Tag Archives: science

Grid batteries have a halo effect for other power generators too. Most thermal power plants—coal, gas, nuclear—prefer to run at a steady pace. Ramping up and down to match demand takes time and costs money, but with batteries soaking up some of the variability, thermal power plants can stay closer …

Satellite observations had shown alternating stripes of light-colored and dark-colored rock in this area. In late March, Perseverance excavated one of the light-colored formations and collected a sample. In the process it discovered the strange rock—which has been named “St. Paul’s Bay.” A photo of the St. Paul’s Bay rock, …

With vaccination rates among US kindergarteners steadily declining in recent years and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vowing to reexamine the childhood vaccination schedule, measles and other previously eliminated infectious diseases could become more common. A new analysis published today by epidemiologists at Stanford University …

In the arid region south of Mexicali, where the pale desert dominates the landscape, the Las Arenitas wetland feels like a mirage. But it is real, and is an oasis for endemic and migratory birds that cross the Colorado River delta. Here, just south of the US-Mexico border, used water …

Together with his colleagues, Jinshan Pan, a professor of corrosion science at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, published a study in January 2023 devoted to the risk of sulfides in groundwater corroding the copper used for spent nuclear fuel containers. “More work is needed to define […] the …

This story originally appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The summer of 2021 was brutal for residents of the Pacific Northwest. Cities across the region from Portland, Oregon, to Quillayute, Washington, broke temperature records by several degrees. In Washington, as the searing heat wave settled …

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. At the beginning of time and the center of every black hole lies a point of infinite density called a singularity. To explore these enigmas, we take what we know about space, time, gravity, and quantum mechanics and apply it …