The Apollo astronauts faced a lot of challenges in their time on the moon, but having enough to eat was not among them. The longest any of the crews spent on the surface was the three days logged by Apollo 17 in 1972, and even in the astronauts’ tiny lunar module, there was enough room for the shrink-wrapped, pre-packaged provisions they’d need for such a brief camping trip. The nex…
Read moreNatural disasters were once entirely natural — and most still are. Hurricanes, however, may be a different matter. As Hurricane Irma roars toward Florida, Hurricanes Jose and Katia churn in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, and Houston picks up after Hurricane Harvey, the familiar question is being raised: what role does climate change play in all this volatilityคำพูด…
Read moreWhen I force myself to think back on the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, a few key memories come to mind: Me, endlessly checking the news for the latest frightening updates. The eerily quiet streets of Brooklyn, save for the sirens of speeding ambulances. Nights spent toggling between insomnia and vivid nightmares.คำพูดจาก Read more
When Annlyse Retiveau leaned in to sniff my armpits, I held my own breath as she inhaled. I’ve spent a vast majority of my life using products to avoid this precise critique—another human intentionally evaluating my armpit aroma. Yet, whether we like it or not, humans do smell each other, and we can glean useful social cues and health information from the body odor of others, albeit…
Read moreGENEVA — The U.N. weather agency is sounding a “red alert” about global warming, citing record-smashing increases last year in greenhouse gases, land and water temperatures and melting of glaciers and sea ice, and is warning that the world’s efforts to reverse the trend have been inadequate.
The World Meteorological Organization said there is a “high probability” that 2024 will …
Read moreIn mid-January, threatening social media messages started showing up on the accounts of a small New Jersey organization devoted to rescuing ocean mammals that wash up on the beach. Some said “we’re watching you.” Others accused staff of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC) being “whale murderers.” Some people wrote that they were going to show up at the group&…
Read moreIt’s a very good thing spacecraft can’t get bored, because if spacecraft could get bored, the Kepler space telescope would have gone out of its mind long ago. It was in March 2009 when NASA launched Kepler into orbit around the sun, pointed it to a small patch of deep space containing about 150,000 stars, and gave it one instruction: “Don’t blink — ever.&#…
Read moreThe COVID-19 pandemic will forever be associated with unprecedented lockdowns and inconveniences such as wearing masks in public. And that’s largely because health experts had no idea exactly where the SARS-CoV-2 virus was lurking, and how risky crowded settings such as workplaces, classrooms, and public transportation were.
But what if an easy-to-use, mobile device could detect, in…
Read moreFor most people, Aug. 2, 2023 has been a day that’s gone largely unremarked upon. But for the planet as a whole, it was a very big—and very bad—date. Aug. 2 marked this year’s so-called Earth Overshoot Day—the day on which the annual resources humanity extracts from the earth exceeds the planet’s ability to regenerate them in the same year. Haul more fish from the ocean than can breed…
Read moreFloodwaters have started to recede four days after the destruction of Ukraine’s Kakhovka Dam, laying bare environmental destruction as well as the risk of catastrophic health problems for the downstream population.
Ecological damage alone from the collapse of the dam in its southern region will be more than 55 billion hryvnia ($1.5 billion), although the consequences have just start…
Read more