مقالات علمية

Mount Etna, Europe's most active volcano, has been erupting regularly since 2011. However, the latest series of explosions, which began on February 16, 2021, has been particularly noteworthy. Emanating from the youngest of the volcano's four craters — the Southeast Crater— they have spewed spectacular fountains of lava as high as 0.9 miles (1.5 kilometers). To put it in perspective, that is about three times the height of One World Trade Center, the tallest building in the United States....

A team of Swedish scientists has successfully extracted and reconstructed the world's oldest DNA from the tooth of a Siberian mammoth, which roamed Earth over a million years ago. Also known as deoxyribonucleic acid, the all-important molecule — which contains the genetic instructions for the development and function of living things. — provides new insights into the evolution of the ancient Ice Age giants. Prior to this, the oldest DNA sequenced came from the bone of a horse that trotted around Canada about 700,000 years ago....

The over 48,000 orange trees that permeate all corners of Seville, Spain, not only fill the city's air with the pleasant smell of azhar, or orange blossoms, in spring; they also yield over 16,500 tons of fruit every winter. Though that gives the capital of southern Spain’s Andalusia region the bragging rights of being Europe's top orange-producing city, the fruit is too tart to be consumed fresh. While some of the produce is used to make marmalade and orange liqueur, most of it ends up in Seville's landfills. However, that may change soon thanks to an ingenious idea to use the oranges to produce clean energy....

In 2011, conservationists moved eight Rothschild's giraffes to Longicharo Island, a rocky peninsula on Lake Baringo in Western Kenya. The scientists hoped the isolated area would save the endangered animals from poachers and allow their numbers to multiply. However, intense rainfall in August 2020 caused the lake water levels to rise substantially, cutting the area off from the mainland and reducing the once lush, 100-acre habitat to about eight acres....

On March 21, 2021, Earth will have its closest encounter with 2001 FO32 — the largest and fastest-known asteroid scheduled to fly past our planet this year. The space rock, estimated to be between 2,526 feet ( 0.47 miles) and 5,577 feet (1.05 miles) in diameter, will zip past Earth at a staggering speed of 76,980 miles per hour (123,887 km/h). To put it in perspective, that is about 100 times faster than the speed of sound!...

Madagascar, an island off the coast of Africa, is home to some of the world's most exciting and unique animal species — about 75 percent of which cannot be found anywhere else on the planet. These include the long-necked giraffe weevil, the colorful, cat-sized panther chameleon, and the bright orange-red tomato frog! The latest to join this impressive list of exotic creatures is a new reptile species small enough to perch on the tip of a finger!...

Located in California's Sierra Nevada mountains, Yosemite National Park is famous for its giant, ancient sequoia trees and impressive rock formations, like El Capitan and Half Dome. However, from mid-to-late February each year, the pristine preserve's main attraction is Horsetail Fall — a temporary waterfall that flows over the eastern edge of El Capitan every winter. During the brief two-week-period, the 1,500-foot-tall waterfall frequently transforms into a spectacular natural Firefall....

Those hoping for some respite from the powerful nor'easter that is currently pummeling the US East Coast and Mid-Atlantic with heavy snow and near-blizzard conditions are in for a disappointment. On February 2, 2021, aka Groundhog Day, legendary woodchuck Punxsutawney Phil observed his shadow. This — according to folklore — means that the frosty weather will remain with us for an additional six weeks....

The invention of plastic has been a double-edged sword for humanity. While the cheap, versatile material has made life convenient, it is virtually indestructible and takes centuries to decompose. Since avoiding plastic is impossible, companies worldwide are coming up with innovative ways to repurpose the millions of tons of polymer waste that end up in our landfills annually. Among the latest is California-based TechniSoil Industrial, which has devised an ingenious way to reuse plastic waste to repave roads....

With a series of storms unleashing their fury across the United States this week — all the way from California to New York — many Americans are experiencing the full wrath of the winter season. Freezing as the temperatures may seem, they are balmy compared to those in Yakutsk, the capital of Yakutia, or the Sakha Republic, in Russia. The residents of this remote Siberian city have been enduring average temperatures of below -30°F (-34°C) since December 8, 2020, with the mercury dipping as low as -59° F (-50.6 °C) on January 19, 2021....

Mars is famous for its orangish-red hue caused by the iron oxide in its soil. However, the Red Planet's surface, which has been drastically altered by volcanoes, impact craters, crustal movement, and atmospheric conditions such as dust storms, is also home to a wide range of fascinating topographical features. High among the list is Valles Marineris — the Solar System's longest and deepest-known canyon....

If you think all penguins look alike, you are not the only one. A hilarious video, captured by Andrea Barlow, director of the Falkland Islands Museum and National Trust, reveals that the aquatic, flightless birds sometimes also have a hard time distinguishing between one another....

Standing over 8 feet tall would be considered intimidating or, at least, respectable for most species. Unless, of course, you are a giraffe — the world's tallest animal — and are surrounded by cohorts who are at least twice as tall! Meet Gimli and Nigel, the world's first-known "mini" giraffes!...

When paleontologists discover a new dinosaur species, they usually marvel at the ancient creature's size or speed. However, a new species of a chicken-sized dinosaur is making headlines for a feature rarely associated with the primitive reptiles that dominated the world for over 140 million years — dazzling looks!...

NASA's Artemis program not only hopes to land the next man and the first woman on the lunar south pole by 2024; it also expects them to spend up to seven days in the inhospitable environment, collecting samples and conducting experiments. To provide the pioneering scientists — and future space travelers — with a comfortable shelter, two enterprising Dutch architects have built a habitat capable of withstanding the Moon's harsh conditions....

After erupting almost continuously for over three decades — from 1983 to 2018 — Hawaii's Kilauea volcano finally seemed to lose steam, producing no lava for nearly two years. The slumber ended on the night of December 20, 2020, when the active volcano began spewing out dramatic lava fountains and giant puffs of gas and steam from a fissure in the northwest wall of the Halemaʻumaʻu crater....

Over the years, researchers have found ample evidence proving that the horned Triceratops and the Tyrannosaurus Rex (T. rex), which roamed western North America in the late Cretaceous period — some 69 million years ago — were mortal enemies. However, finding perfectly-preserved fossils of the prey and predator locked in combat was something they only dreamed of until the 2006 discovery of the "Dueling Dinosaurs" at a private Montana farm by commercial fossil hunters Clayton Phipps and his team....

Total solar eclipses, during which the Sun briefly "disappears" in the daytime, occur about every 18 months. However, unlike lunar eclipses, which can be seen worldwide, the celestial phenomenon can only be observed within a narrow, approximately 100-mile-wide, path of totality. Moreover, total solar eclipses occur at a specific location, on average, about every 360 years. This means that the chance to observe one in real-time is truly rare and special....

China’s Chang’e 5 spacecraft, tasked with bringing lunar rock samples to Earth, successfully landed on the Moon on December 1st, 2020. The 18,100-pound (8,200 kg) spacecraft, launched from China’s Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on November 23, 2020, entered the satellite's orbit on November 28th, 2020. Soon after, it deployed its lander and ascender modules to the Mons Rümker, an isolated volcanic formation on the Moon's near side....

Mention goldfish, and the image that comes to mind is that of small, colorful creatures swimming in circles in fish bowls or home aquariums. However, the one recently discovered by biologists conducting a fish survey at a South Carolina lake was no ordinary goldfish - it was a 9-pound, 15-inch-long behemoth!...

On December 1, 2020, the United Kingdom (U.K.) became the first western country to give emergency approval for a COVID-19 vaccine. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) officials announced they would begin distributing 800,000 doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine to 50 British hospitals as early as next week. The initial vaccines will be administered to some of the nation's most vulnerable citizens — nursing home residents, health workers, and the elderly....

Over the years, the caretakers at the Southern Plains Wildlife Rehabilitation Center (SPWRC) in Lubbock, Texas, have sheltered hundreds of species of orphaned and injured animals, ranging from birds to reptiles. However, the hairless baby opossum, dropped off at the center in mid-October by a concerned resident, was unlike any animal they had encountered before....

With much of our world automated, many experts believe that coding should be a core part of modern education. Yet, only 20 US states offer high school students access to computer science courses, and just 8 of those make the subject accessible to kids in lower grades. However, thanks to Seattle-based Code.org's Hour of Code Challenge, learners of all ages and backgrounds can now get exposure to this all-important subject....

Extreme athletes have been using wingsuits — unique jumpsuits with fabric stitched between the arms and body and between the legs — to fly untethered for many years. However, while the "birdman" or "squirrel" suits allow daredevils to soar in the skies, the pull of gravity makes it impossible to accelerate or fly higher. To push past the limitations, Austrian stuntman Peter Salzmann teamed up with German car manufacturer BMW. The result is an electrified wingsuit, which allows flyers to zoom to higher altitudes at speeds of up to 186 miles per hour!...