Scientists find long-sought electric field in Earth’s atmosphere
For the first time, scientists have measured a long-sought global electric field in Earth’s atmosphere. This field, called the ambipolar electric field, was predicted to exist decades ago but was never discovered until now. his animation shows how the ambipolar electric field works. The most abundant gas in the lower atmosphere, the part we live […]
‘Smart lighting’ could make vertical farming more affordable
Flicking the dimmer switch can help some indoor farmers curb one of their biggest challenges: rising electricity costs. Growing crops in stacked rows indoors under fixed-intensity artificial lights can produce more food per square foot using less land and water than traditional outdoor farms. But this vertical farming technique is also energy intensive and expensive […]
As a dying star is similar to a lava lamp
For the first time, astronomers have seen gas boiling and bubbling on the surface of a distant star. Scientists observed the red giant star R Doradus with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA, in Chile over four weeks in July and August 2023. The series of images show large cells of gas rising to […]
A vital oceanic current is steady, for now
The ocean circulation system may not be as bad as previously thought. A vital oceanic artery known as the Florida Current, a signal of the ocean’s ability to regulate Earth’s climate, has apparently been weakening for decades. But this latest decline may not be as severe as suspected. The current has actually remained stable over […]
A neutrino mass mismatch could shake cosmology’s foundations
As the youthful universe congealed under the pull of gravity, matter knotted itself into galaxies, galaxy clusters and filaments, weaving a dazzlingly intricate cosmic web. This web’s structure is thanks, in part, to the handiwork of neutrinos — lightweight, subatomic particles that surge through the cosmos in unimaginable numbers. Because they streak about at high […]
This engineer’s light-based computers take inspiration from the brain
Bhavin Shastri still gets excited when he sees a laser pointer, and he’s been fascinated by them since he was about 10 years old. “I was amazed that a light beam could maintain its brightness, centered in a tiny spot even after traveling a great distance,” Shastri says. “A laser pointer in my hand felt like a […]
A brain network linked to attention is larger in people with depression
Symptoms of depression fluctuate over time, but many brain imaging studies of the condition only study one point in time. That’s made it hard to connect networks of brain activity to various symptoms and mood changes. Now, a new study using long-term brain imaging data shows one brain network involved in guiding attention is nearly […]
How did dark matter shape the universe? This physicist has ideas
At age 12, Tracy Slatyer felt sorry for a book. She read a newspaper article about how lots of people were buying A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. “But then … nobody was actually reading it,” she says. “People were just leaving it on their coffee tables.” Determined to rectify this wrong, Slatyer […]
A materials scientist seeks to extract lithium from untapped sources
Electric vehicles promise to help wean us off of fossil fuels, but they introduce a new problem: how to get enough of the lithium that EV batteries require (SN: 5/7/19). Materials scientist Chong Liu of the University of Chicago has some ideas. Existing technology can extract lithium only from sources with highly concentrated ions, like […]
A study in mice hints at a new way to treat spinal cord injuries
After a devastating spinal cord injury, mice’s nerve cells balloon up in size. Some of these neurons stay swollen longer than expected and begin to die, a study published September 25 in Science Translational Medicine shows. A drug that brought this swelling down improved the mice’s recovery, though it’s not yet known if the approach […]