Category: What happened in Earth’s past?

Could the “overview effect” calm political polarization?

Have you ever been angered by someone else’s opinion? Did you understand where the person was coming from before disagreeing? Here’s how @sanjoymarcel thinks we could cool things down a bit. #palebluedot #lookupandlookin article by Aditi Sharma.

Students inspired to study science by participating in real NASA missions

Can teachers get students in underrepresented, disadvantaged communities to feel excited about science if they get to participate in real NASA missions? Turns out, probably! #teaching #StemEd

Learning about space motivates students to pursue science

Whether it is the acceptance of different passions, backgrounds, or even favorite movies, diversity matters. A group of ten researchers who noticed the positive correlation between motivation and academic success created the Ad Astra Academy to teach astrobiology abroad. They educated students from disadvantaged…

Babies Learn About Eye Contact Early in Life

As infants, we absorb any information our surroundings have to offer, especially if other humans are involved. Infants can recognize their native language, the faces of their own species, and even the faces of their own race. It’s all part of how our brains learn to adapt to their individual environments. With this…

$Chess might help you become better at math, but not for the reasons you think.$

Chess might help you become better at math, but not for the reasons you think.

Chess has been proposed as a way of improving math abilities, despite the fact that math and chess do not have as much in common as people think.

What happens when astronaut teams don’t get along?

Posted on April 15, 2021April 15, 2021 by Jessica Snyder 538 views

Professor Contractor Noshir knows how to help you get along better with your coworkers. He studies the interpersonal dynamics of crews in extreme environments,…

Microbes from extreme environments help us study space

Posted on March 18, 2021April 7, 2021 by Anisha Shastri 341 views

Space is a hostile place. It has numerous stressors which make it seem impossible for Earth-like life to thrive there. Some of these stresses include harmful…

Building a better spacesuit for a trip to Mars

Posted on March 8, 2021April 6, 2021 by Subhajit Hazra 255 views

An intra-vehicular space suit and a storm shelter will help protect astronauts from radiation during a trip to Mars. Infusing the suit material with graphene…

How does the human body react to being in space?

Posted on December 21, 2020April 6, 2021 by Jovel Varghese Jose 178 views

Is going to space safe for human health? Two astronauts, who were twins, volunteered for a research study to look at how the body changes when it goes into…

What the velociraptor’s brain tells us about its diet Velociraptor was not just a speedy hunter capable of running down food. Its diet was also flexible.

Posted on April 30, 2021April 30, 2021 by LoganKing 426 views

The brain of one of popular culture’s most infamous dinosaurs helps to clarify its diet and hearing range.

Giant dinosaur tracks found in a cave in France Sauropods were previously thought to have had their heyday in the Late Jurassic period. Recent fossil evidence says it was probably much earlier than that.

Posted on March 15, 2021April 2, 2021 by Dilara Kılıçarslan and Gina Misra 456 views

Sauropods were previously thought to have had their heyday in the Late Jurassic period. Recent fossil evidence says it was probably much earlier than that.

This fossil is the last common ancestor of worms Ikaria wariootia, a fossil, is predicted to be 560-551 million years old and thought to be the last common ancestor of bilaterians, like worms, found in South Australia.

Posted on February 15, 2021April 2, 2021 by Deniz Akbulut 79 views

When did simple life become more complex, such as the modern animals we see today? A recent study may have uncovered evidence for one of these turning points. At Nilpena National Heritage Site, South Australia, scientists discovered new fossils that have never been seen before.

How water shaped the Earth Minerologists, geologists, astronomers, astrobiologists explain how water shaped our planet’s history by studying the types of chemical reactions where water plays a fundamental role.

Posted on November 21, 2020April 1, 2021 by Romulo Cruz 231 views

Water has molded our planet into what it is today, in ways you may not have imagined! #water #waterislife

Chemicals on mineral surfaces may have jumpstarted life Researchers observed selected biological molecules multiplying and fueling their own chemistry across mineral surfaces, resembling the patterns of a living metabolism.

Posted on November 5, 2020April 1, 2021 by Emily Felder 73 views

Were metabolic pathways established before life emerged? New experiments observe life-like patterns self-propagating on #mineral surfaces. #astrobiology #geobiology

Could “Fools’ Gold” have helped build the first proteins? Scientists measured the forces that allow iron pyrite to help amino acids bind to each other at the bottom of the ocean -- to understand how life may have formed a long time ago.

Posted on September 21, 2020January 15, 2021 by Marcos Jusino-Maldonado 116 views

How and why humans exist are questions that have challenged different cultures ever since the dawn of civilization. Many scientists have taken upon their shoulders the duty of answering these fundamental questions, coming up with several especially creative ideas over the past few decades. One prominent idea is that…

What the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz can teach us about conservation Researchers from the Smithsonian meticulously analyze the 80-year-old ruby slippers and learned how to preserve them for future generations

Posted on January 15, 2019April 7, 2021 by Gina Misra 69 views

Scientists use advanced lab techniques to examine every detail of the ruby slippers to understand what they are made of, the age of the materials, and their present state. As a result, they learned how to protect them from deteriorating further.