Earthquakes are the result shifting plates in the crust of Earth. When there is frictional stress building of the plates it causes failure at a fault line an earthquake happens. The shaking of the ground happens when the energy is released, and waves radiate. Research has found that they predict where major seismic activity may happen, but they cannot forecast […]
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The species of bacteria that dominate our guts may strongly affect whether we’re thin or fat. Researchers at Washington University collected samples of gut bacteria from pairs of twins in which one was obese and the other thin. Then they transplanted the bacteria into mice. The mice that received the bacteria from the obese twins became obese; the mice that […]
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Scientists from the University of Delaware’s Bartol Research Institute in the Department of Physics and Astronomy have discovered very-high-energy gamma rays in the Cigar Galaxy (M82), a bright galaxy filled with exploding stars 12 million light years from Earth. The gamma rays observed by the team have energies more than a trillion times higher than the energy of visible light […]
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The rover Opportunity has been roaming over the planet Mars since January 2004 and traveled over 28 miles. It has sent back 225,000 photos of the planets surface. The information from the rover has told us that the winter is twice as long as Earth’s winters. Since it is longer than Earths winters the scientists didn’t expect the rover to […]
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Scientists have revealed that some fish that thrive in the freezing cold waters of the Antarctic actually have ice in their veins. A protein in their system called notothenioids not only keep the fish from freezing to death, but also keeps ice crystals in their veins. Although the ice crystals would melt at temperatures just slightly above freezing, the fish […]
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Mystery crater: A 40-foot crater has appeared in the ground near Managua airport. Nicaraguan authorities said the hole was caused by a meteorite that broke off from the passing Pitbull, or 2014 RC, asteroid. But NASA officials said that was unlikely, because such a strike would have produced an enormous fireball streaking across the sky, yet nobody reported seeing anything […]
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Prague, Okla Tremors from fracking: Scientists have linked Oklahoma’s largest earthquake—a 5.6 magnitude quake near the town of Prague, in 2011—to hydraulic fracturing, supporting claims that the process increases seismic activity. Fracking, as it is known, injects water and chemicals into petroleum deposits in order to extract trapped gas. This week, researchers at the University of Oklahoma, Columbia University, and […]
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Saturn’s ice-covered moon Enceladus could harbor a warm-water ocean beneath its frozen surface, opening up new possibilities for life beyond Earth. Enceladus has fascinated astronomers since 2005, when NASA’s Cassini probe caught geysers on the moon’s south pole spewing out plumes of salty water. Water that is thought to have originated in an ocean buried beneath the moon’s 25-mile-thick ice […]
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Are the scientists working to save Antarctica’s fragile ecosystem inadvertently contributing to its destruction? Could they possibly be Destroying Antarctica? A new study has linked a chemical used in flame-retardants—called polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)—that is contaminating the Antarctic environment to Australia’s Casey research station. Researchers found that dust and treated wastewater at the station contained PBDEs and another chemical that […]
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