An invisible, weak energy field wrapped around our planet Earth has finally been detected and measured. It’s called the ambipolar field, an electric field first hypothesized more than 60 years ago […] “Any planet with an atmosphere should have an ambipolar field,” says astronomer Glyn Collinson of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Now that we’ve Read more about Scientists Detect Invisible Electric Field Around Earth For First Time[…]

A doughnut-shaped region thousands of kilometers beneath our feet within Earth’s liquid core has been discovered by scientists from The Australian National University (ANU), providing new clues about the dynamics of our planet’s magnetic field. The structure within Earth’s liquid core is found only at low latitudes and sits parallel to the equator. According to Read more about Doughnut-shaped region found inside Earth’s core deepens understanding of planet’s magnetic field[…]

[…] most recently in January 2024, when physicists Arnab Priya Saha and Aninda Sinha of the Indian Institute of Science presented a completely new formula for calculating it, which they later published in Physical Review Letters. Saha and Sinha are not mathematicians. They were not even looking for a novel pi equation. Rather, these two Read more about String Theorists Accidentally Find a New Formula for Pi[…]

[…] Our communications and GPS networks all depend on keeping careful track of the precise timing of signals—including accounting for the effects of relativity. The deeper into a gravitational well you go, the slower time moves, and we’ve reached the point where we can detect differences in altitude of a single millimeter. Time literally flows Read more about Researchers figure out how to keep clocks on the Earth, Moon in sync[…]

A new antibiotic that works by disrupting two different cellular targets would make it 100 million times more difficult for bacteria to evolve resistance, according to new research from the University of Illinois Chicago. For a new paper in Nature Chemical Biology, researchers probed how a class of synthetic drugs called macrolones disrupt bacterial cell Read more about Dual action antibiotic could make bacterial resistance nearly impossible[…]

[…] in areas where water is more scarce it can be hard to grow crops and feed populations, so scientists are investigating ways to boost efficiency. Building on earlier work, the new study marks a good step in that direction. The soil gets its “smart” moniker thanks to the addition of a specially formulated hydrogel, Read more about “Smart soil” grows 138% bigger crops using 40% less water[…]

Deliberately exposing people to the coronavirus behind covid-19 in a so-called challenge study has helped us understand why some people seem to be immune to catching the infection. As part of the first such covid-19 study, carried out in 2021, a group of international researchers looked at 16 people with no known health conditions who Read more about We finally know why some people seem immune to catching covid-19[…]

The proliferation of microplastics (MPs) represents a burgeoning environmental and health crisis. Measuring less than 5 mm in diameter, MPs have infiltrated atmospheric, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems, penetrating commonplace consumables like seafood, sea salt, and bottled beverages. Their size and surface area render them susceptible to chemical interactions with physiological fluids and tissues, raising bioaccumulation Read more about Seven types of microplastics found in the human penises, raises questions about sexual function[…]

Mathematicians have reinvented the wheel with the discovery of shapes that can roll smoothly when sandwiched between two surfaces, even in four, five or any higher number of spatial dimensions. The finding answers a question that researchers have been puzzling over for decades. Such objects are known as shapes of constant width, and the most Read more about Mathematicians find odd shapes that roll like a wheel in any dimension[…]

Nearly a third of U.S. adults have tattoos, so plenty of you listeners can probably rattle off the basic guidelines of tattoo safety: Make sure you go to a reputable tattoo artist who uses new, sterile needles. Stay out of the ocean while you’re healing so you don’t pick up a smidgen of flesh-eating bacteria. Read more about What’s Actually In Tattoo Ink? No One Really Knows[…]

When the Brazilian nutritional scientist Carlos Monteiro coined the term “ultra-processed foods” 15 years ago, he established what he calls a “new paradigm” for assessing the impact of diet on health. Monteiro had noticed that although Brazilian households were spending less on sugar and oil, obesity rates were going up. The paradox could be explained Read more about “Deny, denounce, delay”: ultra-processed food companies fighting using big tobacco type tactics[…]

Scientists have developed brain implants that can decode internal speech — identifying words that two people spoke in their minds without moving their lips or making a sound. Although the technology is at an early stage — it was shown to work with only a handful of words, and not phrases or sentences — it Read more about Device Decodes ‘Internal Speech’ in the Brain[…]

People who develop long covid after being hospitalised with severe covid-19 have raised levels of many inflammatory immune molecules compared with those who recovered fully after such a hospitalisation, according to a study of nearly 700 people. The findings show that long covid has a real biological basis, says team member Peter Openshaw at Imperial Read more about Long covid linked to signs of ongoing inflammatory responses in blood[…]

Accumulation of microplastics in the natural environment is ultimately due to the chemical nature of widely used petroleum-based plastic polymers, which typically are inaccessible to biological processing. One way to mitigate this crisis is adoption of plastics that biodegrade if released into natural environments. In this work, we generated microplastic particles from a bio-based, biodegradable Read more about Rapid biodegradation of microplastics generated from bio-based thermoplastic polyurethane in compost[…]

In this article we’ll investigate what makes airplanes fly by looking at the forces generated by the flow of air around the aircraft’s wings. More specifically, we’ll focus on the cross section of those wings to reveal the shape of an airfoil – you can see it presented in yellow below: We’ll find out how Read more about The flow of air over Airfoils, or how planes fly[…]

From the very early days of the pandemic, brain fog emerged as a significant health condition that many experience after COVID-19. Brain fog is a colloquial term that describes a state of mental sluggishness or lack of clarity and haziness that makes it difficult to concentrate, remember things and think clearly. Fast-forward four years and Read more about COVID-19 Leaves Its Mark on the Brain. Significant Drops in IQ Scores Are Noted.[…]

A chemical element so visually striking that it was named for a goddess shows a “Goldilocks” level of reactivity — neither too much nor too little — that makes it a strong candidate as a carbon scrubbing tool. The element is vanadium, and research by Oregon State University scientists has demonstrated the ability of vanadium Read more about Key advance for capturing carbon from the air[…]