It cost 10 billion bucks, and is 14 years behind schedule, but the James Webb Space Telescope will finally launch into space on October 31, 2021. No wait, that date is now December 18, 2021, which probably should be considered as tentative, too. In the early days of science, gentlemen astronomers bu[...]
Archive for the ‘Science’ Category
September 20th, 2021 - 1:21 am § in Science
Could a solar flare fry your iPhone?
Sure could. A little one could knock out the entire internet. A bigger one would also take out satellites, the internet, power grids, undersea cables — and data storage. “We could lose all our records, bank information, and critical health information and not have anything to go back to.[...]
September 16th, 2021 - 10:50 pm § in Science
When was clothing invented?
Archaeologists have found evidence — in the form of bone tools and scrape marks on animal bones — of early Africans making clothing from animal skins 120,000 years ago, the Guardian reports (see story here, and/or study here). Taken together, the tools and scrape marks suggest those anci[...]
September 14th, 2021 - 6:20 pm § in Science
Dogbone asteroid
A huge asteroid (superimposed over Italy for scale in the artist’s rendering below) named after a famous Egyptian queen is shaped like a dogbone, and has its own moons. To me it looks more like a peanut. Read story here. Return to The-Ave.US Home Page[...]
A primer on amateur astronomy
In the beginning, the night sky was full of holes, or pixie dust, or whatever. At some time in the distant past, I have no idea when, somebody figured out what stars are. It took longer to realize how far away they are. People began getting a closer look at them, and the planets, beginning […[...]
August 28th, 2021 - 9:02 pm § in Environment, Science
How to beat gender discrimination
Female hummingbirds, like females everywhere, have to put up with a lot of crap. But some of them have figured out a way around it. Don’t want to be harassed at meal time, or chased, plucked, and body-slammed? Then retain your blue feathers so the boys will think you’re one of them. Read[...]
August 8th, 2021 - 7:32 pm § in Science
Trying to explain dark matter
Scientists haven’t detected it, and can’t show it exists; they infer it does. Mathematics argues galaxies should be tearing themselves apart unless they have 10 times more mass than we can see. So scientists have tried to explain the gravity holding galaxies together by postulating the e[...]
Climate experts: “Almost out of time”
“As the world battles historic droughts, landscape-altering wildfires and deadly floods, a landmark report from global scientists says the window is rapidly closing to cut our reliance on fossil fuels and avoid catastrophic changes that would transform life as we know it,” CNN reported o[...]
August 7th, 2021 - 1:01 pm § in Environment, Science
The world’s top gymnasts
… are squirrels. They flip, leap, and vault through the treetops. The “speed and ease with which they navigate the challenging and unpredictable canopy environment is spectacular,” a Berkeley biomechanics expert says. They also have excellent memories — they have mapped route[...]
PHOTOGRAPY: Galaxy collision
Three galaxies collided 747 million years ago. It took that long for news to reach the Hubble Space Telescope, because they’re far away, and light travels only 186,000 miles per second. Return to The-Ave.US Home Page[...]