11 Words of the Year from Around the World

America isn't the only nation that wraps up the year by determining the words that defined it.

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Scientists May Have Just Figured Out Why Time Moves Forward, Not Backwards

Griffith University Associate Professor Joan Vaccaro has put forward a suggestion on why there’s a difference between the future and the past. According to her calculations, the laws of physics don’t have to distinguish between time and space, but since we don't experience time in the same way as space, something must make time different. And she thinks the answer is in a special class of quantum phenomena.

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Research integrity: Don't let transparency damage science

Stephan Lewandowsky and Dorothy Bishop explain how the research community should protect its members from harassment, while encouraging the openness that has become essential to science.

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Why a walk in the woods really does help your body and your soul

There's something in the air that actually has health benefits when you take time to walk among the plants and trees. What that is exactly is still being studied by scientists.

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Endangered Ghost Orchids To Grow Again In Native Florida Forests

Researchers have developed a new way to successfully grow and reintroduce endangered ghost orchids to their native habitats. They hope their methods will help save these iconic flowers, which are often poached for their unusual beauty.

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What Does a Parrot Know About PTSD?

An unexpected bond between damaged birds and traumatized veterans could reveal surprising insights into animal intelligence.

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The Last Star in the Universe – Red Dwarfs Explained

The last star in the universe will be a red dwarf. Red dwarfs in general might be great places to look for aliens – or planets for humans to find a new home after our solar system has died.

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Cave Artists of Sulawesi

A red-hued hand stencil made by spraying wet pigment over a hand laid flat on the cave wall—was recently confirmed as the oldest known hand stencil image anywhere in the world: It was painted at least 39,900 years ago.

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The Mysterious Physics of the World’s Fastest Carnivorous Plant

Scientists are trying to figure out how the bladderwort is capable of inhaling its prey at over 600 times the force of gravity.

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Taming Superconductors With String Theory

The physicist Subir Sachdev borrows tools from string theory to understand the puzzling behavior of high-temperature superconductors. By Kevin Hartnett.

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Indigenous Leaders Fight Bill Promoting Citizen Archaeology: "Do Not Disturb the Spirits of the Water"

A bill pending in the Florida Legislature would let anyone pay $100 for a so-called "citizen archaeology permit" and then be able to dig up historical artifacts from submerged lands like riverbeds and lakes — and keep what they find.  Collectors are psyched about the bill. Archaeologists say that only they have the expertise to collect and catalog such artifacts. And some Native Americans say leave the artifacts the hell alone. Passage of the bill, they warn, would result in looting.

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Antarctic fungi survive Martian conditions on the International Space Station

European scientists have gathered tiny fungi that take shelter in Antarctic rocks and sent them to the International Space Station. After 18 months on board in conditions similar to those on Mars, more than 60% of their cells remained intact, with stable DNA...

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New research into the origins of the Austronesian languages

THE languages known as Austronesian are spoken by more than 380 million people in territories that include Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Madagascar and the islands of the Pacific.

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An ancestor of the rabbit connects Europe and Asia

The species Amphilagus tomidai was recently discovered - an ancestor of the rabbit which lived in present-day Siberia during the Miocene, about 14 million years ago.

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Jamie xx - Gosh (Official Music Video)

Directed by: Erik Wernquist with photos by NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.

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How a Mathematical Superstition Stultified Algebra for Over a Thousand Years

Like most people, my high-school training in mathematics involved next-to-no history, barely touching on the names of a few mathematicians, like Pythagoras, and their theorems. I graduated only vaguely aware that geometry came from ancient Greece and algebra came from the Babylonians... By Robert Coolman.

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It's time for these 101 ridiculous science 'facts' to die

These myths, misconceptions, and inaccuracies have been passed down through the ages. It's time to put an end to them.

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Stanford scientists discover how Pangea helped make coal

The consolidation of the ancient supercontinent Pangea 300 million years ago played a key role in the formation of the coal that powered the Industrial Revolution and that is still burned for energy in many parts of the world today. This contradicts a popular hypothesis, first formally proposed in the 1990s, that attributes the formation of Carboniferous coal to a 60-million-year gap between the appearance of the first forests and the wood-eating microbes and bacteria that could break them.

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The archaeology of childhood

A sledge made from a horse’s jaw, the remains of a medieval puppet, the coffin of a one-year-old Roman child, and the skeleton of an Anglo-Saxon girl will all go on display in Cambridge today as part of a unique exhibition illuminating the archaeology of childhood.

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The Language Barrier Is About to Fall

Within 10 years, earpieces will whisper nearly simultaneous translations—and help knit the world closer together.

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Oslo trash incinerator starts experiment to slow climate change

Oslo's main waste incinerator began the world's first experiment to capture carbon dioxide from the fumes of burning rubbish on Monday, hoping to develop technology to enlist the world's trash in slowing global warming. BY Alister Doyle.

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Carbon dioxide captured from air can be directly converted into methanol fuel

For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that CO2 captured from the air can be directly converted into methanol (CH3OH) using a homogeneous catalyst. The benefits are two-fold: The process removes harmful CO2 from the atmosphere, and the methanol can be used as an alternative fuel to gasoline.

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ESA launches the first node of its space ‘data superhighway’

The European Space Agency (ESA) on Friday launched the first part of a new space-based “data superhighway” into orbit Friday night.

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The huge gas cloud flying towards our galaxy could create 200 million new stars

A giant gas cloud hurtling towards the Milky Way could form two million new stars when it finally collides with our galaxy. The discovery was made after astronomers managed to figure out the chemical composition of the Smith Cloud, a huge formation of gas approaching the edges of the Milky Way at a speed of around 193 miles per second.

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How to stop the sexual harassment of women in science: reboot the system

The public outing of a number of high profile scientists in sexual harassment cases shows the current system of protecting women isn't working. But there is a solution.

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February 2016 – Where to look for the planets

For star gazers in the Southern Hemisphere: Use the finder charts on this page to guide you to where to look for the planets in February 2016.

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UK weather: Storm Henry to Batter Britain, Met Office Warns

Severe gale force winds could disrupt transport and power supplies across the country

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Obama Pledges $4 Billion to Computer Science in US Schools

President Obama today revealed his plan to give students across the nation to learn computer science skills in school.

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China Just Released True Color HD Photos Of The Moon

This month, the China National Space Administration released all of the images from their recent moon landing to the public. There are now hundreds and hundreds of never-before-seen true color, high definition photos of the lunar surface available for download.

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Georgian jailbirds and celebrity highwaymen shaped modern Britain, say historians

Eighteenth-century thieves, paupers, prostitutes and highwaymen helped shape the evolution of modern justice and welfare systems, according to new evidence uncovered by historians.

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World's oldest tea remains discovered on ancient trade route

Residues found in burial pits near tomb of Han dynasty emperor Liu Qi shows plant was being transported along Silk Road route over 2,000 years ago. The oldest physical remains ever discovered previously were hundreds of years younger than the new find – dating from the northern Song Dynasty (AD960-AD1,127).

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In Japan, small shakes presage big quakes

Clusters of slow-slip events linked to risk of larger ones.

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This Week's Sky at a Glance, January 29 – February 6: Northern Hemisphere

Sky & Telescope's guide to tonight's sky, with sky views, sky charts, and selected astronomy sights for your unaided eyes, binoculars, or a telescope.

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What's The Best Way To Keep Mosquitoes From Biting?

Mosquitoes have quirky olfactory preferences. For example, many of them, especially the Aedes variety that transmits the Zika virus, love the smell of feet. Researchers who need to avoid mosquito bites tell what works and what doesn't for them.

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Is gambling a kind of play, or a narcotic trap for the soul?

My father was hopelessly, joyously addicted to gambling and I his moral critic. Why did I end up playing pro blackjack?

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Special Collections: Brian Collier's Teeny Tiny Things

Very Small Objects is an ongoing project of Collier's. He identifies himself as a re-naturalist. "I've always been really interested in the history of natural history," he says, noting "the level of subjectivity in the invention of classification systems." It probably doesn't hurt that Collier's grandfather was a watch repairman.

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Cyclone Stan Powers Up Off Pilbara,Australia

Tropical cyclone Stan has slowed, but is expected to cross the east Pilbara coast as a category 3 cyclone at midnight.

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What's Up for February 2016

Naked eye, binocular and telescope events for the month of February 2016

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Study: Future for charismatic pika not as daunting as once feared

The American pika is thought by many biologists to be a prime candidate for extirpation as the planet continues to warm. But a new study, published this week in the journal Global Change Biology, paints a different, more complex future for this rock-dwelling little lagomorph. Pikas may survive, even thrive, in some areas, the researchers say, while facing extirpation in others. The research is important because pikas are considered a sentinel species for climate change impacts.

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“We cannot talk about it”: Factory workers for major fashion labels live confined by guards

Many female workers were only allowed to leave their "hostels" for two hours a week.

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In Fragments from Fustat, Glimpses of a Cosmopolitan Old Cairo

Its 2015 exhibition A Cosmopolitan City: Muslims, Christians and Jews in Old Cairo introduced the urban world of Islamic Egypt, a world much closer to our own today yet often overlooked amid the spectacular wonders of the country’s deep Pharaonic past. The show focused on the now-obscure medieval city of Fustat through artifacts of daily life and items highlighting the art and literature of the period—many of which were brought newly to light out of the Institute’s own storerooms.

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Russian fighter within 15 feet of U.S. Air Force jet

A Russian fighter jet came within 15 feet of a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane over the Black Sea this week in what the Pentagon is calling an "unsafe" incident, U.S. officials say.

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Ancient extinction of giant Australian bird points to humans

The first direct evidence that humans played a substantial role in the extinction of the huge, wondrous beasts inhabiting Australia some 50,000 years ago -- in this case a 500-pound bird -- has been discovered by a University of Colorado Boulder-led team.

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New drug could be safer, non-addictive alternative to morphine

Researchers at Tulane University and Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System have developed a painkiller that is as strong as morphine but isn’t likely to be addictive and with fewer side effects, according to a new study in the journal Neuropharmacology.

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Earth is actually two planets, scientists conclude

The early Earth was mixed with a baby planet called Theia following a head on collision 4.5 billion years ago, scientists have found. By Sarah Knapton.

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Thorough, not thoroughly fabricated: The truth about global temperature data

How thermometer and satellite data is adjusted and why it must be done. By Scott K. Johnson.

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Did the Vikings use crystal 'sunstones' to discover America?

A bold theory suggests the Vikings may have used a mysterious method of studying sunlight to navigate the oceans. This article even delves into the physics of how these objects might have worked.

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Ann Selzer Is The Best Pollster In Politics

How her old-school rigor makes her uncannily accurate. By Clare Malone.

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Who Needs A Shovel? Paramus Family Melts Snowfall Away

PARAMUS, N.J. — Unlike most New Jerseyans, the Parikh family of Paramus couldn't wait for Winter Storm Jonas -- it let them try out their one-of-a-kind geothermal/solar snow-melt system for the first time.The snow might have climbed over two feet in some parts of Bergen and Passaic counties, but the heated driveway and walkway outside the Parikh house melted an inch and a half an hour.

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We're the Only Animals With Chins, and No One Knows Why

The lower jaw of a chimpanzee or gorilla slopes backwards from the front teeth. So did the jaw of other hominids like Homo erectus. Even Neanderthal jaws ended in a flat vertical plane. Only in modern humans does the lower jaw end in a protruding strut of bone. A sticky-outy bit. A chin.

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