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getty We sometimes get stuck thinking that everything was so much better, and easier, in the past. It’s one of the tricks our minds play on us, especially when we are feeling vulnerable or overwhelmed. Rarely, however, is it actually the case that things were “objectively” better in the past. Psychologists refer to this flawed

NASA scientists made a bunch of new discoveries in 2020 using data from its Juno spacecraft at … [+] Jupiter. Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill A $1.1 billion NASA spacecraft orbiting Jupiter since 2016 has sent back its latest batch of close-up photos of the giant gas planet after completing another year of its science mission.  NASA’s

CALABASAS, CA – NOVEMBER 09: Kindergarten students in the classroom of teacher Ursula Dysthe raise … [+] their hands to answer questions as they arrive Monday morning at Lupine Hill Elementary School in Calabasas as one of the first elementary schools to open up under in L.A. County. This in the Las Virgenes Unified School

Topline British officials celebrated Monday as the country accelerated its Covid-19 immunization campaign will the rollout over 500,000 doses of the newly-approved vaccine developed by pharma giant AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, with health secretary Matt Hancock hailing it a “pivotal moment” in the fight against the virus while the country battles against a

A ‘triple conjunction’ between Mercury, Jupiter and the Moon will dominate the post-sunset skies … [+] this week. Here’s an image of Venus and Jupiter along with the Moon over ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) observatory at Paranal, Chile. ESO/Y. Beletsky Each Monday I pick out the northern hemisphere’s celestial highlights (mid-northern latitudes) for the

Juan Pablo Jordán, a spider biologist at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Quito, Ecuador. Juan Pablo Jordán Ecuadorian scientist Juan Pablo Jordán didn’t just conquer his childhood fear of spiders to become a spider scientist (arachnologist), he is helping to document his country’s wide variety of spiders before they disappear forever. Orb-weaver spiders

American politician and former astronaut Senator John Glenn gives a ‘thumbs up’ sign as he leans out … [+] of the door during his campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination, Massachusetts, January 5, 1984. (Photo Robert R. McElroy/Getty Images) Getty Images The newly-elected members of the 117th U.S. Congress will take their oaths of office

What’s the brightest star in the night sky? The winter Milky Way with bright Sirius just off-center, … [+] as seen from Nepal. getty Everyone knows what the brightest star is, right? So what are you going to suggest? The North Star? Most people seem to think that, but most people would be wrong. In

Topline Despite the Covid-19 death count in the United States rapidly accelerating, a startlingly high percentage of health care professionals and frontline workers throughout the country—who have been prioritized as early receipts of the coronavirus vaccine—are reportedly hesitant or outright refusing to take it, despite clear scientific evidence that the vaccines are safe and effective.

In a Universe governed by General Relativity, filled with matter-and-energy, a static solution is … [+] not possible. That Universe must either expand or contract, with measurements revealing very quickly and decisively that expansion was correct. Since its discovery in the late 1920s, there have been no serious challenges to this paradigm of the expanding

At 13:51 Universal Time on January 2, 2021 the Earth reaches 91,399,453 miles/147,093,162 million … [+] kilometers from the Sun or 0.98 au. getty Our planet and everyone upon it is now as close to the Sun as we’ll get in 2021. At 13:51 Universal Time on January 2, 2021 the Earth reaches 91,399,453 miles/147,093,162 million

A new variant of SARS-CoV2 originating in the U.K. has been confirmed to be significantly more … [+] transmissible than other known variants. getty A new variant of the SARS-CoV2 coronavirus recently discovered in the U.K. is significantly more transmissible, according to new research published yesterday. The work led by scientists at Imperial College London

It was a banner year for the commercial space industry. Even in the midst of a pandemic and while piling up big economic losses, companies continued to expand into the final frontier. One big milestone: In late May, Elon Musk’s SpaceX ferried two astronauts to the International Space Station, the first time human beings had

The full “Wolf Moon” in 2018. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images) Getty Images January is the best month to go stargazing. Sure, it’s cold in the northern hemisphere, but there are just so many special celestial sights to see. That goes triple in 2020, with a three-way planetary conjunction—and a chance to see no less

UNITED STATES – SEPTEMBER 06: Postage stamps commemorating the Apollo 15 voyage, 1971, depicting The … [+] shuttle’s moon landing and The Lunar Rover jeep’s lunar exploration. United States of America, 20th century. United States (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images) De Agostini via Getty Images As we brace ourselves for 2021, let’s take a look back

This image shows our fragile planet Earth, with clouds, ocean, land masses, and the border between … [+] the atmosphere and space visible. The most remarkable fact about the Universe is that is can be understood, but we must take care to take advantage of that understanding. Russian Space Agency / Elektro-L In a nutshell,

Mars, Venus and Jupiter (in that order from top to bottom) in a triangle, in conjunction, at an old … [+] farmstead near Vulcan, Alberta, in the morning twilight, October 28, 2015. Illumination is from the nearly Full Hunters Moon in the west. The trio of planets were in Leo in a fine conjunction not

This cow may be happy that moo-re people are consuming plant-based meats. World Animal Protection Animals are probably celebrating too. Have you ever seen a cow smile? New numbers from the animal welfare organization World Animal Protection estimate that nearly 1 million animals were saved from being turned into hamburgers and other meat for human

The last full moon of 2020, also known as the Cold Moon, rises behind the snow-topped San Gabriel … [+] Mountains and the Los Angeles downtown skyline at sunset as seen from the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area on December 29, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) (Photo by

The Storm Prediction Center’s severe weather outlook for Thursday, December 31, 2020. Forecast: Storm Prediction Center | Map: Dennis Mersereau Multiple rounds of severe thunderstorms are possible across the southern United States later this week. The risk for dangerous storms will evolve from Texas to Alabama on Wednesday and Thursday as a vigorous winter storm