Science & Health: Space, Medicine, Climate Change And Humans
The home of space, archaeology, medicine, physics, climate change and everything else that impacts the planet, our health and the world of science.
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Yeah, That’s a Freakin’ Lava Lake on a Moon
Two recent flybys of Jupiter’s moon Io by NASA’s Juno spacecraft revealed a couple of stunning surprises: a remarkably steep mountain and islands in the middle of a burbling lava lake. The new findings were announced yesterday by Scott Bolton, the principal investigator of the Juno mission, at the European Geophysical Union’s General Assembly. “Io…
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Dog-Powered Machines Were Surprisingly Common in the 19th Century
Ever since dogs were first domesticated about 18,000 years ago, they’ve often had jobs to earn their keep. Today, some dogs are used to herd sheep while others help hunters track and flush out game. And, believe it or not, dogs were sometimes used historically to power machines in private homes and factories. Dog-powered machines…
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Humans Sheltered in This Lava Tube for Thousands of Years
Three needs are famously fundamental to survival: food, water, and shelter. According to new research, ancient humans had at least two of those three needs met by a nearly mile-long lava tube about 77 miles (125 kilometers) north of Medina, Saudi Arabia, for at least 7,000 years. The lava tube in question is named Umm…
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How the Color Purple Could Lead Us to Alien Life
In a little more than 30 years, we went from knowing only of the planets in our star system to discovering over 5,000 distant worlds spread across the cosmos. So far, none have looked quite like Earth. If an Earth-like planet was orbiting another star, however, it may look different than our precious pale blue…