Amos Zeeberg, Nautilus
Tonight, at 11:48 PM Eastern Time, is the moment of the winter solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere is pointed as far away from the Sun as it ever gets. It will be the longest night of the year, and tomorrow will be the day with the fewest hours of sunlight.
Danny Yadron, Wall St J
Cyberspies had access to control system of small structure near Rye in 2013, sparking concerns that reached to the White House.
Maev Kennedy, Guardian
Some 3,400 years before the roaring torrent of the A303 road sliced theStonehenge landscape in half, some people cut a beautiful pit a metre deep into the chalk with no tools except picks made of red deer antlers.
Mika McKinnon, Gizmodo
The informally-named Holuhraun volcano in Iceland now formally bears the same name, making fans of naming it after dragons, witches, or internet service providers sob furiously.
Rachel Metz, MIT Tech Rev.
Though virtual reality is still far from mainstream, 2015 was a big year for the industry as new headsets were introduced—some full-featured and powerful, some simple and portable—and companies announced new ways to control and capture VR imagery, too. Throughout the year, investors poured money into companies developing the technology, content creators figured out how to make everything from films to advertisements in VR, and millions of Americans experienced virtual-reality technology for the very first time.
Charles Ornstein, PP
Nursing home workers across the country are posting embarrassing and dehumanizing photos of elderly residents on social media networks such as Snapchat, violating their privacy, dignity and, sometimes, the law.
The Economist
Politicians beware. Success can seriously curtail your lifespan.
Bobby Magill, Climate Central
Solar and wind power are major components of the global strategy to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but those renewable energy sources come with a big challenge: They dont continuously produce electricity, and fossil fuels are used to make up the difference when the sun isnt shining and the wind isnt blowing.
Chelsea Leu, Wired
THIS PAST WEEK in Iowa, Ted Cruz took the lead away from Donald Trump, the floofy-haired presidential candidate who’s been dominating polls and political coverage for the past six months. Unsurprisingly, this made news—polls provide numbers that promise to objectively quantify just how well a candidate is doing. But a lot of methodology goes into these polls, and that affects how much voters (and mere political spectators) should trust them. Here’s how pollsters arrive at these numbers... Читать дальше...
Dennis Mersereau, Mental Floss
If you're in the eastern half of the U.S. or Canada, doesn’t it feel a little strange to wear a T-shirt without a jacket and throw open your windows just a week before Christmas? We should have snow and cold by now, but instead these regions are knee-deep in a record-breaking warm spell—a complete flip in the pattern we’ve grown used to in recent years.
David Shultz, Science Shot
Since its discovery in the 1824, scientists have scratched their heads at the odd body plan of the plesiosaur. The aquatic reptiles, which grew up to 15 meters long and lived from about 200 million years ago up to about 66 million years ago, are unique among animals for their four-flippered bodies.
Fred Pearce, NewScientist
They call it Europes Galapagos. Lake Ohrid in Macedonia is the most biodiverse lake of its size in the world, home to more than 350 species found nowhere else and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site based on its natural value. It is also Europes oldest lake, having survived for more than a million years.
Tia Ghose, Live Science
Why are there so many songs about rainbows? Perhaps because there are so many different types, each with its own distinctive features, new research suggests.
Ross Pomeroy, RCS
As 2015 draws to a close, those who cover science look forward with anticipation to an exciting year ahead, but they also look back at the noteworthy year that was. 2015 yielded a great many discoveries, insights, and captivating stories. (It also yielded some fascinating BS.) To recall and rank the most important of these is a challenge.
Huw Price, Aeon Magazine
Is cold fusion truly impossible, or is it just that no respectable scientist can risk their reputation working on it?
