The drought in southwestern North America that lasted from 2000 to 2018 is among the most severe to strike the region in the last 1,200 years, a new study finds. Tree ring–based reconstructions of past climate reveal just one drier 19-year period: a powerful “megadrought” in the late 16th century. The recent drought, researchers say, […] More
The Atlantic hurricane season is likely to be very active, fueled by very warm ocean temperatures in the tropics, according to several forecasts including a report released April 16 by The Weather Channel. A total of 18 named storms — nine of them hurricanes — are predicted in the season starting June 1, according to […] More
Quantum computing’s deep freeze is beginning to thaw. Computers that harness quantum physics could trump standard computers on certain types of calculations. But the machines typically work only at temperatures tiny fractions of a degree above absolute zero. Now, two teams of physicists report that they’ve created silicon-based quantum computers that work under warmer conditions. […] More
Hala Nelson and her colleagues wanted to cook the perfect steak. So they decided to use math. The researchers created a mathematical simulation of a lean slab of beef roasting in an oven. That simulation successfully reproduced the temperatures and moisture levels seen within meat in laboratory experiments previously performed by food scientists, the team […] More
Water pollution, Science News, April 11, 1970 — A new water pollution control bill that provides clear assignments of liability without proof of negligence to the source of an oil spill was signed into law by President [Richard] Nixon last week…. It would add pesticide levels to the factors involved in formulating all new water […] More
The Alchemy of UsAinissa RamirezMIT Press, $27.95 Humans have continually wielded materials, from steel to silicon, in new ways to send technology leaping forward. But those technologies have unintentionally molded our bodies and society, materials scientist and science writer Ainissa Ramirez argues in The Alchemy of Us. Increasingly precise clocks — based on steel springs and then […] More
Allison Fong dangles over the edge of a “river” running through a massive chunk of sea ice floating between the North Pole and Russia’s Komsomolets Island. The river cracked open in the ice just a few days ago, exposing the Arctic Ocean below. Already starting to freeze over, the river’s surface is a dark scar […] More
A curious confluence of atmospheric events has produced the largest ozone hole ever measured over the Arctic. A powerful polar vortex has trapped especially frigid air in the atmosphere above the North Pole, allowing high-altitude clouds to form in the stratosphere, where the ozone layer also sits. Within those clouds, chlorofluorocarbons and hydrochlorofluorocarbons already high […] More
