Global

Stonehenge had a hard Scottish heart, a new study suggests. The ancient site’s central stone, a large slab known as the Altar Stone, consists of rock transported at least 750 kilometers from northeastern Scotland to southern England, say geoscientist Anthony Clarke of Curtin University in Perth, Australia, and colleagues. An analysis of the age and … Read more

Meteorologist Thea Sandmael watched the storm close in. It was near enough for her to spot a rotating dome of clouds emerging from its dark underbelly — the quickening of a tornado. By the time the spinning mass was 10 minutes away, Sandmael and her colleagues had shut down their radar instruments and evacuated their … Read more

Brief blasts of light might make some materials into fleeting superconductors. A new study strengthens the case for this controversial claim, first made more than a decade ago. But while some physicists are convinced, others remain skeptical. Superconductors transmit electricity without resistance, typically only at low temperatures. But since 2011, some scientists have claimed that … Read more

A new look at decades-old data from the Apollo missions has uncovered evidence of tens of thousands of previously unrecognized moonquakes. The results could reveal details about the moon’s inner workings and could have implications for future human missions. “There were more tectonic events on the moon, it’s more tectonically active than considered before,” says … Read more

Reading people’s faces can literally give you a hint of how they are feeling on the inside. Mapping the face’s hot and cool spots can provide clues to a person’s biological age — that is, how fast their cells are aging — and even detect signs of chronic diseases as such as diabetes and high … Read more

Access to clean water is a human right — one that half of the world may not have. Out of the roughly 8 billion people on Earth, more than 4.4 billion lack access to safely managed drinking water, researchers report August 15 in Science. The estimate, based on computer simulations of data from low- and … Read more

Earth’s most famous killer asteroid came from the outer reaches of the solar system, researchers report in the Aug. 16 Science. About 66 million years ago, an asteroid slammed into the sea just off Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, forming the Chicxulub crater. That powerful impact may have triggered a mass extinction event on Earth, killing off … Read more

Imagine going on a weeklong business trip and not coming home until the following year. That may be the situation for U.S. astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, whose eight-day mission to the International Space Station has already stretched to more than two months and is likely to go even longer. The pair launched to … Read more

The pills stocked inside your medicine cabinet may factor into how well you can handle summer heat. Extreme heat can be deadly. As outdoor temperatures sizzle, our bodies jump into action to keep internal temps under control (SN: 8/6/23). Blood rushes to the surface of our skin to release heat as sweat pours onto it, … Read more

Any way you slice it, a paper cut is painful.  Magazines, letters and books harbor a devious potential for minor self-induced agony. But other types of paper — like thin tissue paper or the thicker stuff used for postcards — are less likely to offend. Scientists have now explained the physics behind why some paper … Read more