Why the Volcanic Eruption in Tonga Was So Violent, and What to Expect Next
The Kingdom of Tonga doesn’t often attract global attention, but a violent eruption of an underwater volcano on January 15 has spread shock waves, quite literally, around half the world. The volcano is usually not much to look at. It consists of two small uninhabited islands, Hunga-Ha’apai and Hunga-Tonga, poking about 100m above...
How the Earth’s Tilt Creates Short, Cold January Days
Deanna Hence, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Above the equator, winter officially begins in December. But in many areas, January is when it really takes hold. Atmospheric scientist Deanna Hence explains the weather and climate factors that combine to produce wintry conditions at the turn of the year. How does the...
Why Can’t We Throw All Our Trash Into a Volcano and Burn It Up?
Emily Johnson, US Geological Survey Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com. Why can’t we throw all our trash into a volcano and burn it up? – Georgine T. It’s true that lava is hot enough to burn...
How effective are vaccines against omicron? An epidemiologist answers 6 questions
Melissa Hawkins, American University The pandemic has brought many tricky terms and ideas from epidemiology into everyone’s lives. Two particularly complicated concepts are vaccine efficacy and effectiveness. These are not the same thing. And as time goes on and new variants like omicron emerge, they are changing, too. Melissa...
A.I. Could Boost Accuracy of Lightning Forecasts
By HANNAH HICKEY-U. WASHINGTON Lightning is one of the most destructive forces of nature, as in 2020 when it sparked the massive California Lightning Complex fires, but it remains hard to predict. Better lightning forecasts could help to prepare for potential wildfires, improve safety warnings for lightning, and create more...
Tornadoes and Climate Change: What a Warming World Means for Deadly Twisters
John Allen, Central Michigan University The deadly tornado outbreak that tore through communities from Arkansas to Illinois on the night of Dec. 10-11, 2021, was so unusual in its duration and strength, particularly for December, that a lot of people including the U.S. president are asking what role climate change might have played...
4 unexpected places where adults can learn science
Jill Zarestky, Colorado State University Modern society benefits when people understand science concepts. This knowledge helps explain how cryptocurrency works, why climate change is happening, or how the coronavirus is transmitted from person to person. Yet the average American spends less than 5% of their lifetime in classrooms...
6 priorities could deliver energy breakthroughs at the Glasgow climate summit – there’s progress on some of them already
Dolf Gielen, Colorado School of Mines and Morgan Bazilian, Colorado School of Mines Much of the news coming out of the U.N. climate conference has focused on the spectacle, and how countries’ pledges aren’t on track to prevent dangerous climate change. But behind the scenes, there is reason for hope. In many countries, the...
Tokyo Olympics: What are the limits of human performance?
Daniel Merino, The Conversation and Gemma Ware, The Conversation Are there limits to how much faster, higher, or stronger an athlete can get? In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we talk to researchers in biomechanics, sports technology, and psychology, to find out. And we hear about what happened at the troubled 1920...
Crayola and OceanX Announce Tidal Wave Partnership
Crayola, the premier children's creativity brand, and OceanX, a leading global non-profit ocean exploration organization, are partnering to bring the wonders of the ocean to the next generation through imagination and creativity in the first collaboration of its kind for both parties. The multi-faceted relationship aligns with both...
Benjamin Franklin’s Fight Against Smallpox: Colonies Were Divided Over Inoculation, But He Championed Science to Skeptics
Mark Canada, Indiana University Kokomo and Christian Chauret, Indiana University Kokomo Exactly 300 years ago, in 1721, Benjamin Franklin and his fellow American colonists faced a deadly smallpox outbreak. Their varying responses constitute an eerily prescient object lesson for today’s world, similarly devastated by a virus and...
'Shark Beach with Chris Hemsworth': Charlie Huneveers Talks Shark Deterrents
A new special from National Geographic, sure to please all the shark lovers out there, will air Monday, July 5. Shark Beach with Chris Hemsworth is a one-off special, actor Chris Hemsworth (Thor, The Avengers), embarks on a personal mission to investigate how we can live more harmoniously with sharks. Hemsworth, an enthusiastic...
Watching A Coral Reef Die: Climate Change Devastates Tropical Island
Sam Purkis, University of Miami The Chagos Archipelago is one of the most remote, seemingly idyllic places on Earth. Coconut-covered sandy beaches with incredible bird life rim tropical islands in the Indian Ocean, hundreds of miles from any continent. Just below the waves, coral reefs stretch for miles along an underwater mountain...
Warp drives: Physicists give chances of faster-than-light space travel a boost
Faster than light travel is the only way humans could ever get to other stars in a reasonable amount of time. Les Bossinas/NASA/Wikimedia Commons Mario Borunda, Oklahoma State University The closest star to Earth is Proxima Centauri. It is about 4.25 light-years away, or about 25 trillion miles (40 trillion km). The fastest ever...
3-2-1 Blastoff! SpaceX, NASA Launch Recycled Rocket and Capsule
SpaceX and NASA launched four astronauts from three different space agencies to the International Space Station this morning using a recycled Falcon 9 capsule and rocket. Crew-2 was scheduled to blast off Thursday, but inclement weather along the Atlantic coast forced officials to delay it until early this morning. Astronauts...
Scientists are on a path to sequencing 1 million human genomes and use big data to unlock genetic secrets
A complete human genome, seen here in pairs of chromosomes, offers a wealth of information, but it is hard connect genetics to traits or disease. HYanWong/Wikimedia Commons Xavier Bofill De Ros, National Institutes of Health The first draft of the human genome was published 20 years ago in 2001, took nearly three years and cost...
Creating 'Humanized Pigs' to study human illnesses and treatments
Pigs with human immune systems. Ahlea Forster, CC BY-SA Christopher Tuggle, Iowa State University and Adeline Boettcher, Iowa State University The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires all new medicines to be tested in animals before use in people. Pigs make better medical research subjects than mice, because they are closer...
3 medical innovations fueled by COVID-19 that will outlast the pandemic
Deborah Fuller, University of Washington; Albert H. Titus, University at Buffalo, and Nevan Krogan, University of California, San Francisco A number of technologies and tools got a chance to prove themselves for the first time in the context of COVID-19. Three researchers working in gene-based vaccines, wearable diagnostics and drug...
How humans became the best throwers on the planet
Michael P. Lombardo, Grand Valley State University and Robert Deaner, Grand Valley State University Pitchers’ fastballs are getting better and better. From 2008 to 2020, the average speeds of all major league baseball pitches combined rose by between 1.5 mph and 2 mph. In the 2019 season, nearly 90% of the 281 pitchers who threw...
