Doug Whitney (left, pictured with his son Brian in November 2022) is genetically predisposed to develop Alzheimer’s, but has so far dodged the condition Shelby Lum/Associated Press/Alamy A man in the US who was virtually guaranteed to get early-onset Alzheimer’s disease because of his genetics has somehow dodged it, possibly thanks to his inadvertent heat…
New Webb observations of two exoplanets TRAPPIST-1b and TRAPPIST-1c show blistering days and frozen nights, offering the first detailed climate maps of rocky exoplanets and dimming hopes for habitability. This artist’s impression shows an imagined view from the surface one of the three exoplanets orbiting the ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 38.8 light-years from Earth. These…
New computational simulations suggest ice-giant planets like Uranus and Neptune harbor a quasi-one-dimensional superionic state of carbon hydride that could reshape how scientists understand planetary interiors. Illustration of the predicted hexagonal carbon hydride compound under Neptune-like interior conditions. In this structure, carbon forms the outer spiral chains (yellow) and hydrogen forms the inner spiral chains…
By probing supercooled water with ultrafast lasers before it crystallizes, physicists at Stockholm University observed telltale signs of a long-theorized transition between two liquid states, including surging heat capacity and critical fluctuations. You et al. studied supercooled water at timescales before ice formation by heating high- and low-density amorphous ices using infrared ultrafast laser pulses,…
An unprecedented heat wave in the West broke the record for the hottest March temperature anywhere in the United States: 108 degrees. It’s an alarming signal of how hot the planet is getting and how fast it’s happening. Yuma, Arizona, hit 109 degrees on Friday afternoon, which broke the national March record of 108 degrees…
