Latest Articles
-
Aug- 2022 -11 AugustEvolution
Scientists Solve a 120-Year-Old Mystery: How Did the Monstrous Plesiosaurs Swim?
Lead Image: Artist’s concept of a plesiosaur. Plesiosaurs are characterized by four uniform flippers. A new study reveals how plesiosaurs swam underwater Plesiosaurs, who lived around 210 million years ago, adapted to living underwater in an unusual way: their front and hind legs evolved to become four uniform, wing-like flippers over time. Dr. Anna Krahl examined how they utilized them to travel through the water in her thesis, which was supervised at Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the University of Bonn. She was able to demonstrate that twisting the flippers was crucial for forward motion in part by using the finite element…
Read More » -
10 AugustParticle Physics
The Strength of the Strong Force – Accounting for 99% of the Ordinary Mass in the Universe
New experiments hone in on a never-before-measured region of strong force coupling, a quantity that supports theories accounting for 99 percent of the ordinary mass in the universe. Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory experiments hone in on a never-before-measured region of strong force coupling, a quantity that supports theories accounting for 99% of the ordinary mass in the universe. Much fanfare was made about the Higgs boson when this elusive particle was discovered in 2012. Although it was touted as giving ordinary matter mass, interactions with the Higgs field only generate about 1% of ordinary mass. The other 99% comes from…
Read More » -
10 AugustHealth
Cancer Breakthrough: Unexpected Link Discovered Between Most Common Cancer Drivers
Lead Image: The study discovered connections between the PI3K/Akt and p53 pathways that provide potential targets for novel cancer treatments. An unexpected relationship between two of the most frequent cancer-causing factors might lead to more effective drugs. According to a recent study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, two of the most common genetic changes that result in cancerous cells, which were previously believed to be distinct and controlled by different cellular signals, are really working together. To treat cancer, researchers have so far concentrated on developing medications that either inhibit one or the other. Treatments that work better could result…
Read More » -
10 AugustAerospace Engineering
Russians Building a Satellite-Blinding Laser – An Expert Explains the Ominous Technology
A powerful enough laser beam could blind spy satellites. According to a recent report in The Space Review, Russia is building a new ground-based laser facility for interfering with satellites orbiting overhead. The basic idea is simple: flooding the optical sensors of other nations’ spy satellites with laser light to dazzle them. Laser technology has evolved to the point where this type of anti-satellite defense is definitely plausible. However, there is limited evidence of any nation successfully testing such a laser. If the Russian government is able to build it, lasers like this would be capable of shielding a large…
Read More » -
10 AugustEvolution
The Pitfalls of Evolutionary Genomics
Lead Image: Recent research analyzes mathematical models created to deduce conclusions about how evolution works at the level of populations of organisms. A study examines the benefits and drawbacks of evolutionary genomics. Claudius Ptolemy, an astronomer and mathematician from Alexandria in the second century, had a lofty goal. He wrote the Almagest, a magisterial treatise that attempts to explain the motion of stars and the motions of planets. Ptolemy devised a sophisticated mathematical universe model that seemed to replicate the motions of the celestial bodies he had been seeing. Unfortunately, his cosmic plan had a catastrophic weakness at its heart. Ptolemy…
Read More »
