Wendy Science

The skin of one type of California octopus can sense light and camouflage itself without signals from the eyes and brain. Click here for a transcript of this video. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Black balls that litter the planet may prove the best marker for a new geologic epoch recognizing humanity's outsized impacts By | | Fire ranks among humanity's . Now the residue from all the oil and coal burned to power modern civilization may provide the best marker for the start of a new geologic epoch that highlights s world-changing impact, known as the , or "new age of humans." "We're actually changing and continuing to change how the Earth system functions and leaving time," says Earth scientist Karen Bacon of the University of Leeds in England. "That's quite incredible to think about." The proposed marker is billions of microscopic black balls found from the high arctic to the bottoms of lakes in Chile. When a flame eats into the hydrocarbons known as coal or oil, not all the carbon atoms pair up with the oxygen that makes fire and carbon dioxide emissions possible. Some of that carbon remains bonded tightly to its fellow carb...

Homes and stables were evacuated during a rattling evening southeast of Los Angeles last month, as   while they chewed through pine needles, dead leaves and other fuels that had built up in scrub and forest during a decades-long absence of fire. Firefighters eventually prevailed against the  —so-named because it began near a highway—by corralling it and watching as it burned out. But the 1,000-acre conflagration was an anxiety-inducing prelude to what's projected to be a   up and down the West Coast, mostly affecting parched seaside states well west and north of  . Unseasonable blazes are  . “Things are stacking up badly,”  , a fire scientist on faculty at the University of California at Berkeley, said. The summer and fall promise to extend a long run of  —fires that are   by climate change. The unique weather and landscapes of the American West usher in regular wildfires. Drought and heat wrought by stubborn ocean condition...

Skull fragments dating back 430,000 years appear to be those of the world's first known murder victim, based on the damage observed. Dina Maron reports. By | | The first murder victim is Abel, taken out by his brother Cain. And now we have what looks to be the earliest known to be confirmed by scientists—a new study concludes that human remains found at an archeological site in northern Spain are from someone who was bludgeoned to death about 430,000 years ago. The findings are in the journal . [Nohemi Sala et al, ] The researchers pieced together 52 skull fragments found in an underground cave. Two holes above the left eye socket are especially diagnostic—a blow that would create either hole would probably be deadly. And the lack of any signs of healing around the holes implies either that the impacts were lethal, or occurred after death. The absence of any cut marks on the skull helps rule out postmortem cannibalism or rituals that could have caused the observed damage. Th...

The Thirty Meter Telescope can revolutionize astronomy and become a part of the holy mountain’s rich cultural heritage By | | Illustration by Julian Callos “The ancient Hawaiians were astronomers,” wrote Queen Liliuokalani, Hawaii’s last reigning monarch, in 1897. , or “star watchers,” were among the most esteemed members of Hawaiian society. Sadly, all is not well with astronomy in Hawaii today. Protests have erupted over construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), a giant observatory that promises to revolutionize humanity’s view of the cosmos. At issue is the TMT’s planned location on Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano revered by some Hawaiians as the , or “umbilical cord,” that connects the Hawaiian Islands to the heavens. But Mauna Kea is also home to some of the world’s most powerful telescopes. Perched in the Pacific Ocean, Mauna Kea’s peak rises above the bulk of our planet’s dense atmosphere, where conditions allow telescopes to obtain images of unsurpassed clarit...

A sports science activity by Science Buddies By | | What is one trick to throwing a ball farther? Learn a little about physics--and how those baseball outfielders can make such impressive plays--with this fastmoving activity!  Key concepts MotionResistance Introduction Background When air resistance is very low, a projectile moves in the shape of a parabola—a type of mathematical curve. (You can do an Internet search for "parabola" to see what one looks like.) The path the ball follows (called its trajectory) will determine how far it goes before it hits the ground. Adjusting the ball’s initial angle and keeping its initial speed constant is one way to find out the best angle to throw a ball as far as possible. In this experiment you will throw a ball as hard as you can while changing the ball's initial angle relative to the ground. What angle do you think will make the ball go the farthest? Materials Sports ball of your choice (baseball, tennis ball, football, ...

Blazars, some of the most powerful phenomena in the universe, are gigantic black holes at the centers of galaxies that are gorging on matter and shooting out jets of particles and light. This light is so bright astronomers can spot blazars from billions of light-years across the universe. Recently, scientists used blazars to see another type of light that would otherwise be impossible to detect. The extragalactic background light (EBL) is a radiation field pervading space that includes the light emitted by all the stars in all the galaxies over the entire history of the universe. Despite its plentitude, this light is hard to see because it is diffuse throughout the sky and is outshone by brighter foreground sources. Some of the researchers who finally detected the EBL in 2013 after roughly a decade of searching describe how they did it with the help of blazars in ’s June feature article “ ,” by Alberto Domínguez, Joel R. Primack and Trudy E. Bell. [embedded content] Blazars emit co...