All's not as it appears, this tale has many twists -
but if I wasn't here documenting the story
would that mean that the plot did not exist?

— Peter Hammill

Scientific American.com

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Updated: 9 hours 30 min ago

Cicadas Are Basically Safe for You—And Your Dog—to Eat. Here’s What to Know

Fri, 04/26/2024 - 7:00am

Here’s what a chef, a vet and two anthropologists have to say about eating periodical cicadas

Categories: Astronomy

The Threat of a Solar Superstorm Is Growing—And We’re Not Ready

Fri, 04/26/2024 - 6:45am

Someday an unlucky outburst from our sun could strike Earth and fry most of our electronics—and we’ve already had some too-close-for-comfort near misses

Categories: Astronomy

A Long-Awaited Climate Experiment Is Poised to Launch in the Amazon. What Will It Find?

Fri, 04/26/2024 - 6:00am

Ahead of a project to spray carbon dioxide into jungle plots, researchers contemplate what its results might signal about the forest’s future.

Categories: Astronomy

Elizabeth Bates and the Search for the Roots of Human Language

Thu, 04/25/2024 - 5:00pm

In the 1970s a young psychologist challenged a popular theory of how we acquire language, launching a fierce debate that continues to this day

Categories: Astronomy

New Pollution Regulations Could Largely Eliminate Coal Power by the 2030s

Thu, 04/25/2024 - 4:00pm

The EPA has released four new pollution rules, most focusing on coal-fired power, as the final pieces of Biden’s push to clean up the power sector

Categories: Astronomy

How Temperate Forests Could Help Limit Climate Change

Thu, 04/25/2024 - 3:00pm

People understand how saving tropical forests is good for the planet, but temperate forests are equally indispensable in fighting climate change

Categories: Astronomy

We Are in the Golden Age of Bird-Watching

Thu, 04/25/2024 - 10:45am

There has never been a better time to be or become a birder

Categories: Astronomy

An Indigenous Archaeologist’s Journey to Find the Lost Children of the Residential Schools

Thu, 04/25/2024 - 9:00am

How “heart-centered” archaeology is helping to find the Indigenous children who never came home from residential schools

Categories: Astronomy

How to Filter Out Harmful ‘Forever Chemicals’ at Home

Thu, 04/25/2024 - 8:00am

An environmental engineer provides a glimpse of the magnitude of the challenge to remove PFAS from water supplies and ways you can reduce these “forever chemicals” in your own drinking water

Categories: Astronomy

Extrovert or Introvert: Most People Are Actually Ambiverts

Thu, 04/25/2024 - 7:00am

Research on personality types in the middle of the extroversion-introversion scale is limited—yet the majority of people fall into this category

Categories: Astronomy

Woman Receives Genetically Modified Pig Kidney Transplant after Heart Pump Surgery

Wed, 04/24/2024 - 1:30pm

A woman with life-threatening heart and kidney disease became the second person ever to receive a genetically modified pig kidney and the first person to receive a heart pump and a transplanted organ together

Categories: Astronomy

How Sugar Gliders Got Their Wings

Wed, 04/24/2024 - 11:00am

Several marsupial species, including sugar gliders, independently evolved a way to make membranes that allow them to glide through the air

Categories: Astronomy

New Geothermal Technology Could Expand Clean Power Generation

Wed, 04/24/2024 - 9:00am

Long confined to regions with volcanic activity, geothermal promises to become a much more versatile energy source thanks to new technologies

Categories: Astronomy

Soviet-Era Pseudoscience Lurks behind ‘Havana Syndrome’ Worries

Wed, 04/24/2024 - 7:00am

Dodgy studies and fantastic claims have long powered a belief in devious Russian brain weapons, from mind control to microwave devices   

Categories: Astronomy

Lemon-Scented Marijuana Compound Reduces Weed’s ‘Paranoia’ Effect

Wed, 04/24/2024 - 6:45am

The molecule that gives cannabis its citrusy smell can make THC less anxiety-inducing

Categories: Astronomy

A Singular Climate Experiment Takes Shape in the Amazon

Wed, 04/24/2024 - 6:30am

After years of delay, researchers are ready to inject carbon dioxide into jungle plots.

Categories: Astronomy

This Simple Strategy Might Be the Key to Advancing Science Faster

Wed, 04/24/2024 - 6:00am

The incentives in science don’t always encourage openness—but being wrong might just be the key to getting it right.

Categories: Astronomy

A Golden Age of Renewables Is Beginning, and California Is Leading the Way

Wed, 04/24/2024 - 3:30am

California has hit record-breaking milestones in renewable electricity generation, showing that wind, water and solar are ready to cover our electricity needs

Categories: Astronomy

Glow-in-the-Dark Animals May Have Been Around for 540 Million Years

Tue, 04/23/2024 - 7:01pm

Ancestors of so-called soft corals may have developed bioluminescence in the earliest days of deep-ocean living

Categories: Astronomy

New Interactive Map Shows Where Extreme Heat Threatens Health

Tue, 04/23/2024 - 1:00pm

People in the U.S. will be able to see where extreme heat is a threat to health with a new interactive tool created by the National Weather Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Categories: Astronomy