A massive Mayan landscape is hidden beneath a forested area of southern Mexico. The newly discovered city, called Valeriana, spans an area roughly the size of Beijing and has “all the hallmarks of a classic Mayan political capital,” researchers reported in October. Antiquity. Its plazas connected by a grand causeway, temple pyramids, and water reservoir…
Scientific watchmakers have created a prototype of a nuclear clock, hinting at future possibilities for using atomic nuclei to make precise time measurements and make new tests of fundamental theories of physics. While the definition of “watch” is scientifically nebulous, the prototype has yet to be used to measure time. So it should technically be…
One of the richest biodiversity hotspots in the world is Peru’s Madre de Dios, a region of the Amazon located at the base of the Andes Mountains. When biogeochemist Jacqueline Gerson first traveled there in 2017, she found herself on a boat heading downstream through the forest. As she passed the banks of the river,…
Quantum entanglement has made its way to the top. Scientists have measured the strange quantum phenomenon of entanglement in top quarks, the heaviest fundamental subatomic particles known. It is the first detection of entanglement between pairs of quarks – a class of subatomic particles that make up larger particles, including protons and neutrons. Particles that…
The opposing fountains of plasma and particles spanning 23 million light-years are the longest pair of black hole jets ever seen. That’s far enough away to affect the evolution of the universe on a cosmic scale, astronomers report Sept. 18. Nature. “Traditionally, astronomers believed that all jets remain inside, or at least very close to,…
The ocean circulation system may not be as bad as previously thought. A vital oceanic artery known as the Florida Current, a signal of the ocean’s ability to regulate Earth’s climate, has apparently been weakening for decades. But this latest decline may not be as severe as suspected. The current has actually remained stable over…
While SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are enabling Internet access and mobile communications around the globe, they are also posing a threat to radio astronomy, a new study suggests. In several wavelength bands, the inadvertent leakage of electromagnetic radiation from the latest generation of satellites is more than 30 times brighter than emissions from earlier versions, Cees…
Bhavin Shastri still gets excited when he sees a laser pointer and has been fascinated by them since he was about 10 years old. “I was amazed that a beam of light could retain its brightness, concentrated in a small spot even after traveling a great distance,” says Shastri. “A laser pointer in my hand…
Dust pollution is known to contribute to asthma and heart and lung disease. But dust blowing from the Great Salt Lake in Utah can cause an additional unwanted shock. Metals in dust and sediments around the Great Salt Lake are more reactive than dust from nearby lake beds, researchers report in November. Atmospheric Environment. When…
Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse! The red supergiant that marks Orion’s left shoulder may have a tiny, unseen companion. Two independent studies found evidence of a star the same mass as the sun, orbiting Betelgeuse about once every 2,100 days. “It was very surprising,” says astrophysicist Morgan MacLeod of the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge,…
