Newsdesk Archive

The nearly 11-square-mile (28-square-kilometer) wildfire in the Deschutes National Forest was about six miles (9 kilometers) west of the town of Sisters, Oregon, which sits on the southern edge of the 70-mile swath where the moon will completely blot out the sun on Monday, 21 August.  So far fire crews have not been able to contain any part of the wildfire, and highways are closed.

The English word eclipse comes from the Greek ekleíp? meaning disappearance, abandonment. A solar eclipse is the moment in which the sun disappears, abandoning the world. It’s like being forsaken by a god.  The ancient Greeks thought of a solar eclipse as an act of abandonment, a terrible crisis and an existential threat. It meant that the king would fall, that terrible misfortunes would rain down on the world, or that demons had swallowed the sun.  Yet not everyone thought of the eclipse as a horrible threat. For some cultures, the eclipse was an act of creation: The sun and moon were coupling, and would create more stars. For others, it was a random and chaotic act by a trickster or a mischievous boy, causing trouble just for the sake of it.

While millions around the world will flock to view the upcoming total solar eclipse, many who are smack in the middle of its shadowy path will avert their eyes. Eclipses are a bad omen in much of Indian country, and the indigenous world in general, from the Navajo to the Maya.  It’s not easy to obtain information about astronomy from the Navajo this time of year; such things belong to storytelling season, during the winter months, according to cultural resource specialists.  People with telescopes, especially outsiders, are being denied entry to sacred lands.

According to an analysis by Michael Zeiler, a mapping cartographer and eclipse chaser of 26 years.  Approximately 7.4 million Americans may travel to the path of totality, where the moon's darkest shadow will cut across the country on Monday, 21 August.  But this mass migration may overwhelm small towns and cities with record tourism — and choke key roadways with gridlock traffic.

Many ancient cultures worshipped the sun and the moon, or at the very least saw them as supernatural beings. Their movement in the sky proceeded with a constancy and regularity that gave people a sense of order in the universe. In these societies, which universally imparted great significance to the activities of these heavenly bodies, a violent and sudden darkening of the sun was a cause for alarm and foreboding.

The diamond ring of rings: The first or final piece of solar photosphere shining through the deepest valley on the Moon’s edge creates, with the ring band of the inner corona, the most spectacular of all total solar eclipse phenomena: the diamond ring. This diamond is truly brighter than all of Earth’s diamonds combined.

The sky will go dark. The temperature will drop. Stars will shine in the middle of the day. For the first time in nearly a century, millions of Americans from coast-to-coast will witness a total solar eclipse. Those who have watched the sun suddenly snuff out say it’s an otherworldly feeling. It can be humbling. It can be spiritual. It can change the course of history.  But as the moon passes in front of the sun during the August 21 Great American Eclipse, scientists will be doing some serious work.

While there will be plenty of chances to catch a total solar eclipse in your own backyard in the coming century, a century is a very long time, at least in human terms.  This year will be one of the best chances for the entire country to enjoy the show, with a large fraction of Americans within a day's drive of totality.

The 2017 total solar eclipse is special. Unlike 1918, we now have the technology to study its entire journey over the US.  This short video explains some of what will be gleaned during the event.

Astronomy is made possible in part by the shadows that span the stars.  Standing on the celestial seashore, let’s pace out our universe, starting from the world we see by day to the stars we see at night. At each step, we will learn where we are and how far we’ve come.

Typically a saros period lasts between 1244 and 1514 years.  Over time, eclipse paths migrate north to south from pole to pole, and the period begins and ends with partial eclipses.  This article explains the rather complicated science and mathematical computations behind the fact that after three saros periods, the longitude of an eclipse path has shifted 600 miles to the north or south.

An astrophysicist explains that the tidal interactions between the Earth and the moon aren't very big — we are separating at the snail-like pace of 1.5 inches (3.8 centimeters) a year.  But with every decade, century and millennium, the moon's apparent size in the sky shrinks, making total solar eclipses ever rarer.

In only about 600 million years, the moon will look small enough that it no longer completely covers the sun, and whoever is left on Earth won't see any more total solar eclipses. So, get them while you can.

Nearly 100 years ago, when the 1918 eclipse passed over the United States, a team of astronomers invited the artist Howard Russell Butler to join them at an observatory in Oregon. It was the first of four eclipses that he saw, and his paintings of lunar transits and other celestial phenomena are on view in a small, lovely show at the Princeton University Art Museum in New Jersey. His soft-colored, scrupulously accurate paintings of the occluded sun were among the first artistic depictions of individual eclipses, and they document just what an observer in a given spot would have seen. They offer a jolly curtain raiser for Monday’s eclipse, and also continue a recent vogue for exhibitions that marry art and science.

On Monday 21 August, the shadow of a solar eclipse will drape itself across the US.  If the weather cooperates, scientists and civilians alike will stand in the darkness and stare up at what remains of the sun: a wispy ring of plasma and arcing magnetic fields called the corona, and doing so will take us back home, symbolically.  For millennia, we’ve been looking up at eclipses and seeing a sliver of plasma.

During next Monday’s solar eclipse, a shadow will rush across the sky at 1,500 miles an hour, creating a cold spot that will ripple the atmosphere like a speedboat stirring up a bow wake.  Solar eclipses happen every couple of years somewhere in the world, yet scientists never run out of new ways to learn from them. Every one is a unique natural experiment, and each time around, new technologies allow things that weren’t possible before.

Volvo doesn’t want you to be among your fellow citizens, marveling in the magnitude of the cosmos. Rather, it wants to you to stay the hermetically sealed environment of its SUV.  The Swedish automaker has manufactured a batch of oversized sun shades that can be clipped on to the 2018 XC60 SUV’s panoramic moonroof using magnets. The shade is made from ISO-certified material, allowing you watch the eclipse without protective eyewear or going blind. Volvo has distributed them to dealerships in states that are in the eclipse’s path of totality, including Oregon, Idaho, Nebraska, Missouri, and South Carolina. The viewers are supposed to be free, which is a small comfort given the overwhelming message of this product flies directly in the face of the communal spirit of the Great American Eclipse.

Meet Sharon and Billy Hahs.  They have travelled the world chasing total eclipses for over a quarter century. Now are this couple now preparing for one in their backyard in Missouri, making a huge family reunion gathering out of the momentous event.

This article, written by a professional astronomer, offers ways to enrich the eclipse experience — especially the long, partial phases — with several fun solar eclipse activities for kids and families.

Massive comprehensive one-stop reference landing page to enhance your experience of this rare grand celestial spectacle, painstakingly compiled by Sky and Telescope.

This August, the US will experience its first total coast-to-coast solar eclipse in 99 years. The eclipse will travel from Oregon to South Carolina, darkening skies and dropping temperatures along the way. Astronomers are already calling it a jaw-dropping, mind-blowing, once-in-a-lifetime event. One told Space.com total eclipses have a tendency to “bring people to tears.”  Why do all eclipses seem to cast a spell on the humans who watch them? What do you need to know about this upcoming event?  Read the article and listen to a rebroadcast of an interview with four erudite experts in the field to address concerns and answer questions.

Most Americans will at least see some of what was once thought of to be a celestial dragon devouring the Sun.  There are ways you can photograph the Great American Eclipse without damaging your camera or phone (or eyes), but if you do it wrong, you could permanently damage your devices. Looking at the Sun with the naked eye can burn your retinas, even if that star we orbit is almost entirely covered by the Moon. That's why you need to wear protective glasses or use some other method to view the eclipse safely.

Written by an astronomer who is the director of Griffith Observatory in California, this well-written article explains all the different stages seen during solar eclipse, and reactions to each.  For the ancients, an eclipse was one of the last things anyone wanted to see.  Now, total solar eclipses are create destinations of temporary mass migration that transform local economies.  They also transform perspective — on life, the universe, and everything.

Over the years we’ve had a lot to say about America’s total eclipse of the Sun coming up on August 21st.  But as the broader maps in this article show, for the vast majority of people in North America, Central America, and northern South America, the eclipse will be only partial.

Solar eclipse events are transient by their very nature, so permanent monuments to such celestial events are scarce. But in the East African country of Uganda, there are two monuments that honor important eclipses from the area’s past, one recent and one hundreds of years old.

As potentially millions of Americans travel to see the total solar eclipse on Monday, August 21, doctors are bracing for a spike in visits to emergency rooms across the country, experts say.  "I suspect there will be an increase in patient traffic to ERs, especially in areas expecting a large influx of eclipse watchers," Dr. Becky Parker, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians said. These include areas in the path of the total solar eclipse which will span from Oregon to South Carolina.  When a population surges, ER visits tend to rise.

No matter where you are in the contiguous United States on 21 August, if skies are clear, you'll see something that hasn't been glimpsed since 1918 - a total solar eclipse visible across the country from coast to coast.  But what if you're not on the ground? What if you happen to be midair on an airplane during the total solar eclipse?

If you're trying to be frugal and find a cheap deal on a pair of glasses for the solar eclipse, good luck. The price of the protective glasses continues to soar, even among concerns over sales of potentially useless or counterfeit glasses. On Amazon, which seems to be the marketplace of choice for eclipse shoppers, prices for glasses have more than tripled over the last two weeks for the website's most popular protective glasses, according to Wikibuy.  One seller is even offering them for $249.00.

NPR special series video explores the history of eclipse science, from the earliest astronomers who began to take the measurements of the solar system, to the great thinkers who saw their wildest theories proven, to the modern scientists who still rely on eclipses to probe the sun's secrets.

In 1937, a National Geographic Society/US Navy expedition consisting of 13 scientists and officers and 13 sailor assistants headed to Canton Island in the South Pacific. That eclipse would create a shadow approximately 150 miles wide and follow a path of 8,800 miles from northeast Australia to Peru. At the center of this path, the moon blocked the sun for seven minutes and four seconds. The men traveled 6,500 miles to the far western end of the path to view the eclipse, which lasted 213 seconds at their location.  Watch the historic footage they filmed during that event.

In 1937, a National Geographic–U.S. Navy expedition hauled 22,000 pounds of equipment from Washington, D.C., to Honolulu and then 1,900 miles farther into the Pacific Ocean to be there for a eclipse. The 13-person team of scientists and photographers included a NBC announcer and an artist, who painted the sky in real time.  Read this fascinating historical account to find out what happened next.

A physics professor explains that gravitational physicists studying the work of Albert Einstein have valued solar eclipses for more than a century. In 1915, Einstein completed his magnum opus, the general theory of relativity, which models gravitation through the warping of spacetime. According to his theory, the Sun weighs down our region of spacetime, rendering it curved instead of flat. Consequently, everything in the Sun’s vicinity must naturally travel along curved paths, rather than straight lines.

Xochimilco is an idyllic network of lakes, canals and artificial islands improbably tucked into the urban sprawl of Mexico City, and it is a green lung vital to the health of smog-choked Mexico City.  Without fishermen the whole ecosystem would collapse.  One little salamander, whose name means "water monster" in the native Nahuatl language, was considered sacred by the Aztecs, who believed it was the last incarnation of their god Xolotl.  According to local legend, the day those aoxolotl salamanders disappear would be the end of Xochimilco.

Google has turned to an unusual source to train its high-tech AI: chocolate chip cookie recipes. Tasking programmers with helping an AI learn from data through trial-and-error is tedious and time-consuming, so the company has employed a neural network called Vizier to help another neural networks learn via a type of training automation called hyperparameter tuning. To teach Vizier, Google tasked it with formatting the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe, considering taste-tester feedback until it for the recipe just right.

On August 21, if you have the opportunity to see the moon totally eclipse our sun, remember that there's more to eclipses than what happens to our nearest star — eclipses of celestial objects happen all the time, giving us invaluable new insight into objects that we'd otherwise never see.

More than 2,000 years before the Great American Solar Eclipse, which will darken the skies over the U.S. on August 21, astronomers in ancient Greece developed their own "supercomputer" to predict eclipses just like this one which was discovered on a shipwreck by sponge divers. The ancient gearbox called the Antikythera mechanism was used to identify astronomical events that could anchor their calendar.

Americans need not look too far to find evidence of their country’s own early history. In fact, the remains of mounds built by Native American cultures almost 5,000 years ago can still be found today. The exhibit “Moundbuilders: Ancient Architects of North America,” which is on view at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia through July 2018, explores this lesser-known history, tracing the similarities and differences found among America’s very own ancient monuments—some of which even predate Stonehenge.

When the 2017 Perseid meteor shower peaked over last weekend, no one was expecting an amazing show. After all, the August moon had just passed its full phase and threatened to outshine all but the brightest Perseid fireballs.  Yet, one dedicated stargazer in Redondo Beach, California, ventured out in search of dark skies anyway to see what the Perseids would bring. The result was a spectacular one-in-a-million meteor photo.

While scientists are still in heated debates about what exactly consciousness is, the University of Arizona’s Stuart Hameroff and British physicist Sir Roger Penrose conclude that it is information stored at a quantum level. Penrose agrees --he and his team have found evidence that protein-based microtubules—a structural component of human cells—carry quantum information— information stored at a sub-atomic level.  Penrose argues that if a person temporarily dies, this quantum information is released from the microtubules and into the universe. However, if they are resuscitated the quantum information is channeled back into the microtubules and that is what sparks a near death experience.  Researchers from the renowned Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich are in agreement.

The Debrief:  Frankie's first psychedelic experience wasn't with acid or magic mushrooms, but with something more fabled for its spiritual powers.  'It was very vibrant and bright. People's faces became bright yellow and their skin really smooth. It looked like a 90s computer game. It's the most out-there experience I've ever had, but it's not made me grow as a person.'   This article carries sound advice:  While taking any illicit substance carries risks, the best way to stay safe when taking DMT (dimethyltryptamine) is to be mindful of the setting.  Do some research into the substance, it's health effects, and take it familiar surroundings with people you trust.

Attempts to scientifically categorise and understand the depth of personal psychedelic experience, (particularly the more decadent and visionary states that can be attained through high doses or skillful use), are often left severely lacking in regard to an appreciation of the otherworldly grandiose, eerie and often cartoonishly comical tricks and turns that can be visited upon the voyager.  In a manner similar to the attempts of early anthropologists, attempting to really grasp or grapple with the fullness and rich texture of the subject is an impossible feat to achieve from the sidelines.  In this article a scientist explains his personal experiences with the compounds found in Morning Glory Seeds.

Details the history and geology of Kartchner Caverns in Arizona.  Studying, mapping, and opening the caves to the public was a major undertaking for the state of Arizona. It took 11 years and cost $28 million. In 1999 — 25 years after discoverers first entered Xanadu in 1974 — two rooms of Kartchner Caverns State Park opened for public view for the first time.  Today, visitors to Kartchner Caverns can go on tours of many of the rooms, including the Throne Room (which contains one of the world’s longest soda straws), and the Big Room, which is closed each year from April through October to accommodate nursery roosting for cave bats.

Written by an astrophysics professor and self-described 'evangelist of science'.  Here is an excerpt:  In the end, however, it's all worth it (unless I get eaten by a bear).  As a scientist, I've spent my whole life trying to get closer to the world and understand its ways more deeply. That means going to the source. But there is no greater source for science, for the inspiration to do science, than the wild.  That's where the sense of sacredness — that I think lives at the root of science's aspiration — lives.  As the great John Muir put it, "Keep close to Nature's heart and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean."  Now, if only the bears have read Muir.

Today, the lace-trimmed windows have faded into the distant past, and have made way instead for houses with tiled façades built choc-a-block. The trams only trundle in people’s memories; the tracks nowhere to be seen. Motor cars, autorickshaws and two wheelers instead are the preferred modes of transport. Where once sea waves lashing the shore was a familiar background sound, now it is drowned out by the excited chatter of little boys in blue who spill out of the gates of school attached to St. Peter's church. First opened in 1856, Royapuram is home to the oldest surviving railway station on the Indian subcontinent.

Five-thousand-year-old rock art is tucked into an outcropping 40 miles northeast of Hargeisa, the capital of this breakaway region of Somalia. But its ambiguous political status has made protecting the site especially challenging.

A geophysical survey of the site near Beacon Hill Lane carried out in 2015 revealed a hexagonal shaped temple structure which is very rare in Roman Britain. This year the plan has been to extend both the main and extension trenches to the east, as well as the excavation of the main site. The work has also led to an adjacent room believed to be a bathhouse, as well as artifacts from the Roman period and Iron Age, some of which predate the temple's construction by a couple centuries.

A team of archaeologists, students, and local volunteers have been investigating prehistoric mounds in the fields of the village of Kirk Michael for the past 12 months.  The Isle of Man is home to about 60 round barrows - human burial sites found throughout the British Isles and Europe, which first appeared around 3800-3600 BCE in the Neolithic and late Bronze Age.  Finds so far include parts of a burial urn, flint tools, and a hide scraper with beveled edges. The team hopes that modern techniques will reveal more glimpses of Manx prehistory.

A tall thin shape was recently caught on camera by a group of researchers investigating a newly-formed crop circle near Avebury in Wiltshire.  At first, they believed it to be a person standing away in a field, however, many people believe crop circles are a paranormal occurrence caused by aliens or other unexplained forces.

When scientists first confirmed their existence in the San Gabriel River in 2008, the group of young green sea turtles were thought to be oddballs or lost wanderers.  The federally endangered species usually is found in tropical haunts, amid coral reefs or on the sandy beaches where they lay their eggs.  But this colony of around 100 of them cavorts in the southern end of the murky brackish river, where tainted urban runoff mixes with tidal flows in the shadows of electric power plants and the 405 Freeway.  Federal scientists and an army of volunteers are coming up with answers to some of the riddles the turtles pose.

Hedgehog research lends itself very well to citizen science. The animal is impossible to confuse with any other species, people love them, and they share our gardens. Add to this the very real problem of dramatic population decline – down by about a third in urban areas and more than half in rural areas since the turn of the century – and we have motivation to act.

We've sent several probes to Saturn over the years, but none has been as successful as the Cassini spacecraft, which has been orbiting the gas giant since 2004. Cassini has made hundreds of groundbreaking discoveries of Saturn and its moons, but the mission is winding to a close, and Cassini will cease to exist a month from now.  But that doesn't mean that Cassini's job is done yet; there are still many more discoveries the spacecraft can make before the end. On Monday, Cassini took the first step toward making one more. It became the first spacecraft to dip into Saturn's atmosphere.

An archaeological treasury – the voluminous collection of papers, slides, research notes, recordings, jokey postcards, and miscellaneous bits of long-dead human beings collected by the late paleopathologist Calvin Wells – is to be digitized to make it available in its eccentric entirety to scholars for the first time.

The popularity of drone use in agriculture has increased over the past few years, and drones are now being used around the world to herd animals like cows and sheep. People who move herds over large swaths of land are saying it’s a more efficient and effective way to get the job done, and it allows them to keep an eye on the land and cattle more easily.

France may be famous for its cheese and wine, but it’s also a longtime leader in driverless transit. Paris boasted one of the earliest models of automatic trains in 1983, when two metro lines ran without a conductor onboard. The push toward driverless public transportation continues in this city, with several upgrades planned before it plays host to the Summer Olympics in 2024.

The mere thought of a supervolcano eruption could be enough to send a chill right down your spine. But according to new research, the remnants from catastrophic volcanic events of the past may be a much sought-after source of clean energy for the US.  A study found that large quantities of lithium, used for the lithium-ion batteries that power modern devices, exist in the lakes that formed in the huge holes left behind by ancient eruptions, becoming concentrated in clay over thousands of years.

Texas is not lacking in haunted places with the nefarious and often horrific activities that occurred among the living there.  One such place is the Magnolia Hotel in Seguin, Texas, one of the state’s oldest towns situated on the Guadalupe River in San Antonio County. Its story has been featured on many paranormal TV shows, and this week a surveillance video showed what some described as a ghostly mist.

A SpaceX craft docked at the International Space Station this week carrying payload of more than 6,400 pounds of lab equipment and supplies for crew members living there. But perhaps the most eagerly awaited cargo on the resupply mission may also be its most perishable: ice cream.  Most of us remember astronaut ice cream, those little dehydrated neopolitan bricks. The reason astronauts generally don't have much access to the real stuff isn't rocket science, but rather something we've all encountered: a lack of freezer space.

Steller sea lion bulls weigh up to 2,500 pounds, and pups weigh between 35 and 50 pounds. In a never-before-seen instance of cannibalism on Russia's Medny Island, a massive male sea lion was observed brutally killing and eating a pup—and is suspected of doing the same to several more.  The baby sea lion did nothing to provoke the attack, and the bull gained no obvious advantage from the death, scientists report in the journal Marine Mammal Science.

This year, the 22nd annual Festival of the Giant Omelette in the town of Malmedy took on greater meaning.  Defying rain and a tainted egg scandal that has shaken European consumers in 18 countries, this Belgian town turned nearly 10,000 eggs into a giant omelette for the whole community.  Cooks and volunteers whipped up the massive concoction using enormous wooden utensils in an oversized 4-metre frypan with bacon and green onions, and distributed it to a hungry public.

Some people believe they saw a UFO buzz past the US Capitol Building on a Fox News broadcast.  It turns out this year is the 65th anniversary of the 1952 UFO sighting that has come to be known as the Washington National Airport Sightings, the Invasion of Washington, or the Washington Flap.  Article examines whether or not these sightings might be related.

A baby dolphin died after being handed round by bathers posing for photographs on a packed tourist beach. The small female, still of nursing age, lost its mother and became stranded in shallow waters off the coast of southern Spain.  Instead of calling authorities for help, thoughtless tourists pulled it from the sea, stroked it and passed it round for selfies. Marine conservationists raced to the scene, but the animal was already dead when they arrived 15 minutes later, succumbing to heart and lung failure from stress.  Officials blasted them, saying, 'Humans are the most irrational and selfish animal there is. Many people are unable to feel empathy for a living being which is frightened, starving hungry, without its mother, and terrified.'

A fantastic new map from webcomic artist Randall Munroe shows the relative surface areas of all the rocky planets and moons in the solar system as though they were continents branching off from the oceans of Earth. The map, entitled "Surface Area", provides a wonderful visualization of the relative sizes of all the major solid bodies in the solar system presented in the familiar form of a world map.

Limited visibility is a big problem when it comes to firefighting. That’s why an in-visor augmented reality system is being developed that will project an infrared display across a firefighter’s field of vision.  It could mean the difference between life and death.

Humans have been alternatively amused, puzzled, bewildered and sometimes even terrified at the sight of this celestial phenomenon. A range of social and cultural reactions accompanies the observation of an eclipse.  In ancient Mesopotamia (roughly modern Iraq), eclipses were in fact regarded as omens, as signs of things to come.  This article covers historical material on both solar and lunar eclipses.

Rotating winds paint the sky with a series of cotton-candy spirals in a new satellite image over the South Atlantic. The spirals are properly known as Von Kármán Vortices, according to NASA's Earth Observatory, which released the stunning satellite shot this week.

A collection of oddities lies within an unassuming old building near the waterfront of Wilmington, North Carolina. The Museum of the Bizarre, which opened in 2015, houses a medley of the macabre.  Items on display include a life-size Freddy, a lock of Alexander Hamilton’s hair, letters from serial killers, a crystal skull, a two-headed calf, Harry Houdini’s ouija board, and vintage medical equipment. There are also slightly less credible objects exhibited like an imprint of Bigfoot’s footprint, a unicorn horn, a chupacabra hand, and the remains of a mermaid.

Bangladesh conservationists recently introduced two rare river-dwelling crocodiles, called gharials, to potential mates in a last-ditch attempt to save the critically-endangered species from extinction.

Some folks have big plans for your future. They want you—a burger-eatin’, chicken-finger-dippin’ American—to buy their burgers and nuggets grown from stem cells in a Petri dish.  One day, meat eaters and vegans might even share their hypothetical burgers.  Those burgers will be delicious, environmentally friendly, and be indistinguishable from regular burgers.  And they will assure you the ground meat will be real meat, just not from slaughtered animals.

Archaeological excavations conducted in the Bat Cave in Balangoda have unearthed approximate 10 stone tools and hunting implements used by mature homo sapiens who lived in the inland parts of Sri Lanka about 4,000 to 6,000 years ago, and 35 varieties of burnt edible crop seeds used by them as food.  There was also evidence about the shared cultural habits among people living in different caves.

The 2017 total solar eclipse is fast approaching, and hordes of sky gazers are scrambling to find a spot where they can see the shadow of the moon completely obscure the sun for a few moments on August 21.  Time Magazine has created an interactive simulation in the form of a Solar Eclipse Map that allows you to see what the eclipse will look like from anywhere in the US.  Scientific methodology of the map's creation is also explained in this article.

Lidar imaging has been used to help preservation groups uncover several hidden historic sites in New England.  Remote-sensing technology cannot put a date on those finds, but has great potential to advance the field of space archaeology by providing a sense of historic geography.  Lidar, coupled with geospatial analysis, provides the ability to answer a whole range of questions that just cannot be done by traditional fieldwork alone.

With more volts than ever before in electric vehicles (EVs) and on solar-paneled rooftops, first responder and electrical worker safety is a growing concern. Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are addressing the challenge with the development of a probe to accurately detect direct-current (DC) energy.

A mutant pig, born with two bodies,eight legs and underdeveloped skin, died just minutes after birth on a farm in the Shandong Province of China.  The farmer, Gao Baiqi,  said he had never seen anything like it.  Because it was weak, Baiqi reportedly planned to nurture the abnormal piglet by hand instead of letting it feed from its mother. But it jerked and thrashed about before it abruptly stopped breathing.

In the domain of the truly outlandish, is a menagerie of eyebrow-raising beasts that have propelled themselves far beyond what is easily explainable by any standard, to firmly and deeply lodge themselves into the world of the unexplained. These are the cryptids that make us scratch our heads; the weird, wonderful, and at times utterly preposterous, showing that the world is a mighty strange place indeed.

Islands are not only in the ocean. The basic premise of an island, an isolated bit of land surrounded on all sides by an inhospitable substrate, occurs not only in the ocean—but in the sky too. "Sky islands" are the tops of tall mountains that become environmentally isolated from each other even if they are close together, geographically speaking. The Western Ghats are a mountain chain in southwest India home to spectacular and unique sky islands. But despite being a hotspot of high biodiversity, relatively little is known about them scientifically.

Oyster stocks in a Cornish fishery are sustained thanks to "inefficient" traditional fishing methods, new research suggests.  Bucking the trend of mechanized commercial fishing, this is a unique fishery where the efficacy of traditional practices can be examined and compared with modern industrial fishing.

In a recent conversation with Futurism, Buzz Aldrin spoke about the importance of scientific literacy, noting that such an understanding matters more today than ever before. And at a time where our daily actions are so explicitly tied to our culture’s scientific literacy, it isn’t hard to see why this comprehension is so crucial.

A collection of sarcophagi of different shapes and sizes as well as clay fragments that date the tombs between the 27th Dynasty and the Greco-Roman era were found inside the three graves. The head of the archaeological mission that discovered the tombs explained that they have a different architecture design than the previously discovered ones. The first tomb is composed of a perpendicular burial shaft engraved in the rock and leads to a burial chamber containing four sarcophagi with anthropoid lids. The second tomb contains a perpendicular burial shaft and two burial chambers.  The first chamber is located in the north, where remains of two sarcophagi are found suggesting that it was the burial of two people. A collection of six holes for burial were also found, among them one was the burial of a small child.

Hundreds of internet-connected locks, including some associated with AirBnB, became inoperable last week after a faulty software update caused them to experience a fatal system error, Colorado-based manufacturer LockState said.  The incident is the latest reminder that the everyday devices and appliances embedded with small internet-connected computers often provide as many annoyances as they do conveniences.

A Canadian video company is hoping to breathe new life into the legend of Bigfoot, and has turned to a crowdfunding kickstarter campaign to help finance their horror film about the mythical creature.

Coral reefs are home to some of the most colorful, diverse life on the planet. And yet, for all their fame as biodiversity hotspots, it’s estimated that divers see less than half of the fish species that live there (and that’s not counting all the invertebrates like shrimp and crabs). The invisible or “hidden half” consists of fish that aren’t active until nightfall, or conceal themselves in the reefs’ many nooks and crevices.  Marine biologists deployed their equipment in a Panama archipelago with quite surprising results.

The United States bought Alaska from Russia in 1867. From that moment on, the future of a great northern territory and its original inhabitants changed forever.  Enjoy scrolling through this collection of 47 historic photographs from the Library of Congress.

The remains of roasted, chopped and defleshed dog skulls in the Eurasian steppe are providing evidence of a bizarre rite of passage for young boys from 4000 years ago – one that might have echoes in the foundation myth of ancient Rome.  “The nature of this ritual was that they killed and then consumed very large numbers of dogs and some wolves with them,” says David Anthony at Hartwick College in New York.

A new generation of the DeLorean family is looking to put the brand back into the spotlight by giving new meaning to an iconic statement the kooky inventor Doc Brown delivers at the end of the Back To The Future film: "Where we're going, we don't need roads."

Total population collapse?  No.   Weaker insects?  Yes.   Problematic pesticides? Probably...   According to this article, here's what's ailing the honeybees:  Too many pesticides, too much corn and soybeans, too many mites, too much stress, not enough wildflowers.

The solar eclipse that will cross the United States on August 21 will be one more opportunity for us to look up and take in the just-out-of-reach spectacle of space. Few people will be more equipped to understand its implications than Ann Druyan, the widow of Carl Sagan and the co-creator of his TV series Cosmos.  She recently gave an interview to Time Magazine on all matters cosmic, but it was the eclipse that elicited some of her most evocative insights.

Total solar eclipses have inspired wonder and awe throughout history, with the first known reference to an eclipse dating back about 5,000 years. But when the moon passes between Earth and the sun and darkens skies across the United States on August 21, there will be one major difference between modern-day skywatchers and ancient cultures that witnessed the same celestial phenomenon: We'll have much less fear.

Millions of people await the Great American Eclipse on August 21, 2017.  A thousand years ago, early Pueblo people called Chacoans captured their experiences of a total solar eclipse in 1097 by carving it into a rock — a circle with looping streamers that resemble the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona.  Not only does this rock art, or petroglyph, in Chaco Canyon depict a solar eclipse with a gigantic eruption of plasma called a coronal mass ejection (CME), its looping lines may have evoked a wondrous, inspirational experience, said solar astronomer J. McKim Malville, a University of Colorado Boulder professor emeritus, who is an expert in archaeoastronomy.  He believes there is the possibility that the glory of that experience for the people living in Chaco in 1097 was transformed to an increased reverence and increased appreciation of the sun.

Water in India's Kasadi river has long been deemed unfit for human consumption.  The emergence of dogs with blue fur has been linked to pollution in the river.

An unlikely threat from our past is rearing its head again: the Black Death.  Officials in Arizona are warning residents to avoid camping, keep pets indoors and dogs on leashes after fleas on several dead prairie dogs collected throughout the state have tested positive for the Bubonic Plague, contaminated with the culprit Yersinia Pestis bacteria.  So far, no human cases have been confirmed in this most recent outbreak.

For centuries, if an archaeologist wanted to find an ancient or mythical site, they trudged through desert sands or rainforest thickets armed with little more than rumors, hand-drawn maps, historical accounts, biblical texts, and a lot of educated guesswork.  But all that changed in the late 20th century when some of them began using a new tool: remote sensing.  By gathering data and images from satellites and aircraft, researchers began to uncover a wealth of new finds. Like the glow of a flickering bulb, images taken from above shed light on previously dark landscapes.

Scientists have known about psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in “magic mushrooms,” ever since it was first isolated in 1958.  But it has taken until now to figure out how it’s produced.  In recent years, there has been something of a psychedelic science renaissance, and small-scale studies have begun to reveal myriad benefits to psilocybin and have reinforced its safety.  As with any new drug, however, producers must ensure that their product meets stringent safety protocols. Bringing the synthesis of psilocybin out of the woods and into the lab is a big step.

From ocean-going robots to virtual reconstructions of ancient cities, new tools and techniques are transforming archaeology like never before.  All these futuristic technologies and others are bringing archaeologists ever closer to understanding the lives of our ancestors.  We're at the cutting edge of trying to understand who we are as humans.

A high percentage of citified sea snakes wearing black might be a sign that pollution is an evolutionary force. Off the coasts of Australia and New Caledonia, some turtle-headed sea snakes are sporting pale bands on their dark skins. Others have gone all black.  In 15 places surveyed, the all-black form was more likely to predominate in waters near cities, military sites or industrial zones than along reefs near rural coastlines, leading scientists to speculate whether this might be a case of industrial melanism.

A new type of snake has been identified in the UK, bringing the total number of species to four.  Scientists say the barred grass snake, Natrix helvetica, is actually a different species to the common or eastern grass snake, Natrix natrix.  Grass snakes are a protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

Interest in the Canoe Journey, and how it has strengthened indigenous identity in the Northwest, is growing in the United States and abroad. Indigenous people who have participated in the journey include Ainu from Japan, Inuit from Greenland, Maori from New Zealand, and Indigenous Peoples from Brazil and Mexico. But interest in the journey is also growing in Europe – in Perugia, Italy.  A cultural exchange is fueling the interest many Perugians have in their own indigenous roots. The Etruscan and Coast Salish peoples have some things in common.

In the 2009 film 'Star Trek,' a supernova hurtles through space and obliterates an entire planet unfortunate enough to be in its path.  It turns out the notion is not so farfetched.

With foraging is his prayer time and traditional cooking is his meditation, Chef Karlos Baca sheds the colonial mindframe of the modern culinary world and waxes poetic on reconnecting indigenous people with their ancestral foods.

The vegetarian and vegan communities were among the first to favour animal-friendly and environmentally-friendly footwear.   Initially, eco-shoes tended to be low-quality, unattractive and difficult to find. This prohibited a wider spread, because when it comes to buying a new pair of shoes, consumers often look for the most stylish and comfortable pair they can find.  Today, more fashionable bio-based footwear can be recycled, compostable, or even biodegradable.

DNA research finds that the majority of Puerto Ricans have Native blood.  Their society was not killed off by Spanish invaders in the 1600's.  “Our study showed there was assimilation,” geneticist Martinez-Cruzado explained, “but the people were not extinguished. Their political and social structure was, but the genes were not."  The Taino people were assimilated into a new colonial order, and still remain Taino mixed with Africans and Spaniards.