Notebook
- Astronomy
Earth’s hurricanes have nothing on this quasar
In a remote galaxy, a cosmic hurricane around a supermassive black hole is driving winds at nearly 20 percent of the speed of light.
- Earth
One of Earth’s missing minerals found locked inside meteorite
Scientists have discovered the last undiscovered dense mineral of the pyroxene group in a meteorite.
- Health & Medicine
Three big reasons why U.S. men have a shorter life expectancy
U.S. men’s lives are two years shorter than men in other rich countries for three reasons: guns, drugs and cars.
- Astronomy
Quasars’ distance no longer in question
Astronomers now know quasars live around black holes in remote galaxies, but 50 years ago, one researcher argued they were much closer.
- Planetary Science
Get your Pluto trivia down cold
Eight months after visiting Pluto, the New Horizons spacecraft has delivered a wealth of details about the dwarf planet and its family of moons.
- Paleontology
True nature of ‘Tully monster’ revealed
The identity of a 300-million-year-old enigmatic creature known as the “Tully monster” is a mystery no longer.
- Astronomy
Black hole smashup generated yottawatts of power
For a split second, LIGO’s black hole collision generated 36 septillion yottawatts of power, or 50 times the power from all the stars in the universe.
- Neuroscience
Scientists still haven’t solved mystery of memory
50 years have refined a basic understanding of the brain, but scientists are still exploring how memories form, change and persist.
- Animals
New chameleon has strange snout, odd distribution
A new species of chameleon from Tanzania echoes the unusual range of the kipunji monkey.
- Planetary Science
Mercury’s dark secret revealed
Graphite from Mercury’s primordial crust might be responsible for making the innermost planet darker than the moon.
- Animals
Eat your stinkbugs
Prepared as a snack by some groups in southern Africa, the stinkbug Encosternum delegorguei is a good source of protein and antioxidants.
- Animals
Is Amy Tan actually ‘thrilled’ a leech is named after her?
Novelist Amy Tan answers a lingering question about celebrities honored in scientific names of new species — her namesake is a leech.
