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What is a role of Saharan dust on hurricanes? 🌪🌧 Hurricanes, including tropical cyclone rainfall (TCR), are among the most destructive weather phenomena on Earth. 🌡💧Traditionally, sea surface temperature or humidity in the atmosphere were considered as the main factor controlling hurricane precipitation. 🏜❗️Now, scientists believe that Sahara dust plays a leading role on hurricane formation over the ocean, which affects weather in America. ℹ️ Previous studies have found that Saharan dust tra…

Could the Sahara be green again and will Africa finally need its “Great Green Wall”? 🟢 Africa’s “Great Green Wall” initiative was launched to hold back the Sahara from expanding southward. 🟢 This year, after an unusual influx of rain, scientists have compared satellite imagery on September 12, 2024 (⬆️upper image), versus the same day in 2023 (⬆️lower image), and have seen that the southern Sahara’s vegetation reached much farther north in 2024. ℹ️ Where the trade winds from each hemisphere m…

When and why was the Sahara green? ✅ Records from ocean sediment show that the Green Sahara happens repeatedly in Earth's history. ✅ Sometime between 11,000 and 5,000 years ago, after the last ice age ended, about 9 mln square kilometers (3.5 mln square miles) of the modern Sahara Desert was a green place with lakes, where animals like elephants, hippos and antelopes feasted on thriving grasses and shrubs. ✅ The Green Sahara, also known as the African Humid Period, was caused by the Earth's c…

Who left Paleozoic “dumbbells”? All over the world, scientists find dumbbell-shaped fossils in rock outcrops that are called Bifungites and are not fossilized animals but burrows left in an extinct creature’s wake. ⬆️ Most are found in rocks from the Paleozoic era more than 300 million years ago. 🪱 Not long ago, Brazilian paleontologists, exploring the bed of the Sambito River in northeastern Brazil, found imprints of small worms inside Bifungites, indicating that these organisms produced them…

How does the brain store memories? 🧠 In the brain, the hippocampus region, crucial for learning and memory, records each event in three different forms or “copies”. These ‘”copies” are disseminated among different groups of neurons that arise at various stages during embryonic development. 1️⃣ The early-born neurons ensure the longevity of a memory creating a copy that, although initially weak, strengthens over time. This memory becomes more accessible to the brain long after its formation, a…

Where do the most genetically diverse people on Earth live? 🌍 The most genetically diverse people on Earth live in Africa. Geneticists have discovered more than 3 mln previously undescribed genetic variants among Africans. That diversity has fit well with the fossil evidence that the human species originated in Africa. It is known that when a new species, be it plant or animal, arises and spreads, genetic differences accumulate more in geographic regions where the species has been present lon…

How many phase changes of matter are there? 📌 A phase change or phase transition is a change between solid, liquid, gaseous, and sometimes plasma states of matter. 📌 The main factors that cause phase changes are changes in temperature and pressure. At the phase transition the two states of matter have identical free energies and are equally likely to exist. ❗️ There are 8️⃣ phase changes between solids, liquids, gases, and plasma. Melting (Solid→Liquid) Freezing (Liquid→Solid) Vaporization or…

states of matter that exist under extreme conditions

What is a state of matter? ✔️ Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space. It consists of subatomic particles, atoms, ions, and compounds. Sometimes these particles are tightly bound and close together, while other times particles are loosely connected…

What is a state of matter? ✔️ Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space. It consists of subatomic particles, atoms, ions, and compounds. Sometimes these particles are tightly bound and close together, while other times particles are loosely connected and widely separated. ✔️ States of matter are forms in which matter exists, they describe the qualities displayed by matter. Basically, the state of matter of a substance depends on how much energy its particles have. ✔️ It’s possible t…

How did a prehistoric bird use its teeth? When the first fossil of Longipteryx chaoyangensis was found in 2020, paleontologists thought its toothed beak suggested it ate fish. Scientists initially compared the ancient bird to the contemporary kingfisher because of its similarly-shaped skull and beak, and diet of small fish, but that resemblance turned out to be a red herring. A more recent look inside a specimen’s stomach showed the bird — which lived 120 million years ago in what’s now northe…

How did the largest pterosaurs fly? Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates that evolved powered flight, but it has long been debated whether the largest pterosaurs could fly at all. Scientists were lucky to find in Jordan three-dimensionally preserved bones of two different large-bodied azhdarchoid pterosaur species. These rare fossils have enabled experts to hypothesize that not only could the largest pterosaurs take to the air, but their flight styles could differ too. Newly collected bones …

What was the most spectacular vacuum experiment? 📍 The most spectacular vacuum experiment was performed by a German scientist Otto von Guericke (1602-1686), the inventor of the air pump. In 1654, he evacuated the air from inside a pair of joined metal hemispheres and attached a group of horses to each end. The external air pressure that acted on the hemispheres was so strong that even 30 animals could not pull them apart ⬆️. 📍 The first artificial vacuum was produced in 1643 by an Italian phys…

Can a vacuum be totally empty? 📌 A vacuum is a volume empty of matter, sometimes called ‘free-space’. ❗️ In practice, only partial vacuums are possible. 📌 Outer space can approach the requirements of a vacuum, but even in space there are a few atoms per cubic meter. 📌 Vacuum is not a force. Though the net motion of matter from a region of higher to lower concentration does appear to be due to a force – e.g. inside a vacuum cleaner, gas concentration is about 20% lower than ambient, so air an…

What is the concept of Ahimsa? 🔺 The concept of Ahimsa is an ancient Indian principle of non-violence, non-injury or absence of desire to harm any life forms. 🔺 Ahimsa originated in Jainism, an Indian religion, and is also an important principle in Buddhism, Sikhism, and Hinduism. 🔺 Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence was also profoundly influenced by Ahimsa. ℹ️ 🗓 No wonder that World Compassion Day (WCD), an annual observance held on November 28, originated in India. WCD was founded…

Why may food taste weird in space? 📌 Despite being given carefully designed diet plans ⬆️, astronauts have reported that meals taste bland and that they were not meeting their nutritional needs, which can be dangerous for long-term missions. Astronauts typically only meet about 80% of their energy needs in space. 📌 Scientists already knew that low-gravity causes fluid to shift from the lower to the upper parts of the body, creating facial swelling and nasal congestion which affects smell and t…