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Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the world. Modern science is typically divided into two or three major branches: the natural sciences (e.g., physics, chemistry, and biology), which study the physical world; and the behavioural sciences (e.g., economics, psychology, and sociology), which study individuals and societies. The formal sciences (e.g., logic, mathematics, and theoretical computer science), which study formal systems governed by axioms and rules, are sometimes described as being sciences as well; however, they are often regarded as a separate field because they rely on deductive reasoning instead of the scientific method or empirical evidence as their main methodology. Applied sciences are disciplines that use scientific knowledge for practical purposes, such as engineering and medicine. (Full article...)
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Frigatebirds are a family of seabirds called Fregatidae which are found across all tropical and subtropical oceans. The five extant species are classified in a single genus, Fregata. All have predominantly black plumage, long, deeply forked tails and long hooked bills. Females have white underbellies and males have a distinctive red gular pouch, which they inflate during the breeding season to attract females. Their wings are long and pointed and can span up to 2.3 metres (7.5 ft), the largest wing area to body weight ratio of any bird. (Full article...)
The European storm petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus), also known as British storm petrel, or just storm petrel, is a species of seabird in the northern storm petrel family, Hydrobatidae. The small, square-tailed bird is entirely black except for a broad, white rump and a white band on the under wings, and it has a fluttering, bat-like flight. The large majority of the population breeds on islands off the northern coasts of Europe, with the greatest numbers in the Faroe Islands, United Kingdom, Ireland, and Iceland. The Mediterranean population is a separate subspecies whose strongholds are Filfla Island (Malta), Sicily, and the Balearic Islands. This subspecies is indiscernible at sea from its Atlantic relatives. (Full article...)
Pseudastacus (meaning "false Astacus", in comparison to the extant crayfish genus) is an extinct genus of decapod crustaceans that lived during the Jurassic period in Europe, and possibly the Cretaceous period in Lebanon. Many species have been assigned to it, though the placement of some species remains uncertain and others have been reassigned to different genera. Fossils attributable to this genus were first described by Georg zu Münster in 1839 under the name Bolina pustulosa, but the generic name was changed in 1861 after Albert Oppel noted that it was preoccupied. The genus has been placed into different families by numerous authors, historically being assigned to Nephropidae or Protastacidae. Currently, it is believed to be a member of Stenochiridae. (Full article...)
Roxy Ann Peak, also known as Roxy Ann Butte, is a 3,576-foot-tall (1,090 m) mountain in the Western Cascade Range at the eastern edge of Medford, Oregon. Composed of several geologic layers, the majority of the peak is of volcanic origin and dates to the early Oligocene epoch. It is primarily covered by oak savanna and open grassland on its lower slopes, and mixed coniferous forest on its upper slopes and summit, stopping short of the summit. Despite the peak's relatively small topographic prominence of 753 feet (230 m), it rises 2,200 feet (670 m) above Medford and is visible from most of the Rogue Valley. The mountain is Medford's most important viewshed, open space reserve, and recreational resource. (Full article...)
A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek galaxias (γαλαξίας), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. Galaxies, averaging an estimated 100 million stars, range in size from dwarfs with less than a thousand stars, to the largest galaxies known – supergiants with one hundred trillion stars, each orbiting its galaxy's center of mass. Most of the mass in a typical galaxy is in the form of dark matter, with only a few percent of that mass visible in the form of stars and nebulae. Supermassive black holes are a common feature at the centres of galaxies. (Full article...)
Noronhomys vespuccii, also known as Vespucci's rodent, is an extinct rat species from the islands of Fernando de Noronha off northeastern Brazil. Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci may have seen it on a visit to Fernando de Noronha in 1503, but it subsequently became extinct, perhaps because of the exotic rats and mice introduced by the first explorers of the island. Numerous but fragmentary fossil remains of the animal, of uncertain but probably Holocene age, were discovered in 1973 and described in 1999. (Full article...)
Massospondylus (/ˌmæsoʊˈspɒndɪləs/ mas-oh-SPON-di-ləs; from Greek, μάσσων (massōn, "longer") and σπόνδυλος (spondylos, "vertebra")) was a genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic (Hettangian to Pliensbachian ages, ca. 200–183 million years ago). It was described by Sir Richard Owen in 1854 from remains discovered in South Africa, and is thus one of the first dinosaurs to have been named. Fossils have since been found at other locations in South Africa, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe. Material from Arizona's Kayenta Formation, India, and Argentina has been assigned to the genus at various times, but the Arizonan and Argentinian material are now assigned to other genera. (Full article...)
The Clinton Engineer Works (CEW) was the production installation of the Manhattan Project that during World War II produced the enriched uranium used in the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima, as well as the first examples of reactor-produced plutonium. It consisted of production facilities arranged at three major sites, various utilities including a power plant, and the town of Oak Ridge. It was in East Tennessee, about 18 miles (29 km) west of Knoxville, and was named after the town of Clinton, eight miles (13 km) to the north. The production facilities were mainly in Roane County, and the northern part of the site was in Anderson County. The Manhattan District Engineer, Kenneth Nichols, moved the Manhattan District headquarters from Manhattan to Oak Ridge in August 1943. During the war, CEW's advanced research was managed for the government by the University of Chicago. (Full article...)
Inocybe saliceticola is a fungus found in moist habitats in the Nordic countries. The species produces brown mushrooms with caps of varying shapes up to 40 millimetres (1.6 in) across, and tall, thin stems up to 62 mm (2.4 in) long. At the base of the stem is a large and well-defined "bulb". The species produces unusually shaped, irregular spores, each with a few thick protrusions. This feature helps differentiate it from other species that would otherwise be similar in appearance and habit. (Full article...)
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Geology (from Ancient Greek γῆ (gê) 'earth' and λoγία (-logía) 'study of, discourse') is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth sciences, including hydrology. It is integrated with Earth system science and planetary science. (Full article...)
Did you know...
- ... that the Polish science fiction novel Extensa marked the growing recognition of its writer, Jacek Dukaj, in Poland?
- ... that Ladislav Burlas, a musicologist at the Slovak Academy of Sciences for almost 40 years, wrote more than 150 works during his career?
- ... that the psychological inner space genre was a rebellion against the traditional focus of science fiction on literal outer space?
- ... that machine learning can be used to recognize rock fractures?
- ... that the board game Cytosis was endorsed by the Journal of Cell Science?
- ... that Charlie Jane Anders wrote preferred pronouns into her science fiction novel Victories Greater Than Death because she thought that alien gender would be unclear to humans?
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Science News
- 24 September 2024 –
- Scientists from the University of Waterloo announce that they have positively identified bones found on King William Island in Nunavut, Canada, as those of James Fitzjames, captain of HMS Erebus during Franklin's lost expedition. (CBC News)
- 23 September 2024 – Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest
- Climate researchers report that since 1985, deforestation in the Amazon has caused the loss of an area of rainforest equal to the combined area of France and Germany. (France 24)
- 22 September 2024 –
- Researchers from the University of Cape Town and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology announce they have reconstructed the oldest human genome ever found, belonging to a man and a woman who lived about 10,000 years ago in the Mesolithic period. The prior oldest decoded genome was from about 2,000 years ago. (DW)
- 15 September 2024 – Polaris program
- The spacecraft of the Polaris Dawn private spaceflight mission operated by SpaceX returns to Earth after five days in orbit. (BBC News)
- 12 September 2024 – Polaris program
- American billionaire Jared Isaacman becomes the first person to perform a commercial spacewalk as part of the Polaris Dawn private spaceflight mission operated by SpaceX. (AP)
- 11 September 2024 – Spaceflight
- Following the launch of the Russian Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, there were a record 19 people in outer space: the three astronauts on the MS-26 mission, three more on China's Tiangong space station, four people on the SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission, and nine more on board the International Space Station. (CollectSPACE)