Science

Some of the world’s biggest megacities are located in river deltas threatened by subsidence due to excessive groundwater extraction and urban expansion, compounding the threat they face from sea-level rise

A decades-long push to identify clear biomarkers for anxiety and depression is at last achieving results

There is a fundamental tension in space exploration that has created ongoing debates for decades. By creating the infrastructure we need to explore other worlds, we damage them in some way, making them either less scientifically interesting or less “pristine,” which some would argue, in itself, is a bad thing. A new paper available in JGR Planets, from Francisca Paiva, a physicist at Instituto Superior Técnico, and Silvio Sinibaldi, the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) planetary protection officer, argues that, in the Moon’s case at least, the problem is even worse than we originally thought.

Last week I wrote about the new vaccine schedule under RFK, which reveals his process. He doesn’t appear to have one. Our HHS secretary is shooting from the hip, ignoring expert advice, and trusting only his own conspiracy-addled instinct. He quickly followed with his take on the food pyramid, echoing unscientific nonsense he has been spouting for years. This also reflects another […]

The post RFK Turns Food Pyramid On Its Head first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

Today’s Jesus and Mo strip, called “absolutely,” came with a terse comment from the artist: “Thanks for clearing that up, Mo.”

What exists beneath the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon, Callisto? This is what a recent study accepted by The Planetary Science Journal hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated the subsurface composition of Callisto, which is Jupiter’s outermost Galilean satellite. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the interior composition of Callisto, which is hypothesized to possess a subsurface liquid water ocean, and develop new techniques for exploring planetary subsurface environments.

In the last readers’ wildlife photo feature I have, James Blilie has appeared with some black and white photos. His captions are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.

Here are another set of landscape photos that I have converted to black and white for posting to a black and white Facebook group.  I am having a lot of fun having another “go” at older images in B&W.  Over the last 15 years or so, my software skills for editing photos have improved dramatically.  Since I “came from” the perspective of shooting Kodachrome slides (everything was fully captured when I pressed the shutter button), I at first resisted the idea of using photo-editing software after I switched to digital.  That was a mistake.  Editing images is critical (like editing most other works).

These are from all over and many are scanned 35mm slides or negatives.

Three images for Jasper National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park in Canada, September 1981.  All scanned B&W negatives.

Beaver Lake on the Jacques Lake trail in Jasper National Park:

Summit Lake with figure, on the Jacques Lake trail in Jasper National Park:

Mount Robson from Berg Lake at dawn.  One of the great mountain views of the world.  I lugged the Rolleiflex and a tripod up to Berg Lake.  To be young and strong again!:

Next a photo from September 1982, also scanned B&W negative:  Taking a break from long canoeing days in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in far northern Minnesota:

Next, a few from my days of mountaineering in my youth, all scans from film originals:

An image I call The Thinker, taken at a camp at around 8200 feet elevation (2500m) on the south side of Mount Stuart in Washington state en  route to the summit.  1984,

Climbers on the north  ridge of Mount Adams, Washington state, with Mount Rainier in the background.  1987.  I have climbed Mount Adams, now visible outside my office window, three times, always by the more remote, less-frequented North Ridge:

Climbers on the Easton Glacier on Mount Baker, Washington state, 1989:

Next, a photo taken in Kathmandu, Nepal, 1991, scanned Kodachrome 64:

A  photo taken while backcountry skiing in Gairbaldi Provincial Park, north of Vancouver, BC, 1988:

A photo of skating tracks on the frozen pond behind our former home in Minnesota, 2013:

A photo from the Mission San Juan Capistrano, California, February 2023:

Finally, a photo taken in Seattle, in the vicinity of the Ballard Locks, March 2023:

 

Equipment:

Pentax K-1000, ME Super, and LX cameras and various Pentax M-series and A-series lenses
Rolleiflex 6cm roll film camera with Schneider 75mm f/3.5 lens that my Dad bought in Germany in 1950 and passed on to me in the 1980s
Olympus  OM-D E-M5 micro-4/3 camera and various Olympus Zuiko and Leica lenses for that system
Software:  Lightroom 5
Scanner:  Epson V500 Perfection (current model is V600, I think.  An excellent scanner.

A Chinese application to the International Telecommunications Union suggests plans for the largest satellite mega constellation ever built – but something else might be going on here

In a historic first, an unspecified medical issue is prompting an early return from the International Space Station on Wednesday night, January 14th. And while the return will be featured live online from undocking to splashdown, if skies are clear, you might just be able to see the pair crossing the night sky tonight, shortly after undocking.

An analysis of growth rings in the leg bones of 17 Tyrannosaurus rex individuals reveals that the dinosaurs matured much more slowly than previously thought, and adds to the evidence that they weren't all one species

Easing stress is one of the healthiest pursuits you can embark on this January. Here are some evidence-backed ways to ground yourself in 2026

Construction generates between 10 and 20 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, but cities can slash their climate impact by designing buildings in a more efficient way

A report warns that we may have seriously underestimated the rate of warming, which could damage economic growth

Astronomers using ALMA have detected the earliest hot galaxy cluster atmosphere ever observed, revealing a massive reservoir of superheated gas in the infant cluster SPT2349-56 just 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang. The gas is far hotter and more pressurised than current theories predicted for such a young system, forcing scientists to completely rethink how galaxy clusters evolved in the early universe. This discovery suggests that violent processes like supermassive black hole outbursts and intense starbursts heated these cluster atmospheres much earlier and more efficiently than anyone expected, fundamentally challenging our understanding of how the universe’s largest structures formed.

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope and ALMA have discovered one of the oldest ‘dead’ galaxies in the universe, revealing that supermassive black holes can kill galaxies through slow starvation rather than violent destruction. The galaxy, nicknamed ‘Pablo’s Galaxy’, formed most of its 200 billion solar masses of stars between 12.5 and 11.5 billion years ago before abruptly stopping, not because its black hole blew away all the gas in one catastrophic event, but because it repeatedly heated incoming material over multiple cycles, preventing fresh fuel from ever replenishing the galaxy’s star forming reserves.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured stunning new image of HH 80/81, a pair of objects created when supersonic jets from a newborn star slam into previously expelled gas clouds, heating them to extreme levels. These jets, powered by a protostar 20 times more massive than our Sun, stretch over 32 light years through space and travel at speeds exceeding 1,000 kilometres per second, making them the fastest outflows ever recorded from a young star.

A few extra minutes of sleep per day or an extra half-serving of vegetables with dinner can add a year to our lives, according to an analysis of data from 60,000 people

A disparate collection of young stellar objects bejewels a cosmic panorama in the star-forming region NGC 1333 in this new image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. To the left, an actively forming star called a protostar casts its glow on the surrounding gas and dust, creating a reflection nebula. Two dark stripes on opposite sides […]

Betelgeuse is the star that everybody can't wait to see blow up, preferably sooner than later. That's because it's a red supergiant on the verge of becoming a supernova and there hasn't been one explode this close in recorded human history. It's been changing its brightness and showing strange surface behavior, which is why astronomers track its activity closely. Are these changes due to its aging process? Do they mean it's about to blow up? Probably not.

Mars Was Half Covered by an Ocean susannakohler33808 Mon, 01/12/2026 - 12:00 Mars Was Half Covered by an Ocean https://mediarelations.unibe.ch/media_releases/2026/media_releases_2026/mars_was_half_covered_by_an_ocean/index_eng.html