ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 539
March 14, 2016
Twelve Enormous Volcanic Eruptions Mark Path Of Destruction From Idaho To Yellowstone
Photo credit:
The violent past has left the western U.S. with plenty of scars. KalypsoWorldPhotography/Shutterstock
The Cassia Hills are a relatively quiet part of the state of Idaho today, but once upon a time the region was home to a series of cataclysmic volcanic eruptions. Over the course of several million years, they burned a track towards the infamous Yellowstone supervolcano up in Wyoming, like a fuse leading to a rather considerable-sized bomb.
New Dinosaur Discovery Could Solve Decades-Old Mystery
Photo credit:
Horse-sized primitive tyrannosaur Timurlengia euotica from the middle Cretaceous of Uzbekistan. Todd Marshall
A horse-sized tyrannosauroid may help explain how the small, toothy predators of the Early Cretaceous evolved into the colossal carnivores that dominated from 80 to 66 million years ago. The mid-sized Timurlengia euotica from Middle Cretaceous Uzbekistan is the long-awaited intermediate tyrannosauroid: It had yet to develop the size of T.
Scott Kelly To Retire From NASA After Spending A Year In Space
Photo credit:
Farewell, space traveller. NASA
There are many impressive ways to bow out of your job, but perhaps breaking the record for the longest single U.S. spaceflight and becoming one of the first two humans to spend a year aboard the International Space Station (ISS) tops them all.
Huge Underwater Methane Craters Discovered In The Arctic
Photo credit:
Boom! Methane bubbles are probably to blame here. G Tipene/Shutterstock
Craters up to a kilometer (0.6 miles) wide have been found within the Barents Sea off the northern coast of Norway. As reported by the Sunday Times, these are likely to be due to unstable build-ups of methane, a notoriously volatile and at times explosive natural gas.
What’s The Most Ignorant Country In The World?
Photo credit:
Pavel Vakhrushev/Shutterstock
No matter how well versed you may be with the latest goings-on in the world, it’s all too easy to slip behind occasionally. However, according to a survey by Ipsos MORI, some corners of the world could be more guilty of this than others.
What Is The Most Beautiful Equation Known To Mankind?
Photo credit:
ChristianChan/Shutterstock
It’s often said that if you want to understand the universe, you need to think in equations. While mathematics can easily set off a high school flashback, it’s often only the raw power of numbers that have the ability to express the inexpressible complexity and beauty of our universe.
The ESA Is Launching A New Mars Mission TODAY – Watch It Live
Photo credit:
Artist's impression of the spacecraft in orbit. ESA/ATG medialab
The first part of a joint European-Russian mission to Mars is about to launch today at 4.31 a.m. EST (9.31 a.m. GMT), and you can watch it live below. The hugely exciting mission, called ExoMars, will ultimately be one of the most advanced searches for life on the Red Planet yet.
March 13, 2016
This Week in Science
This is a collection of the 10 best and most popular stories from science and technology over the past 7 days. Scroll down and click the individual images below to read the stories and follow the This Week in Science on Wakelet (here) to get these weekly updates straight to your inbox every Sunday.
A Deeper Look Into Galaxy Clusters
Photo credit:
Frontier Fields galaxy cluster MACS J0416. X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/G. Ogrean et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI; Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA
Galaxies organize themselves in large and often dense groups called clusters. These structures are not only interesting for their size, but also because they allow us to understand how the entire universe has evolved through the ages.
For this reason, scientists launched Frontier Fields, a project to take long observations of six galaxy clusters using the Hubble Space Telescope. These observations are combined with other telescopes to produce the most advanced views of these giants we have ever seen.
Record Increase Of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide During 2015
Photo credit:
The observatory in Hawaii has been recording atmospheric data continuously for the last 56 years. NOAA
We’ve had the hottest year on record, the warmest Arctic winter in human history, and it now appears that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere grew more in 2015 than at any other point over the last 56 years. The dramatic spike is thought to be down to the continual pumping of CO2 into the atmosphere by humans, but has also been exacerbated by the historically strong El Niño that has battered the western coast of the Americas over the last 12 months.
ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog
- ريتشارد دوكنز's profile
- 106 followers
