Weekly Science Picks

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It’s that time of the week again. Time for some science-y goodness from around the globe!!

Mystery of the Van Allen Radiation belts solved!

We’ve known for some time that electrons in the heart of the Van Allen Radiation Belts are accelerated to almost the speed of light.  But until now we didn’t know why…..

Researchers implant false memories in mice

This sounds like the plot of about a half a dozen sci-fi movies… but researchers have attempted to implant false memories in mice and the results are very interesting!

Whispers from space will be clearer thanks to new technology

Picking up extremely weak signals from exploring spacecraft, such as Gaia and BepiColombo requires cooling a detector to within a few degrees of absolute zero. Recently ESA upgraded 3 of their deep space tracking antennas with the new technology.

 Gastric bypass surgery reduces incidents of diabetes

Doctors have known for a while that patients with diabetes who undergo gastric bypass surgery often don’t require insulin shots after surgery. They assumed it was the result of weight loss and change of diet, as it turns out that’s not the full picture…

Hubble spies gold…

Images snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope suggest that gold may have been generated by a violent neutron star collision that also yielded lead, platinum, uranium and other heavy elements.

US authorities plan to cull thousands of barred owls

Federal wildlife officials plan to dispatch armed bird specialists into forests of the Pacific Northwest starting this fall to shoot one species of owl to protect another that is threatened with extinction.

Intact dinosaur tail discovered in Mexico

Paleontologists discover the fossilized remains of a 72 million-year-old dinosaur tail in a desert in northern Mexico.