Roman-era Egyptian child mummy scanned with laser-like precision

 Posted on January 28, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  720 words  |  Patria Henriques

An Egyptian mummy that was decorated with a woman's portrait contained a surprise — the body of a child who was only 5 years old when she died. Now, scientists have learned more about the mysterious girl and her burial, thanks to high-resolution scans and X-ray "microbeams" that targeted very small regions in the intact artifact. Computed X-ray tomography (CT) scans of the mummy's teeth and femur confirmed the girl's age, though they showed no signs of trauma in her bones that could suggest the cause of her death. [Read More]

The Energy Footprint of Bottled Water

 Posted on January 28, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  852 words  |  Patria Henriques

Our bottled water habit has a huge environmental impact, including the amount of energy it takes to make the plastic bottles, fill them and ship them to thirsty consumers worldwide. A new study breaks down just how much energy is used at each step of the process. An estimated total of the equivalent of 32 million to 54 million barrels of oil was required to generate the energy to produce the amount of bottled water consumed in the United States in 2007, according to the study, detailed in the January-March issue of the journal Environmental Research Letters. [Read More]

The Grand Canyon in Pictures

 Posted on January 28, 2023  |  1 minutes  |  155 words  |  Patria Henriques

Grand RainbowRainbow in the Grand Canyon as seen from near Mather Point on the South Rim. Large Lazy CloudsPanoramic view of the Grand Canyon from Pima Point on the West Rim Drive. Eroded Red RockLooking north across the Grand Canyon at the North Rim. Rolling Clouds at DuskWinter sunset from Pima Point on the Hermit or West Rim Drive. The Park s Blue SideView west from Desert View Point. [Read More]

The West: One of Earth's Most Mountainous Regions

 Posted on January 28, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  312 words  |  Patria Henriques

Western North America, featured in this image from the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite, is one of the most extensive mountainous regions on Earth. The Coast Mountains (snow-capped, and visible in the image's top left) cover the Alaska Panhandle (not visible) in the United States and most of coastal British Columbia (top left) in Canada. Many glaciers have carved valleys in these mountains, resulting in the formation of numerous fjords with precipitous cliffs that can rise nearly 6,900 feet (2,100 meters) from the water along the Pacific coast. [Read More]

True Color of Dinosaur Feathers Debated

 Posted on January 28, 2023  |  4 minutes  |  704 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

The discovery of microscopic color-making structures in fossilized feathers has recently made it possible for scientists to picture dinosaurs and ancient birds in their natural hues. But a group of researchers warns we might not be able to paint a Microraptor shimmery black or give the giant ancient penguin a maroon and gray coat just yet. To reconstruct the elusive color of feathered dinosaurs, scientists have zeroed in on melanosomes, melanin-loaded organelles typically present in the cells of the skin, hair and feathers whose colors (which range from black to brown to reddish) are each associated with a specific geometry. [Read More]

Wacky Physics: New Uncertainty About the Uncertainty Principle

 Posted on January 28, 2023  |  5 minutes  |  909 words  |  Fernande Dalal

One of the most often quoted, yet least understood, tenets of physics is the uncertainty principle. Formulated by German physicist Werner Heisenberg in 1927, the rule states that the more precisely you measure a particle's position, the less precisely you will be able to determine its momentum, and vice versa. The principle is often invoked outside the realm of physics to describe how the act of observing something changes the thing being observed, or to point out that there's a limit to how well we can ever really understand the universe. [Read More]

Watch NASA test the world's most powerful rocket ever on Saturday

 Posted on January 28, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  327 words  |  Trudie Dory

NASA is going to light up the most powerful rocket it's ever built Saturday (Jan. 16), though it won't go anywhere. The test, scheduled for sometime between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. EST, will be the first test of the core of the Space Launch System (SLS). That's the rocket NASA hopes will one day carry a new generation of astronauts to the moon and handle other missions beyond the scope of existing commercial crew vehicles. [Read More]

$71 Million! Pink Diamond Shines in Record-Breaking Sale

 Posted on January 27, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  407 words  |  Patria Henriques

The "Pink Star" diamond sold for a whopping $71.2 million this week, making it the most valuable jewel ever sold at auction, according to news reports. International auction house Sotheby's announced the record-breaking sale on April 4, when the oval, mixed-cut, 59.6-carat diamond sold in Hong Kong. Billionaire businessman Henry Cheng Kar-Shun, chairman of Hong Kong jeweler Chow Tai Fook, won the renowned diamond in a three-person bidding war, reported the Associated Press (AP). [Read More]

Astronauts spot an ancient heart-shaped oasis in Egypt just in time for Valentine's Day

 Posted on January 27, 2023  |  2 minutes  |  371 words  |  Mittie Cheatwood

Soaring 250 miles (400 kilometers) over Earth, astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) looked down on our planet last May and saw a heart-shaped oasis blooming in the Egyptian desert. Today (Feb. 14), our friends in space are sharing the striking image as a special Valentine for the whole planet, courtesy of NASA's Earth Observatory(opens in new tab) website. Known as the Faiyum Oasis, this lush heart in the desert is actually a broad wetland basin that extends over 450 square miles (1,200 square km) – about one and a half times the area of the five boroughs of New York City. [Read More]

Corgi-size pterosaurs walked in the rain 145 million years ago

 Posted on January 27, 2023  |  6 minutes  |  1096 words  |  Fernande Dalal

At the end of the Jurassic period, corgi-size pterosaurs were searching for food along an ancient shoreline when they felt the cool pings of a light rain, new fossil track marks reveal. Researchers found the fossilized track marks of these winged reptiles interspersed with raindrop impressions near Casper, Wyoming, which used to lie along the Sundance Seaway, a large inland sea that ran from what is now British Columbia in Canada to Utah during the late Jurassic. [Read More]