Skulls of early Homo from Georgia with an ape-like brain (left) and from Indonesia with a human-like brain (right).

science

Earliest Homo Populations in Africa Had Primitive Ape-Like Brains – Just Half the Size of Today’s Humans

By UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH, Sci-Tech Daily

Modern humans are fundamentally different from our closest living relatives, the great apes: We live on the ground, walk on two legs and have much larger brains. The first populations of the genus Homo emerged in Africa about 2.5 million years ago. They already walked upright, but their brains were only about half the size of today’s humans. Continue reading Earliest Homo Populations in Africa Had Primitive Ape-Like Brains – Just Half the Size of Today’s Humans →

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A monkey playing pong on the computer while sucking a smoothie out of a straw in front of a forest backdrop

scienceSTEAMTechnology

Neuralink: We Got a Monkey to Play Pong Using Only Its Mind

By Alyse Stanley, Gizmodo

Neuralink, the secretive neuroscience startup co-founded by Elon Musk, has been even more quiet than usual these days. That is, until this week when it released a YouTube video of a monkey appearing to play the classic video game Pong with its mind. Continue reading Neuralink: We Got a Monkey to Play Pong Using Only Its Mind →

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nad over head photo of Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois

Diversity in STEMscienceSTEAM

Fermilab Experiment Hints at New Fundamental Force of Nature

By Ryan Whitwam

Scientists working at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois have made some of the most important discoveries in physics over the years, including the existence of the top quark and characterizing the neutrino. Now, the team working on Fermilab’s Muon g−2 experiment has reported a tantalizing hint of a new type of physics, according to the BBC. If confirmed, this would become the fifth known fundamental force in the universe.

Continue reading Fermilab Experiment Hints at New Fundamental Force of Nature →

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Blades on the Ingenuity Mars helicopter during the unlocking process, as seen on Apr. 8, 2021

scienceSTEAMTechnology

Mars helicopter Ingenuity unlocks its rotor blades to prepare for 1st flight on Red Planet

By Meghan Bartels

The Mars helicopter Ingenuity has unlocked its two rotor blades as preparations continue for the vehicle’s first flight, due to occur no earlier than Sunday (April 11).

Continue reading Mars helicopter Ingenuity unlocks its rotor blades to prepare for 1st flight on Red Planet →

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Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech With an internal global ocean twice the size of Earth’s oceans combined, Jupiter’s moon Europa carries the potential for conditions suitable for life. But the frigid temperatures and the nonstop pummeling of the surface from Jupiter’s radiation make it a tricky target to explore: Mission engineers and scientists must design a spacecraft hardy enough to withstand the radiation yet sensitive enough to gather the science needed to investigate Europa’s environment. The Europa Clipper orbiter will swoop around Jupiter on an elliptical path, dipping close to the moon on each flyby to conduct detailed reconnaissance. The science includes gathering measurements of the internal ocean, mapping the surface composition and its geology, and hunting for plumes of water vapor that may be venting from the icy crust. Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory test an engineering model of a high-frequency (HF) radar antenna Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory test an engineering model of a high-frequency (HF) radar antenna that makes up part of NASA's Europa Clipper radar instrument on Dec. 17, 2019. The 59-foot-long (18-meter-long) antenna is held straight by a cross bar on the tower at right. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech Development of the spacecraft is progressing well, based on the intense examination NASA recently completed. The Critical Design Review conducted a deep dive into the specifics of the plans for all of the science instruments – from cameras to antennas – and flight subsystems, including propulsion,

Diversity in STEMscienceSTEAM

NASA’s Europa Clipper Builds Hardware, Moves Toward Assembly

Jupiter’s moon Europa may have the potential to harbor life. The spacecraft will use multiple flybys of the moon to investigate the habitability of this ocean world.
Continue reading NASA’s Europa Clipper Builds Hardware, Moves Toward Assembly →

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This cartoon shows a subducting oceanic plate traveling like a conveyor belt from the surface down to the lower mantle. The white arrows show the comparatively well-established shallow recycling pathway in the top layer of the plate (crust and sediments), that feeds into arc volcanoes.

EducationEnvironmentscienceSTEAM

Diamonds That Formed Deep in the Earth’s Mantle Contain Evidence of Deep-Earth Recycling Processes

By CARNEGIE INSTITUTION FOR SCIENCE

Findings allow us to trace how minerals from the surface are drawn down into the mantle.

Diamonds that formed deep in the Earth’s mantle contain evidence of chemical reactions that occurred on the seafloor. Probing these gems can help geoscientists understand how material is exchanged between the planet’s surface and its depths.
Continue reading Diamonds That Formed Deep in the Earth’s Mantle Contain Evidence of Deep-Earth Recycling Processes →

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scienceTechnology

Astronomers discover new galaxy clusters hiding right in front of us

By Shawn Knight, Tech Spot

Astronomers at MIT have discovered previously unidentified galaxy clusters that were overlooked by earlier studies. Their results, which were recently published in The Astrophysical Journal, suggest that as many as one percent of galaxy clusters could be misidentified as a single bright galaxy. Continue reading Astronomers discover new galaxy clusters hiding right in front of us →

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These images of asteroid Apophis were recorded by radio antennas at the Deep Space Network’s Goldstone complex in California and the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia.

scienceSTEAMTechnology

NASA Analysis: Earth Is Safe From Asteroid Apophis for 100-Plus Years

The near-Earth object was thought to pose a slight risk of impacting Earth in 2068, but now radar observations have ruled that out.
Continue reading NASA Analysis: Earth Is Safe From Asteroid Apophis for 100-Plus Years →

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Digitally created image of the planet Theia colliding with Earth.

scienceSTEAM

Remains of impact that created the Moon may lie deep within Earth

By Paul Voosen, Science Magazine

Scientists have long agreed that the Moon formed when a protoplanet, called Theia, struck Earth in its infancy some 4.5 billion years ago. Now, a team of scientists has a provocative new proposal: Theia’s remains can be found in two continent-size layers of rock buried deep in Earth’s mantle. Continue reading Remains of impact that created the Moon may lie deep within Earth →

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A rendering showing ELSA-d's concept of operations.

EnvironmentscienceSTEAMTechnology

New Effort To Clean Up Space Junk Reaches Orbit

By CHLOEE WEINER, NPR

A demonstration mission to test an idea to clean up space debris launched Monday morning local time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Known as ELSA-d, the mission will exhibit technology that could help capture space junk, the millions of pieces of orbital debris that float above Earth. Continue reading New Effort To Clean Up Space Junk Reaches Orbit →

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