Posts

The sauropod-like dinosaurs that would become the giant herbivore species seen during the Jurassic (such as Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus) thrived and expanded to new territories as the Earth warmed. These dinosaurs are known for their massive bodies with long tails and giraffe-like necks paired with and a small head. An team of paleontologists from the United Kingdom, Germany, and Brazil compared computer models of global climate conditions, such as rainfall and temperature, with data on the different locations of dinosaurs during this time period....

You’d think Marvel might be loathed to revisit the ’90s and the brand’s relationship with the action figure manufacturer Toy Biz, since it represents an era when Marvel was going bankrupt and its future was very much in doubt. But the power of nostalgia is strong, especially when it comes to the X-Men. The ’90s animated series is still beloved, and Marvel is using its 80th birthday to bring out a line of finely-detailed figures in the classic X-Men packaging of the era....

Coral reefs are currently threatened by pollution, climate change, ocean acidification, and more. The marine invertebrates reproduce by producing trillions of microscopic larvae that can travel up to 62 miles and then settle into the seabed. Their tiny size and massive travel radius make tracking the larvae a challenge. A team of researchers collected nearly 3,000 larvae from lab-reared corals of Acropora spathulata and Platygyra daedalea to test this new tracking method....

Screens have gotten much tougher in recent years. And they’re about to get even tougher. Corning just introduced the latest version of its Gorilla Glass material that promises even more resilience in the face of clumsiness. Corning calls its new material Gorilla Glass Victus, which it claims can survive a 6.7 feet, up from 5.3 feet in its previous iteration. Corning also claims Victus can endure double the pressure during the Knoop Diamond test, which uses a metal point under pressure to test how hard a material is to scratch....

The Curiosity rover has been searching for biosignatures, or indicators of previous life on Mars, since it landed on the planet in 2012. Today, Mars is mostly made up of dirt, dust, and gas, but long ago it may have been home to lakes, rivers, and microbial life. The sample Curiosity collected from the Bagnold Dune on Mars did not have biosignatures on it, which is evidence of past life, but it did identify two noteworthy compounds: ammonia and the organic compound, benzoic acid....

Best of all, the shades let in about 80 percent of sunlight, so you’re not in the dark when the power goes out. The fabric’s brute strength comes from Honeywell Spectra fiber—the same stuff used in some bulletproof vests—adapted to stand up to Florida’s tough building codes. To make a wind- and waterproof coating (typically used on outdoor gear) stick to Spectra’s slippery polyethylene strands, the company spent two and a half years finding the correct mix of time and heat for an even coating....

Science is often a frustrating process, full of tedium and setbacks. But sometimes an experiment goes better than anticipated. Case in point: In their new study (out last week in the journal Nature Plants), researchers had such great results that they used the word “remarkable” to describe them. In their attempt to give tobacco a new job, the engineers inserted a bacterial gene that makes the enzyme Cel6A in chloroplasts into the plant....

Developers in the crowd answered with a resounding “Yes.” In fact, it seems to be downright easy for anyone with coding experience. For instance, Mark Terry, a British developer who works in the insurance industry by day, created one of the hit applications shown during the keynote. His program, Band, turns the iPhone into a pocket recording studio. Using the iPhone’s multitouch screen, people can tap virtual piano keys or strum graphical guitar strings, for instance, then mix the tracks into audio recordings....

Launch our gallery to see just a handful of the amazing stuff on display this weekend, from the iPhone-controlled watering can to the hacked Guitar Hero controllers that serve as—gasp!—real instruments. PopSci Podcaster Chuck Cage also threw together the great Maker Faire highlight reel below. If you missed the Faire this weekend, never fear: the circus rolls into Austin, Texas later this year.

The CoviDIAB Project is a global registry of COVID-19 patients who develop diabetes after infection with the novel coronavirus. The project launched Friday, but already has 50 requests from researchers around the globe to upload pertinent data, says Francesco Rubino, one of the letter’s authors and a professor of metabolic and bariatric surgery at King’s College London. “Given the very short history of human contact with COVID-19, this registry will rapidly help us understand how COVID-19-related diabetes develops, its natural history, and its best management,” the registry website reads....

The script also required one of the pilots to eject from the cockpit, as seen below. Whatever movie this ends up being part of, I’d buy my ticket now if I could. I hope it’s in 3-D. [via DEWline]

One section, “Firing Blind” specifically honed in on the limits of drones, as found in the skies above Somalia and Yemen. Because airbases were far from the areas of Somalia that the Pentagon wanted to watch, drones and other surveillance aircraft spent much of their flight time just getting in place. This limitation meant that, instead of setting up persistent spying surveillance flights, drones were used a lot more for targeted killing, which “are intelligence dead ends” From the text: Rather than confirming a vision of highly mechanized, robotic warfare, The Intercept‘s report portrays the targeted killing program as one filled with profound compromises and hampered by limitations....

If you’ve got clothes pins and drying lines in your yard, let them dry under the sun. For apartment dwellers or for more delicate pieces you want to keep inside, try one of these easy-to-use drying racks. It’s a cheap and easy way to reduce your carbon footprint, too. Pair your naturally dried clothes with an all-natural rack: this one is made out of bamboo, a renewable, durable, and attractive natural material that’s lightweight to carry and sturdy enough to support wet jeans or bed linens....

Cloning has been controversial ever since Scottish scientists announced in 1996 that they had cloned their first mammal, a sheep they named Dolly. While Dolly lived a painful, arthritic life and died prematurely, possibly due to the imperfections of cloning, industry nonetheless began seeking out ways to capitalize on the new technology. Meanwhile, critics bemoan cloning as immoral, and eating cloned meat a potential health and safety risk, given the as-yet-unknown consequences of eating foods generated in this way....

According to the United Nations’ 2022 Scientific Assessment Panel to the Montreal Protocol on Ozone Depleting Substances, 99 percent of banned ozone-depleting substances, including chlorofluorocarbons, have been successfully phased out. If current policies remain, Earth’s ozone layer is expected to recover to values seen before ozone holes were were detected by about 2066 over the Antarctic, 2045 over the Arctic, and as soon as 2040 for the rest of the world....

The idea that obesity can be controlled with the brain shouldn’t be that surprising—everything from appetite and cravings to self-control is funneled through the brain, even if the signals are coming from the stomach. Past studies have shown that obese people have less activity than lean people in a particular region of the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for behavioral planning and making decisions. That suggests that people who are obese might have trouble quieting signals that come from more primal parts of the brain that tell them to keep eating, even if they want to lose weight....

Older risk models may not work well enough, a letter, published in Nature by Boulder ecologist Brett Melbourne, reports. Traditional models rely on two main factors: The number of random events affecting individuals within a species, and the impact of things like temperature and weather changes on a species. But when Melbourne and colleagues added sex variations and physical variations between individuals into their model, risk went up a hundredfold....

“We guarantee full safety according to the FIA guidelines and regulations,” says Peter Utz, the head of the technical department safety solutions at Geobrugg. The purpose of debris fences is to keep all the detritus from a crash on the side of the racetrack. This includes flying scrap metal, loose tires, and in the very worst cases, the race car itself. Standard debris fences rise 11 feet above the ground, consisting of poles affixed with concrete at the base....

We chatted with nurses and healthcare providers across the country to see what you absolutely need to keep on you and keep in mind as you head out to protest. Here are a few tips for keeping your cool in a potentially fiery environment. Prepping and getting dressed Before you even step outside your front door, there are a few things you need to do. First off, says Richmond-area ICU nurse Emily Cramer, is to establish a group of people you plan to stick with....

If you dabble in small home improvement projects, this inexpensive standard hammer will not let you down. It weighs just a pound and has a 13-inch handle that’s natural to grip. The steel head has a claw on the back to rip out nails or tacks if you need to undo a misfire or are repurposing the wood from an old piece of furniture. You might just be using this hammer to replace the steps on your porch, but you could use it on a construction site....