Science

Jupiter has no solid surface: it is a hydrogen-helium gas giant whose visible face is banded cloud tops, over liquid and metallic hydrogen and a fuzzy, partly dissolved core.

It depends on the plastic, but in a new University of Konstanz study several biodegradable plastics broke down completely in forest soil in roughly 250 to 330 days, or about nine to eleven months. The materials tested were long-chain aliphatic polyesters (LCAP) along with the bioplastics PHBV and PCL. For comparison, plain cellulose broke down … Read more

Superplasticizers are high-range water-reducing concrete admixtures (ASTM C494 Type F or G) that cut mix water by at least 12%, and often over 30%, for stronger or more flowable concrete.

They are ripples in the air, not in the ocean or in spacetime. In a strong hurricane, heat released near the eyewall drives powerful updrafts that build towering thunderstorm clouds, and those updrafts jolt the surrounding atmosphere. The disturbance travels upward and outward as waves, with gravity acting as the restoring force that pulls displaced … Read more

It has mostly been shrinking since 2016. Between 1979 and 2014, Antarctic sea ice extent grew by about 1% per decade, with record winter highs in 2012 through 2014, but the trend reversed after 2015 and the ice has generally stayed below its historical average since then. In 2023 Antarctica recorded both its lowest summer … Read more

The northern lights happen when energetic electrons guided by Earth’s magnetic field hit oxygen and nitrogen 80 to 500 km up, exciting them so they give off light.

They form when a sinking oceanic plate releases water into the hot mantle above it, lowering its melting point; the resulting magma rises to build steep, often explosive volcanoes in arcs like the Cascades.

Possibly. A long-term study from Oregon Health & Science University of nearly 200,000 participants in the Nurses’ Health Study, Nurses’ Health Study II, and Health Professionals Follow-up Study found that people who regularly ate after dinner or after bedtime had a 20% to 30% higher risk of liver disease than those who did not eat … Read more

Bacteria are prokaryotic cells with no nucleus: a plasma membrane, cytoplasm, 70S ribosomes, and a nucleoid of circular DNA, usually inside a peptidoglycan cell wall, often with capsules, pili, or flagella.

A new study links GLP-1 drugs such as semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound) to a small increase in the risk of ischemic optic neuropathy, a rare condition in which reduced blood flow to the optic nerve causes sudden, often permanent loss of part of the vision in one eye. Rutgers researchers who analyzed … Read more