Drifting through the Orion Arm of the spiral Milky Way Galaxy, this cosmic cloud by chance echoes the outline of California on the west coast of the United States. Our own Sun also lies within the Milky Way's Orion Arm, only about 1,500 light-years from... Continue Reading →
Japanese scientists are shedding new light on the importance of light-sensing cells in the retina that process visual information. The researchers isolated the functions of melanopsin cells and demonstrated their crucial role in the perception of visual environment. This ushers... Continue Reading →
Smiling really can make people feel happier, according to a paper published in Psychological Bulletin. Coauthored by researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and Texas A&M, the paper looked at nearly 50 years of data testing whether facial expressions can... Continue Reading →
What would it look like to orbit a black hole? Many black holes are surrounded by swirling pools of gas known as accretion disks. These disks can be extremely hot, and much of the orbiting gas will eventually fall through the black hole'sevent... Continue Reading →
Excess heat given off by smartphones, laptops and other electronic devices can be annoying, but beyond that it contributes to malfunctions and, in extreme cases, can even cause lithium batteries to explode. To guard against such ills, engineers often insert... Continue Reading →
Eating extra servings typically shows up on the scale later, but how this happens has not been clear. A new study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation by a multi-institutional team led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine reveals a... Continue Reading →
A colossal, head-on collision between Jupiter and a still-forming planet in the early solar system, about 4.5 billion years ago, could explain surprising readings from NASA's Juno spacecraft, according to a study this week in the journal Nature. Astronomers from Rice... Continue Reading →
In 1935, the physicist Erwin Schrödinger put forward the thought experiment with the quantum cat, in which the cat is enclosed in a box together with a radioactive sample, a detector and a lethal amount of poison. If the radioactive... Continue Reading →
Most of us know this phenomenon only too well: as soon as it is hot outside, you get an appetite for a cooling ice cream. But would you have thought that mathematics could be involved? Let us explain: The rising... Continue Reading →
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