The Center Spins A couple of years ago we learned we might need to reevaluate the layout of the planet that we learn in grade school. Instead of the quartet of crust, mantle, liquid outer core, and solid inner core, researchers used waves from earthquakes to determine the inner core might actually be comprised of two distinct […]
The Ghost of the Mountains Let’s begin with a little game. Can you spot the adorable murder machines in the following images? If the pictures are two small to inspect in your browser, click on them to view a full-resolution version. Answers will follow at the end of the article. 3 4 1 1 1
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Monotreme Mucus Bubbles In Greek mythology, Echidna was half-woman and half-snake. With Typhon, she birthed some of the most famous mythological monsters, including, according to various sources, Cerberus, Hydra, Chimera, the Nemean Lion, Sphinx, and Scylla. When early naturalists encountered one of the planet’s strangest critters, they weren’t sure if it was a mammal or
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Cat-Ice Most topics we explore in this project have a significant background of research. Some subjects have such an extensive knowledge base that distilling them into a readable chunk is a laborious exercise in curation. Periodically, an issue pops up with scant information on the internet. This occurrence is a modern rarity; at this point,
The Green Parabola If any early humans or Neanderthals had turned their gaze to the cosmos 50,000 years ago, they might have been treated to a rarity. If, however, no one happened to catch the streaking sky-body 50 millennia ago, it’s possible that today’s humans will be the first to ever spy a comet that
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Fission, Fusion, Hot and Cold It’s always a great episode when we get to open with a clip from Back to the Future. In the final scene from the 1985 film, Christopher Lloyd’s Doc Brown arrives from 2015 to take Marty McFly and Jennifer Parker back to the future. As he attempts to wrangle the surprised
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The Liquid Rainbow The Andes dominate the western portion of South America, forming a continent-long spine of gnarly mountains. In Colombia, near the northern reaches of the Andes, another range sits just 25 miles to the east. The Serranía de la Macarena run for 75 miles north-to-south and stretch just 20 miles in width. The tallest
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Christmas Trees Perhaps the ubiquity of Christmas ubiquities is the tree that many celebrants add to their homes to decorate during the season. Raising plants indoors is not an oddity, but purchasing a sizable tree to move into one’s abode seems a bit out of the ordinary. How did we begin to string lights, toss
Mt. Marcy – New York’s High Point Northeastern New York is dominated by the Adirondack Mountains. Of the hundreds of summits that rise from the massif, none stretches higher into the sky than Mount Marcy. With an elevation of 5,344 feet above sea level, Marcy clocks in at 21st on the list of state High Points; it’s also the
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