Bampot

From a hot, dense, uniform state in its earliest moments, our entire known Universe arose. These unavoidable steps made it all possible.

Key Takeaways

• At the start of the hot Big Bang, the Universe had almost unlimited potential: with a tremendous amount of energy inherent to an enormous number of fast-moving quanta of a variety of species.

• As time elapsed, however, the Universe expanded and cooled, with all of the quanta within the cosmos not only suffering the consequences, but stepping down in energy and increasing the total entropy of the Universe.

• What we wind up with, in the aftermath of this early, violent history, is a Universe ready to form atoms, molecules, stars, and later on, rocky planets and life. Here’s how it all unfolds.

Reports of unidentified flying objects in the northeastern U.S. are on the rise, but so far officials have few answers for alarmed residents

What’s bright, flying and reportedly swarming the night skies over northern New Jersey?

The answer is apparently “drones,” but no one seems to know—or, at least, to be able to disclose—much more than that.

We have only one example of biology forming in the universe – life on Earth. But what if life can form in other ways? How do you look for alien life when you don’t know what alien life might look like?

These questions are preoccupying astrobiologists, who are scientists who look for life beyond Earth. Astrobiologists have attempted to come up with universal rules that govern the emergence of complex physical and biological systems both on Earth and beyond.

By 2023, researchers had identified seven solar system objects that looked like asteroids but acted like comets. That was enough for the astronomical community to bestow upon them their own celestial object category: "dark comets." Now, with the finding of seven more of these objects, researchers could start on a new set of questions.

Two kinds of dark comets

The study's authors found that one kind, which they call outer dark comets, have similar characteristics to Jupiter-family comets: They have highly eccentric (or elliptical) orbits and are on the larger side (hundreds of meters or more across).

The second group, inner dark comets, reside in the inner solar system (which includes Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars), travel in nearly circular orbits, and are on the smaller side (tens of meters or less).

Where are baobabs found?

The tree is native to at least 37 countries in Africa and two in the Arabian Peninsula. The African baobab (Adansonia digitata) is the most widespread of the eight known baobab species. It endures in some of the harshest conditions, from salty water-bathed ocean shores to vast dry savannahs and forests. Of the rest of the baobabs, six are native to Madagascar, and one to northern and western Australia.

Baobabs are unique trees. They are among the world’s longest-living trees, with some being over 2,000 years old. They can survive prolonged droughts thanks to their ability to store water in their huge trunks, which can attain a diameter of 10 metres or more. The trunk has amazing regenerative ability, easily growing back after damage by humans in search of fibre or from wildlife like elephants trying to quench their thirst.

The discovery at the vicus close to the Roman legionary fortress of Bonn of a 14kg deposit of mail armour, comprising at least four different garments, offers insight into the organisation of the Roman military economy. In particular, the hoard emphasises the close relationship between the military installations along the German frontier and the extramural settlements that developed close by.

The mail seems likely to have been intended to be used for the repair and patching of other garments for the Roman army. The hoard therefore illustrates how military waste materials, especially scrap metal, could be processed by local craftworkers.

It also suggests that waste management and recycling extended beyond the melting of scrap for raw materials and included the skilled patching and repair of mail armour.

Nobody knows what sleeping mushrooms dream of when their vast mycelial networks flicker and pulse with electrochemical responses akin to those of our own brain cells.

But given a chance, what might this web of impulses do if granted a moment of freedom?

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Cornell University in the US and the University of Florence in Italy recently took steps to find out, putting a culture of the edible mushroom species Pleurotus eryngii (also known as the king oyster mushroom) in control of a pair of vehicles, which can twitch and roll across a flat surface.

Through a series of experiments, the researchers showed it was possible to use the mushroom's electrophysiological activity as a means of translating environmental cues into directives, which could, in turn, be used to drive a mechanical device's movements.

What can plants or animals do when faced with harsh conditions? Two options for survival seem most obvious: move elsewhere or adapt to their environment.

Some organisms have a third option. They can escape not through space but through time, by entering a dormant state until conditions improve.

As it turns out, dormancy may not only benefit the species who use it. In new research, we found that a propensity for dormancy may affect the balance of competition between species, and make it possible for more species to survive together when environments change.

In the Middle Ages there were some unusual practices and customs when dealing with the dead. From great piles of bones to embalmed hearts, with stories about mass graves and sleeping for hundreds of years, here is our top 10 list of strange things done with the medieval dead.

Capable of handling extreme cold, acid, and dehydration, the microbe Deinococcus radiodurans handles doses of radiation that would kill a human tens of thousands of times over, earning it the nickname 'Conan the Bacterium' after the valiant pulp fantasy character.

The secret to micro-Conan's strength lies in an assortment of highly potent antioxidants that mop up the mess of oxygen radicals before they can damage proteins critical to the cell's repair process.

Canada's Department of National Defence has released an updated image of an unidentified object that was shot down.

A department spokesperson said a Royal Canadian Air Force plane captured the image shortly before a U.S. fighter jet fired on the object over Yukon in western Canada in February of 2023.

According to a defence spokesperson, the image was taken from a Royal Canadian Air Force CP-140 Aurora long-range patrol aircraft before the object was downed by a U.S. F-22 fighter jet, CTV News reported.

The UFO was shot down on Feb. 11, 2023, shortly after it entered Canadian airspace through Alaska. It was one of three unidentified objects blasted out of the sky that month.

The Hubble Space Telescope captured some weird, unidentified stuff in the most detailed photos ever taken of the immediate space surrounding a quasar.

So what could these things be?

Scientists have suggested at least some of the objects could be small orbiting galaxies on the precipice of falling into the central black hole, which is what's powering the quasar. All of the objects were found within 16,000 light-years of the black hole.