835 words
| Patria Henriques
The Richest Man in the WorldThe Catalan Atlas, published in 1375, depicts the richest man of his day: Mansa Musa, the emperor of 14th-century Mali. A reproduction of the Atlas is on display at the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The Atlas is part of an exhibition at the museum called "Caravan of Gold," highlighting the vast wealth concentrated in Africa in the Medieval period.
[Read More]Hurricane season is so active in 2020, we ran out of names
Posted on February 15, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 397 words
| Trudie Dory
Hurricane season has been so active this year that the number of named storms has already exceeded the number of official names.
The season officially begins on June 1 and lasts until Nov. 30; but this year, it was off to an early start with tropical storms Arthur and Bertha, which formed on May 16 and May 27, respectively.
On Sept. 18, tropical storm Wilfred claimed the list's 21st and final name, which means that subsequent storms will "
[Read More]Missing link in pterosaur origins discovered
Posted on February 15, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 955 words
| Trudie Dory
Nearly nothing is known about the family tree of pterosaurs — iconic reptiles that flew alongside the dinosaurs. These now-extinct beasts appear in the fossil record with already developed wings and senses adapted for flying, with researchers having nary a clue about their immediate evolutionary history.
But now, the pterosaur's family tree has a new branch; an enigmatic group of small reptiles, known as lagerpetids, might be the closest-known pterosaur relatives on record, the researchers of a new study say.
[Read More]Photos: The beginnings of Maya civilization
Posted on February 15, 2023
| 1 minutes
| 72 words
| Arica Deslauriers
San Lorenzo These lidar images show San Lorenzo (left), an Olmec site that peaked between 1400 B.C. and 1150 B.C.), and Aguada Fénix (right), a Maya site primarily occupied between 1000 B.C. and 800 B.C. Both show a similar pattern of 20 rectangular platforms lining the plaza. In later Maya calendars, 20 was the base unit for counting days, suggesting that this timekeeping system was already in development before 1000 B.
[Read More]Something Is Sucking Iron Out of Earth's Crust, and Scientists Think They Know What
Posted on February 15, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 610 words
| Fernande Dalal
What makes the Red Planet red? The answer, as Sherlock Holmes might say, is elementary. And that element is iron.
The continental crust of Mars is so iron-rich that, over billions of years, surface rocks actually rust when exposed to the meager oxygen in the planet's atmosphere. The result is a rust-coated planet that appears red, even from Earth.
Earth might rust, too, for that matter, if just a fraction more iron was present in the planet's continental crust.
[Read More]The Most & Least Religious US States
Posted on February 15, 2023
| 2 minutes
| 277 words
| Arica Deslauriers
Updated Tuesday, Feb. 4 at 9:20 a.m. ET.
States across the South and Utah once again keep their high ranking on an annual list of the most religious U.S. states. Vermont leads the pack of least religious states.
The polling organization Gallup surveyed 174,699 adults across the nation between Jan. 2 and Dec. 29, 2013, asking whether religion is an important part of their daily lives and whether they regularly attend religious services.
[Read More]The Scientist Who Helped Save New York's Subway from Sandy
Posted on February 15, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 887 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
The water just kept flowing. It streamed through the streets of lower Manhattan, pouring into subway entrances, cascading into ventilation grates and pooling inside tunnels.
When Superstorm Sandy hit New York a year ago, it caused a massive, 14-foot storm surge, the likes of which the city had never seen. Nine out of the 14 subway tunnels beneath rivers around the city flooded, and the subway was shut down for days.
[Read More]Unknown human ancestor may have walked a bit like a bear on its hind legs
Posted on February 15, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 1042 words
| Patria Henriques
Ancient footprints reveal a mysterious relative of humans may have lived at the same time and in the same area as the famous human ancestor "Lucy" in Tanzania. Strangely, these enigmatic tracks possess an unusual cross-stepping gait where one leg crossed over the other during walking, a new study finds.
The oldest solid evidence of upright walking among hominins — the group that includes humans, our ancestors and our closest evolutionary relatives — are tracks discovered at Laetoli in northern Tanzania in 1978.
[Read More]What Are Lagrangian Points?
Posted on February 15, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 704 words
| Arica Deslauriers
The idea of balanced forces is a central concept of physics, and we see it everywhere, from tug-of-war battles to card houses to football games. Until forces become unbalanced, the flag at the rope’s midpoint will not move, the cards will hold one another up and the two blocking football players will remain upright, each side’s efforts cancelling the other’s.
Gravity can be balanced as well, creating zones in space, called Lagrangian points, where a small object can sit indefinitely.
[Read More]