Our home galaxy has a new, super-precise mass measurement: about 890 billion times the mass of our sun. That’s 3.9 tredecillion lbs. (1.8 tredecillion kilograms), a tredecillion being a 1 with 42 zeros after it, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. That amounts to…
Here, an image of the launch-triggered lightning that struck the Apollo 12 rocket. SAN FRANCISCO — When NASA’s Apollo 12 rocket launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Nov. 14, 1969, the sight was electrifying — and not in…
A photographer documents the creative architecture the Swiss have made to help their feline friends get around. SWITZERLAND MAY BE the best place in the world to be a housecat. They have freedom, autonomy—and their own cat-specific architecture. Be it…
An author of a new study on how the brain changes during long-term Antarctic expeditions stands alone on an ice shelf at the South Pole. After spending 14 frigid months in Antarctica, nine expeditioners left the continent with slightly smaller…
An illustration of Clostridium perfringens bacteria. This bacterium is one cause of myonecrosis, a “flesh-eating” infection that destroys muscle tissue. Seven people in San Diego have died in recent months from a “flesh eating” infection tied to use of black…
People with obesity, high blood sugar, high blood pressure or high cholesterol are often advised to eat less and move more, but our new research suggests there is now another simple tool to fight off these diseases: restricting your eating…