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In the far reaches of our solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune, a mysterious and yet-unseen world may be lurking in the darkness. Dubbed “Planet 9,” this hypothetical celestial body has been the subject of intense scientific debate and speculation since its existence was first proposed in 2016. Now, a new study published to the arXiv pre-print service by a team from the California Institute of Technology, Université Côte d’Azur, and Southwest Research Institute has provided compelling evidence supporting the presence of this enigmatic planet. The origin of the Planet 9 hypothesis stems from the peculiar alignments in the...

No need to make a stink: Controlling bovine flatulence could be key to helping curb global warming. New research suggests that breeding dairy cows to fart less — and, therefore, release less methane — could cut down on greenhouse gases. The team from Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute in Australia combed through 27 reports, drawing conclusions about various ways to curb methane emissions in the dairy and beef sectors in the country. Food production is one of the leading causes of climate change — livestock farming accounts for about 10% of greenhouse gas emissions — with one 2020 study finding...

The Biden administration’s National Science Foundation (NSF) is dumping more than $2 million in taxpayer funds to back efforts aimed at diversifying marine biology and climate science, deriding the fields as “some of the least diverse STEM disciplines.” The NSF, which controls $9.9 billion of federal money and exists to “promote the progress of science,” “advance the national health,” and “secure the national defense,” is backing four different universities engaged in the study aimed at diversifying the two scientific disciplines. “The program supports research and practice projects that investigate how considerations of racial equity factor into the improvement of science,...

Explanation: Yes, but can your volcano do this? To the surprise of some, Mt. Etna emits, on occasion, smoke rings. Technically known as vortex rings, the walls of the volcano slightly slow the outside of emitted smoke puffs, causing the inside gas to move faster. A circle of low pressure develops so that the emitted puff of volcanic gas and ash loops around in a ring, a familiar geometric structure that can be surprisingly stable as it rises. Smoke rings are quite rare and need a coincidence of the right geometry of the vent, the right speed of ejected smoke,...

Opinion The scientific community celebrated April 14 as World Quantum Day to raise awareness of quantum science’s impact across diverse fields The world of science is on the cusp of a transformative era driven by the burgeoning field of quantum technology. Quantum science is founded on several key principles that underpin the behaviour of particles and systems at the quantum scale. The term “quantum scale” refers to the realm of physics that deals with phenomena occurring at very small scales, typically at the level of atoms, subatomic particles and fundamental particles. It encompasses the principles of quantum mechanics, which govern...

From the Sciences and Cosmology web page: "Want me to tell you something that will blow your mind or make you lose sleep? Well, look at this picture. Each of those dots you see is a GALAXY... And each GALAXY has roughly 100BILLION STARS. Also, each STAR has at least 1 PLANET. Now how many galaxies do you think there can be in that picture? And this is just a photograph of a very little parcel of the universe. This makes me lose sleep, thinking about how so insignificant we really are. Lol."

You never really know what you might find hiding in your own backyard, especially if those things are particularly adept at escaping detection. Just 1,924 light-years from the Solar System, in the constellation of Aquila, astronomers have just discovered a black hole. And it's not just any black hole. Named Gaia BH3, or BH3, the object is the most massive stellar-mass black hole we've ever spotted in the Milky Way, clocking in at a hefty 33 times the mass of the Sun. It's the second-closest black hole we've found to our home-world, and it's just hanging out, quietly in space,...

If someone says, “Trust the science!” these days, it’s usually an effort to short-circuit debate over weighty policy issues. “Trust the science” has been deployed in the past five years to prevent debate over COVID school closures and mask mandates, over electric-car subsidies, and over sex changes for boys and girls. For my entire time in Washington, though, “trust the science” has been used to oppose a missile defense system for the United States. For my first 20 years as a journalist, I was told that a missile defense system simply cannot work and that anyone who disagreed was a...

Caltech and JPL scientists suggest the fingerprints of early photochemistry provide a solution to the long-standing mystery. Mars is blanketed by a thin, mostly carbon dioxide atmosphere—one that is far too thin to prevent large amounts of water on the surface of the planet from subliming or evaporating. But many researchers have suggested that the planet was once shrouded in an atmosphere many times thicker than Earth's. For decades that left the question, "Where did all the carbon go?" Now a team of scientists from Caltech and JPL thinks they have a possible answer. The researchers suggest that 3.8 billion...

(Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have developed a new strategy in the quest to harness fusion to produce electricity: combining two existing methods of managing plasma to allow greater overall flexibility. The PPPL team’s new dual approach brings together electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) methods with resonant magnetic perturbations (RMP), marking the first time a simulation showing how they can be used together could facilitate greater control of plasma during fusion reactions. In simple terms, fusion produces energy by replicating the natural processes occurring on the surface of...

Research scientists from Linköping University (LiU) in Sweden say they have created the first two-dimensional single-atom layer of gold using a technique perfected by Japanese smiths over 100 years ago. Dubbed “goldene” in reference to the popular single-atom carbon material graphene that essentially kicked off the 2D materials revolution, the breakthrough material could possess a large number of exotic properties like those found in other single-atom 2D materials. The researchers behind the first-ever accomplishment also say they believe goldene could also offer several immediate applications. These include new methods for harvesting energy, catalysis for hydrogen generation, carbon conversion, water purification,...

Global warming has slightly slowed the Earth’s rotation — and it could affect how we measure time. A study published Wednesday found that the melting of polar ice — an accelerating trend driven primarily by human-caused climate change — has caused the Earth to spin less quickly than it would otherwise.

International Thinktank Applied Physics (AP) has released its “Warp Factory” simulator and toolkit to help scientists and engineers move closer to building a real-world Star Trek-style warp drive. Having already established itself in the nascent field of warp mechanics with the previous release of its “physical warp drive” design in 2021, AP is now offering its expertise to the broader community to advance the development of existing and future warp drive concepts. The Public Benefit Corporation is also putting its money where its mouth is by offering warp field theorists a chance at $500,000 worth of grant money, a commitment...

Scientists have found methane deep within Uranus - revealing the blue planet is gassier than previously thought. Early experiments of Uranus found the planet is primarily made up of Helium and hydrogen with a touch of methane, but a new study said it considerably outstrips previous expectations. What's odd about the methane though, is it isn't in gas-form but is frozen or 'mushy,' - like a 7-eleven Slurpee - and is lodged in Uranus's core. Researchers at the Israel Institute of Technology and University of California Santa Cruz revealed that despite findings that said Uranus is made up entirely of...

In the wake of claiming the moon is made of gas and the sun is "almost" too hot to get close to, Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee has been named the new head of Harvard University's Astronomy Department. The Board of Overseers at the prestigious Ivy League institution was reportedly wowed by Jackson Lee's insights into the cosmos, with the school immediately seeking to get in touch with her about the department head position. "Her knowledge blew us away," said Harvard Interim President Alan Garber. "When she said, 'The moon is made up of mostly gasses. That's why the question...

(Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology) Levitation is the kind of superpower many researchers would love to get their hands on. While there are a number of ways to fight the forces of gravity, few are suitable for the kinds of ultrasensitive devices that would benefit from floating untethered in a vacuum. Led by a team from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) in Japan, a team of researchers have found a way to shield thin wafers of graphite as they hover freely above a grid of magnets, making them far less susceptible to currents that interfere with...

Social media users trashed Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, after she turned her gaffe about the moon being "made of gases" into a slam of Republicans on social media Tuesday. Reacting to the backlash she received for telling school children that the moon is made of gases ahead of Monday’s eclipse, the lawmaker said that her Republican critics are hounding her because they have a "lust for stupidity." She gave a speech at Booker T. Washington High School in Houston on the day of the eclipse, telling an assembly of students, "Sometimes, you need to take the opportunity just to...

While Democrats and leftist alarmists decry conservatives for supposedly peddling "misinformation" about "the Science™" related to climate, COVID, and genders (there are two, FYI), their own Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas is out and about telling constituents some real whoppers about the solar eclipse.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee ( D-TX) once sat on the House Science Committee and the House Space Committee. But understanding astronomy seems to elude her. Jackson Lee attended an event at Booker T. Washington High School where the “Trust the Science” party member clearly does not understand the science. Jackson Lee explained to the crowd, “You have the energy of the moon at night.” What?

This is what happens when you teach nothing but racism in school, and leave out anything actually, you know, educational. >p> During an event in Houston just before the eclipse Monday morning, Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee told the audience gathered at the Mickey Leland Federal Building that the moon was made up “mostly of gasses” (it isn’t) and that it's "almost impossible to go near the sun" (we actually can't go near it at all) because it's a "mighty powerful heat" (you don't say!?). Democrat Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee: It's "almost impossible to go near the sun," but the...