Tag: discoveries

What is the Milky Way?

When someone says “Milky Way,” do you think of the starry pathway across our sky, or of the great pinwheel-shaped galaxy in space? Both are correct! Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/what-is-the-milky-way-galaxy…

Best Story Wins

Morgan Housel, on the art and power of storytelling: C. R. Hallpike is a respected anthropologist who once wrote a review of a young author’s recent book on the history of humans. It states: “It would be fair to say that whenever his facts are broadly correct they are not new, and whenever he tries to strike out on his own…

Happy birthday to Galileo, born February 15

One of our greatest astronomers, Galileo Galilei, was born February 15, 1564. His discoveries with the improved telescopes he made changed the way we view the universe – and got him in trouble with the church. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/galileos-birthday-feb-15-1564…

99th element ‘Einsteinium’ reveals its secrets

Scientists have made new discoveries about a mysterious element that is named after Albert Einstein. Robert A Jackson from the School of Chemical and … Source: https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/343624/99th-element-einsteinium-reveals-its-secrets…

Low-cost approach to scanning historic glass plates yields an astronomical surprise

You never know what new discoveries might be hiding in old astronomical observations. For almost a hundred years starting in the late 19th century, emulsion-coated dry glass plate photography was the standard of choice used by large astronomical observatories and surveys for documenting and imaging the sky. These large enormous glass plate collections are still out there around the world, filed…

A planet called KOI-5Ab orbits in a triple-star system with a skewed configuration

Shortly after NASA’s Kepler mission began operations back in 2009, it identified what was thought to be a planet about the size of Neptune. Called KOI-5Ab, the planet, which was the second new planet candidate to be found by the mission, was ultimately forgotten as Kepler racked up more and more planet discoveries. By the end of its mission in 2018,…

Dog Domestication May Have Begun Because Paleo Humans Couldn’t Stomach the Original Paleo Diet

A new theory described today in Scientific Reports posits that hunter-gatherers whose omnivorous digestive system prevented too much protein consumption likely shared surplus meat with wolves. Those scraps may have initiated a step toward domestication. Scientific American reports: [Maria Lahtinen, a senior researcher at the Finnish Food Authority and a visiting scholar at the Finnish Museum of Natural History] did not…

Happy birthday to Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton, born on January 4, 1643, discovered the laws of motion and other principles that laid the foundation of physics and astronomy. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/this-date-in-science-isaac-newtons-birthday…

Neuroscientists’ New Theory: Dreaming Protects the Braincells For Eyesight

Writing in Time magazine, two neuroscientists share a surprising new theory on exactly how dreaming protects our brains: Neuroscience used to think that different parts of the brain were predetermined to perform specific functions. But more recent discoveries have upended the old paradigm. One part of the brain may initially be assigned a specific task; for instance, the back of our…