Science and Nature

Sometimes the sun just shines too brightly on California. The state is such a glutton for solar energy—a million solar-paneled rooftops, hundreds of enormous solar stations—that it routinely harvests more megawatts than people can use or the grid can handle. During a couple of cloudless weeks in March 2017, California actually had to pay Arizona…

When the city of Cleveland instituted a partial lockdown in October 1918, shuttering nearly all businesses after 8 pm, a writer for a local newspaper observed that life had become “ just a big vacuum, a great monstrous wad of nothing.” To curb the Spanish Flu, Cleveland was not nearly as aggressive as cities like…

To participate and download the app, you'll have to sign up for the project through UCSF's Eureka Research platform using your phone number. Upon installing the app, it will ask you to complete a 10-to-15 minute initial survey about your health and daily habits. After that, you'll get follow-up questions via push notifications and text…

Someone receiving a chiropractic adjustmentPhoto: Aleksander Chaibi (Wikimedia Commons)Chiropractors in Canada and elsewhere are being told to stop advertising their services as a treatment for covid-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus.In Canada, organizations such as the College of Chiropractors of Ontario have sent dozens of warning letters to clinics and practitioners in the…

The Figueira Brava site on Portugal’s Atlantic coast.Image: P. Zilhão et al., 2020/ScienceNeanderthals living in Portugal during the last ice age consumed copious amounts of seafood, according to new archaeological evidence. The discovery suggests Neanderthals, like our modern human ancestors, made the most of marine resources.Marine food resources such as fish, eel, mollusk, and crab…

Artist’s conception of Perseverance working on the Martian surface.Image: NASA/JPL-CaltechAfter months of anticipation and a naming contest that involved hundreds of thousands of voters, NASA has finally settled on a name for its upcoming Mars rover: Perseverance.Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity—and now Perseverance.The next-gen Mars 2020 rover is basically ready for launch, which is scheduled for…

A scanning electron micrograph of the device used to store quantum information in order to extend the reach of quantum communications.Image: Bart Machielse (Harvard University)A newly created system can enhance quantum communications over longer distances—a small but crucial step toward a quantum internet.We’re in the early stages of a quantum boom, as researchers are attempting…

This story originally appeared in The Guardian and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration.The coronavirus pandemic is shutting down industrial activity and temporarily slashing air pollution levels around the world, satellite imagery from the European Space Agency shows.One expert said the sudden shift represented the “largest-scale experiment ever,” in terms of the reduction of…

When spacecraft leave the Earth they are destined to either land somehere, orbit something or fly by a planetary object. And one of the very first things NASA does when a spacecraft lands on another planet is to have it take a selfie: “Let me see your wheels in the dirt so I know you…

The moderators of r/weddingplanning are no strangers to controversy. Divisive dresses, family dramas, and anxious brides and grooms are par for the course for the volunteer supervisors of Reddit’s go-to forum for the recently betrothed. Then came the coronavirus.Wired UKThis story originally appeared on WIRED UK.Suddenly, the usual mix of wedding dress pictures and etiquette…

Viral particles of SARS-CoV-2, seen under a transmission electron microscope in a sample taken from a person.Image: C.S. Goldsmith and A. Tamin (CDC)With new information about the novel coronavirus seemingly arriving every hour on the hour, it’s perfectly understandable to feel confused and discombobulated. With that in mind, here’s a mantra I’ve held close to…

If Queen Greta stans, so do we.Photo: GettyFor the last two weeks, youth climate organizers in New York have been discussing how climate striking may change now that the novel coronavirus had reached the state. These conversations have been happening elsewhere, too, including in Spain and Belgium. And now Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teen activist…