| The internet went slightly more bananas than usual last weekend over the New York Times' story implying that extraterrestrials are real and the U.S. government has been tracking them for years. Appearing first on the web on Saturday, it came out in print on Sunday as a front-page story entitled Real U.F.O.s? Pentagon Unit Tried to Know. | | If the United States were more like the rest of the world, a McDonald's Quarter Pounder might be known as the McDonald's 113-Grammer, John Henry's 9-pound hammer would be 4.08 kilograms, and any 800-pound gorillas in the room would likely weigh 362 kilos. | | The year 2017 is almost behind us, and it blasted by. So it's only natural to look back at the twelve preceding months and wonder, "What the heck happened?" In case you need any help remembering, RealClearScience has you covered (as far as science goes that is). We've aggregated the top stories from the lists of other prominent outlets that report on science news. | | The eruption of Mount Agung on the island of Bali has sparked worldwide media interest, yet volcanic eruptions in Indonesia are nothing new. Of the country's 139 active volcanoes, 18 currently have raised alert levels, signifying higher than normal seismic activity, ground deformation or gas emissions. On a global scale, in any week in 2017, there were at least between 14 and 27 volcanoes erupting. | | A Canadian-led study aims to settle the controversy over extraordinary Arctic fossils that represent the oldest known sexually reproducing organism and the oldest multicellular organism that used photosynthesis.The fossil organism identified as a red algae called Bangiomorpha pubescens, found in rocks on Somerset Island and Baffin Island in Nunavut, was discovered more than two decades ago and estimated to be between 720 million and 1.2 billion years old. | | Search for the term vaping' online and you'd be forgiven for thinking that it is an activity fraught with risks. The top stories relate to health problems, explosions and that vaping leads to smoking in teenagers. For the average smoker seeking information on vaping, a quick internet search offers little reassurance. Might as well continue smoking, the headlines imply, if these products are so dangerous. | | Renewable energy sources like solar and wind account for a growing share of the world's electric power. That's no surprise, given concerns about the carbon emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants and their harmful effect on the climate.Nuclear energy offers some advantages over renewables, including the ability to make electricity when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow. But today's nuclear plants use fission, which splits atoms of rare metals like uranium. Fission creates radioactive waste and can be hard to control as evidenced by reactor accidents like those at Three... | | China has the strange distinction of being both the world's biggest carbon dioxide emitter and the premiere solar energy producer (Trump being in office has really given them an opportunity to firmly solidify that second crown). On Thursday, the country took its latest solar energy leap by opening a new, kilometer-long solar highway in the northeastern Shangdon province. Despite some previous attempts by other countries, it's being hailed as the world's first solar-powered highway. | | There have been some magnificent moments in NASA history, as well as some goals we've aspired to but haven't yet realized. We've sent humans to the Moon, installing devices there and retrieving samples for the return home. We've sent probes to every planet in the Solar System, and to many asteroids, comets, and moons as well. We've even launched a few of them out of the Solar System, with more to follow. | | In the first novel ever written about Sherlock Homes, we learn something peculiar about the London detective. Holmes, supposedly a modern man and a keen expert in the workings of the world, does not know how the solar system works. Specifically he is unfamiliar with the heliocentric Copernican model, which, upon its slow acceptance in the 17th century, revolutionized Western thought about the place of our species in the universe. | | Space tourism isn't a new idea. SpaceX announced plans this year to send civilians skyward and Virgin Galactic is still working toward its goal of regular space flights. Just this week, Blue Origin released footage of its future space tourism ambitions. But all these plans aren't exactly a first-class experience. Even after paying millions, a few super-wealthy adventurers have to brave spartan accommodations in orbit alongside well-trained astronauts. | | Any way you slice it, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is one of the boldest, highest-stakes gambles in the space agency's storied history. Just building and testing the observatory has proved to be a dauntingly complex technological enterprise, pushing the observatory's astronomical price tag to nearly $9 billion and requiring participation from the European and Canadian space agencies. JWST is both a barrier-breaking and budget-busting undertaking. | | Once upon a time, a corporate grant was the ultimate status symbol for a university scholar. Companies don't spend money foolishly and a corporate grant was a sign that you were esteemed in your field.Then, as academia became more politically one-sided and government took more control over it using funding, the mentality changed. You were less ethical if you got corporate money, you must be fabricating a result for industry leash-holders. Only government grants were pure. | | Even after an acclimatisation period of more than 100 years, quantum mechanical phenomena still conflicts with our intuition of how nature works. Quantum mechanics confuses and marvels us in equal measure.We have long known that particles can be in a superpositionboth here and there at the same time. We can measure this in the laboratory. But does this also hold true for larger objects? That is the question. | | Late last month, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer took a break from the tax bill debate to talk with reporters about genetics.In a press conference, the New York senator criticized how direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies outfits like 23andMe and AncestryDNA discuss and handle users' genetic information. What those companies can do with all that data your most sensitive and deepest info, your genetics is not clear, and in some cases not fair and not right, said Schumer. | | Sick of tinsel, carols and talk of virgin birth?In New Zealand, Australia and many other countries, it's hard to escape Christmas in December.But even if you don't believe in Christ or a God, religion can still be a powerful force. Research shows that even nonreligious people may hold unconscious beliefs linked to religion that can affect their psychology. | | Maybe that's the problem. Maybe it's a guy who thinks the replicators on Star Trek are real. Maybe it's another article from the delusional weirdos of the Singularity Hub. Maybe it's just that I get really annoyed with physicists who think they understand biology. But yeah, Thomas Hornigold believes that we'll be able to make desktop replicators that will make anything you want. | | |
