When you look at your surrounding environment, it might seem like you’re living on a flat plane. After all, this is why you can navigate a new city using a map: a flat piece of paper that represents all the places around you. This is likely why some people in the past believed the earth to be flat. But most people now know that is...
Selenium is an essential nutrient named after the Greek goddess of the Moon − crucial to health, it may help prevent and treat cancer
Selenium is a nutrient that plays a crucial role in human health[1], contributing to the thyroid and immune function, DNA repair, and cardiovascular and cognitive health.
It acts as an antioxidant[2] – substances that protect cells from unstable molecules that can damage DNA, proteins and cell membranes. It can even protect against cancer.
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Making sex deadly for insects could control pests that carry disease and harm crops
Insects do a lot more harm than ruining picnics. Some insects spread devastating diseases[1], while others cause staggering economic losses in agriculture[2]. To control some of these pests, scientists are developing males that make sex a deadly event.
The stakes are high. Mosquitoes carry viruses such as dengue[3], West Nile[4] and Zika[5], as...
Colliding plasma ejections from the Sun generate huge geomagnetic storms − studying them will help scientists monitor future space weather
The Sun periodically ejects huge bubbles of plasma[1] from its surface that contain an intense magnetic field. These events are called coronal mass ejections[2], or CMEs. When two of these ejections collide, they can generate powerful geomagnetic storms that can lead to beautiful auroras but may disrupt satellites and GPS back on Earth.
On May...