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Apr152023 by adminNo Comments

Yellow dust: Sandstorms bring misery from China to South Korea

Science

NEWS1By Yuna Ku, Joel Guinto and Fan Wangin Seoul and SingaporeFrom his high rise office window, Erling Thompson watches the Seoul skyline fade into a yellow-grey cloud as fine dust from sandstorms in China blankets South Korea.On the streets below, people wear face masks and hooded jackets to ride out another dust-covered day that is no less miserable and unhealthy, even if it is expected at this time of the year.Yellow dust is a seasonal ordeal for millions in North Asia, as sandstorms from the Gobi desert that borders China and Mongolia ride springtime winds to reach the Korean peninsula and this year, farther east to Japan.It aggravates air pollution and puts people at greater risk of respiratory disease as the particles are small enough to be inhaled into the lungs. "You don't feel ha...

Apr72022 by adminNo Comments

Astronomers spot farthest galaxy ever, 13.5B light-years from Earth

Science

April 7 (UPI) -- A global team of astronomers has found the most distant space object ever, according to the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. It's a distant galaxy called HD1, some 13.5 billion light years away from Earth, with researchers offering two ideas of what, exactly, the galaxy is. The first paper, published this week in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters, is that HD1 could be creating stars at an astounding rate and could even be home to what's known as Population III stars. Population III stars are the universe's very first stars, which researchers say have never been seen until now. The second idea proposed by the team, in another paper published this week in the Astronomical Journal, is that HD1 could hold a supermassive black hole roug...

Jan72022 by adminNo Comments

SpaceX successfully completes first launch of 2022 from Florida

Science

ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 6 (UPI) -- SpaceX kicked off a surge in launch activity Thursday with the successful launch of 49 of the company's Starlink communications satellites from Florida, heading south along the state's coastline. Five SpaceX missions may launch in the next month on the southern polar trajectory, flying closer to the Florida coast toward Miami than most launches, according to the U.S. Space Force. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off as planned at 4:49 p.m. EST from Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center. Nine minutes after launch, the first-stage booster landed successfully on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean. "Starlink is now live in 25 countries and regions currently servicing over 145,000 users worldwide," SpaceX engineer Jessie Anderson said during a live broadcast of the launch. "...

Jun272021 by adminNo Comments

Appeal to identify ‘La Botaniste’ who slipped from history

Science

RHSWhen sorting through books gathering dust in the attic, it's common to find mementos of the past such as a poem, a pressed-flower, or a letter.But when staff at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) went through hundreds of old plant books, they stumbled on a collection of botanical treasures the likes of which they'd never seen before.Tucked inside a copy of The English Flora from 1830 were poems, doodles, plant specimens and a cartoon.Judging by the contents, the owner was a keen plants woman. But her name, Isabella A Allen, appears to have slipped from history.She may be the early 19th Century botanical illustrator about which little is known. Or she could be among the legions of uncelebrated 19th Century women with a passionate interest in plants.Either way, the RHS is hoping to tra...

May62021 by adminNo Comments

Owls may have inherited their night-hunting abilities from dinosaurs

Science

May 6 (UPI) -- New research suggests a small bird-like dinosaur's exacting night vision and owl-like hearing allowed it to track down prey in the black of night. Nocturnal hunting is relatively rare among predators, as it requires specialized sensory abilities -- many of the best night-hunters are birds, including owls, nightjars, nighthawks and more. Advertisement Because modern birds are the closest living relatives of the dinosaurs, scientists have previously surmised that the night-hunting capabilities of owls and other nocturnal birds might be inherited from their theropod ancestors. To investigate the possibility, scientists used detailed CT scans to compare the anatomical features of the eyes and inner ears of nearly 100 living bird and extinct dinosaur species. They shared the re...