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Tech NewsIncredible Gravitational Technique Reveals Oldest Spiral Galaxy on Record
Galaxies didn’t always take on the beautiful spiral shape we’ve come to associate with Andromeda and our own Milky Way. Looking far away into deep space—and into the past—ancient galaxies mostly look like giant blobs. But thanks to gravity’s light-bending properties, scientists have spotted a confounding thing in the distance: what appears to be the … Continued
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Tech News
An Elaborate Planetary System May Exist Around Our Nearest Star
New observations show there’s at least one, but possibly three rings, of cold dust around our nearest star, Proxima Centauri. That could indicate the presence of more planets, according to new research. It would be incredible if astronomers could just look at the sky with infinite resolution telescopes and see precisely what’s going on—but they … Continued
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Tech News
New Discovery Suggests Quarks Can Undergo Explosive Fusion Reactions
Our Sun is powered by a fundamental phenomenon whereby atoms combine to unleash tremendous amounts of energy. But atoms might not be the only things that participate in this explosive reaction. Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider’s LHCb experiment recently discovered a new particle whose constituent parts required lots of energy to bind together. But … Continued
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Tech News
There’s a New Species of Orangutan and It’s Already in Danger
All of the orangutans in the world would probably only fit into a college football stadium. Today, scientists are announcing that just one of the sections of that stadium is actually an entirely different species. And it’s already in danger. The international team identified Pongo tapanuliensis based on skull shape and genetic data from an … Continued
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Tech NewsSploidNASA Rocket Scientists Carve the Most Incredible Pumpkins
Here’s the thing about NASA’s rocket scientists: They’re smart. And maybe a little weird. When you get literal rocket scientists to channel their energy into something silly like a pumpkin carving contest, the results are bound to be incredible. Seriously: Two groups at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been running their pumpkin carving contest since … Continued
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Tech News
Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Basically Brought a Nuclear Winter, Says New Model
If and when the nuclear holocaust begins to bring down society as we know it, it’s not the initial blasts you should be worrying about. Carl Sagan and other scientists once hypothesized that dust blocking out the Sun could bring a nuclear winter. It probably happened before—to the dinosaurs. A team of scientists have dug … Continued
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Tech News
Scientists Identify a Whole New Way of Catching Prey: Kleptopredation
Food webs might seem clear to you—grass grows in the sun, cows eat the grass, you eat the cow, you play on the computer. But it doesn’t always work that way in the animal kingdom. Today’s word of the day is kleptopredation, a new way of eating that was recently discovered in a species of … Continued
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Tech NewsThat Viral Story of an ‘Awakened’ Vegetative Patient Serves as a Cautionary Tale
Medicine is perfect for heartwarming stories. Some close relative is facing the most hopeless prognosis, such as being in a vegetative state. Someone tries a wild treatment, and boom, people are crying, the relative is awake, and the headlines go viral. But science doesn’t really work this way. A man recently “woke” from a vegetative … Continued
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Tech News
These Endangered Wildlife Photos Are Artistic Masterpieces
Human’s impact on nature is unmistakeable, from vast swaths of lost forest to heaps of trash on beaches. Looking at these images might be upsetting, but still demonstrate what we’ve done. They don’t demonstrate what we might lose. Scientists warn that we’re potentially amidst a sixth mass extinction event, thanks to human activity. Humans are … Continued
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Tech News
Scientists Confirm Light’s Crazy Quantum Mechanical Properties in Space
Here’s the thing about quantum mechanics: it works on Earth, but how do we know that it works elsewhere—like in space? That requires testing it over and over again, building wild experiments that send particles all over the planet. After some new results, things still seem to check out. A key property of quantum mechanics—the … Continued
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Tech News
New Evidence Suggests Doctors Are Misdiagnosing a Third Type of Diabetes
The common understanding of diabetes mellitus includes two types: type one and type two. But there’s a third type that’s been around for a while you may not have even heard of—and some doctors think it’s being misdiagnosed. Type 3c diabetes, or “Diabetes of the Exocrine Pancreas,” is a third type caused by pancreatic damage. … Continued
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Tech News
Missing Flight MH370 Inspires New Way to Locate Ocean Impacts
The Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 investigation has been reopened with the help of a private firm. Its incomplete story has refused to offer closure to the families of its 239 victims and has sparked conspiracy theories. But scientists have continued investigating the impact since it occurred three and a half years ago. It’s inspired one … Continued
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Tech News
Scientists Want to Update These Four Fundamental Constants
Some numbers don’t change. These values are deeply connected to the very fabric of the Universe and our human existence. Until they aren’t, of course. Then we change them—for good reason. Scientists around the world just recommended changes to four fundamental constants. The tiny updates are important for the most accurate and precise measurements, but … Continued
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Tech News
Watch Live as Physicists Discuss the Mysteries of Dark Matter at Gizmodo
We live in a universe filled with weird stuff that we don’t really understand: dark matter. Physicists have observed its spooky effects but have’t seen it directly. Even scarier: There seems to be around six times as much dark matter in the universe as regular matter. Tonight, we’ll be broadcasting a discussion on this mysterious … Continued
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Tech News
Italian Scientists Report Patient Who Sweats Blood
Profuse sweating can lead to embarrassing pit stains and discomfort, sure. But you are sweating sweat. This Italian patient sweats blood. The 21-year-old patient entered a medical ward following three years of bleeding from her palms and face. She didn’t have any cuts and nothing seemed to cause or trigger her bleeding episodes. Her condition … Continued
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Tech News
Stephen Hawking’s Ph.D Thesis Is Now Crashing Cambridge’s Website [Updated]
You might not want anyone to read the work you put together as a university student—I sure don’t. But we’re not Stephen Hawking, world-famous physicist, whose Ph.D thesis you can now read for free online. The University of Cambridge has made Hawking’s work, “Properties of Expanding Universes,” free for anyone, given extraordinary demand. After all, … Continued
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Tech News
Watch the Orionid Meteor Shower Peak This Weekend
The Earth is once again passing through the debris left behind by Halley’s Comet, producing the Orionid meteors that peak this weekend. Go outside! Look at space! The Orionids produce a shower annually, peaking at around 20 to 25 meteors per hour. As with all meteor showers, they’re named for the constellation they appear to … Continued
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Tech News
These Two Scientists Say the Time Has Come to Redefine ‘Glass’
“Glass is an amorphous solid that flows like a liquid,” you’d probably say if you were asked to define the stuff. Is that true, though? What if I told you, for example, that the old myth, that old windows are thicker at the bottom because the glass has flowed a little bit, was false? Glass … Continued
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Tech News
Scientists Discover a Tiny Monster in Canada’s Arctic Ice
No one said that monsters needed to be big or even scary. But when James Dwight Dana first spotted one strange plankton species back in the 19th century, he knew he had something weird on his hands. “Little monster,” Monstrilla seemed like as good a name as any. After all, scientists can name species after … Continued
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Tech News
Reflections on the 10th Anniversary of None Pizza With Left Beef
Just over 10 years ago, television producer Steve Molaro ordered a pizza from the Domino’s website. Like anyone using the online system, he made his selections with a set of radio buttons labeled “whole,” “left,” “right,” and “none.” He selected “none” cheese. He selected “none” sauce. And he selected “left” beef. Thus was born what … Continued
Ryan F. Mandelbaum
Ryan F. Mandelbaum's posts