Apr 25th, 2024 - A metal detectorist in eastern Poland recently uncovered a religious artifact that experts believe dates back hundreds of years. Experts said the cross icon is likely a relic of the Orthodox communities that continued to practice after a series of reforms split the Russian church in the middle of the 17th century, and an example of the kinds of symbols that were outlawed during a later monarch's reign. The cross, made from copper alloy, was flagged by a metal detector in Niedrzwica Duża, a commune roughly 100 miles outside of Warsaw, according to the provincial government's monument ... [Read More]

Apr 25th, 2024 - When NASA released images of Pluto in 2015 taken by the New Horizons spacecraft, many were captivated by the dwarf planet's heart-shaped feature, now called Tombaugh Regio.   And now the mystery of how this "heart," which is nearly 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) across, came to be may be solved. A recent study in  Nature Astronomy  reveals how the western half of the heart, known as Sputnik Planitia, is the result of a massive impact. Based on simulations, the team suggests a planetary body roughly the size of Arizona from north to south collided with Pluto at a slow speed, ... [Read More]

Apr 25th, 2024 - The Church of the Eagle and the Condor has affirmed its members' right to use ayahuasca for religious ceremonial purposes. An Arizona church has reached a settlement in a lawsuit against the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal agencies that allows the Indigenous religious organization to use the psychedelic brew ayahuasca for sacramental purposes. Under the agreement, the Church of the Eagle and the Condor (CEC) will be permitted to import, prepare and distribute ayahuasca to its members at religious ceremonies. "The Church of the Eagle and the Condor has reached a ... [Read More]

Apr 25th, 2024 - About a trillion tiny particles called neutrinos pass through you every second. Created during the Big Bang, these "relic" neutrinos exist throughout the entire universe, but they can't harm you. In fact, only one of them is likely to lightly tap an atom in your body in your entire lifetime. Most neutrinos produced by objects such as black holes have much more energy than the relic neutrinos floating through space. While much rarer, these energetic neutrinos are more likely to crash into something and create a signal that physicists like me can detect. But to detect them, neutrino physicists ... [Read More]

Apr 25th, 2024 - Mice lacking an olfactory system have had their sense of smell restored with neurons from rats, the first time scientists have successfully integrated the sensory apparatus of one species into another. f mice ever wonder what it's like to experience the world as a rat, some are now able to live that dream, at least when it comes to the sense of smell. Researchers led by Columbia University's Kristin Baldwin have created mice with hybrid brains -- part mouse, part rat -- that sense the odors of the world with their rat neurons. It is the first time that an animal has been able to use the ... [Read More]

Apr 24th, 2024 - The venerable Hubble Space Telescope is like a gift that keeps on giving. Not only is it still making astronomical discoveries after more than thirty years in operation. It is also making discoveries by accident! Thanks to an international team of citizen scientists, with the help of astronomers from the European Space Agency (ESA) and some machine learning algorithms, a new sample of over one thousand asteroids has been identified in Hubble's archival data. The methods used represent a new approach for finding objects in decades-old data that could be applied to other datasets as well. The ... [Read More]

Apr 24th, 2024 - The initial step in the search for extraterrestrial life involves identifying the presence of liquid water. The moons of Saturn and Jupiter like Enceladus, Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto are suspected of holding oceans of liquid water beneath icy crusts. Similarly, some exoplanets beyond our solar system likely host liquid water, crucial for habitability. But detecting water, when we can't physically access these celestial bodies, poses challenges. Ice-penetrating radar, a geophysical tool, has proven capable of detecting liquid water on Earth and beneath Mars ' South polar cap. Now, this ... [Read More]

Apr 24th, 2024 - Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have recently reported that both public parks and private backyards play a vital role in supporting bird diversity in urban environments. "Greenspaces are increasingly valued for supporting biodiversity in urbanized landscapes. Previous research efforts have emphasized the importance of public land such as parks and nature preserves for biodiversity, yet private yards in residential neighborhoods also have great potential for species conservation," wrote the researchers. By studying two closely situated cities in Illinois with ... [Read More]