It turns out that volcanoes provide important climate mechanisms as well. Researchers at the University of Southampton found that volcanoes are responsible for both emitting and removing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), which has helped stabilize the Earth’s surface temperature over millions of years. The findings were recently published in Nature Geoscience. The scientists worked alongside colleagues at the University of Ottawa, University of Leeds, the Australian National University (ANU), and the University of Sydney....

Most notably, PayPal is partnering with Synchrony Bank to offer its customers savings accounts with “PayPal Savings.” Users can easily move money between their PayPal Savings and PayPal balance to make payments. There are no minimum balance or monthly fees required for these accounts, and they will have a 0.40 percent Annual Percentage Yield (APY), which the company says is competitive compared to the national averages. And like a regular bank, PayPal will provide interest payments to customers at the end of their statement period monthly....

Today, humans are impacting over 70 percent of the Earth’s ice-free surface. And our heavy use is having a big impact: the report states that agriculture, forestry, and other land use practices are responsible for about 23 percent of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. We’re turning natural carbon sinks into carbon sources An area of land can store or release carbon depending on the climate, soil, and organisms at the location—and how humans are impacting it....

Helium is a little bit sexy, you know? If you ­immerse some solid objects into a vat of the element, the submersible becomes superconductive—electricity flows indefinitely without generating heat. That’s why helium is great for more than just making balloons float. Its energizing abilities make it ideal for everything from space travel, where it forces fuel into rocket engines, to MRI machines, where it cools the imaging magnets. But ­helium is also terribly uncooperative....

What are you drinking for Thanksgiving? My wife’s entire family comes from around the country and we do a beer dinner at her family’s house. We have a great tradition of multitasking with beers while we’re cooking. We have 60 Minute IPA on draft at my father-in-law’s farm, so we’ll be having that while we fry two big turkeys outside in our Cajun cooker. For the dinner itself we’ll be drinking two beers....

Since it was released in 2008, Apple’s App Store has been the only widely available way to legitimately install apps on iPhones and iPads. Workarounds like “jailbreaking”—cracking some of the security layers on the device—or installing developer betas have given dedicated and tech savvy users some freedom. But really, Apple has managed to keep pretty tight control over what apps people can download. In doing so, Apple has been able to take a 15 to 30 percent cut of all sales—much to the ire of developers and app makers....

New research published this week in the journal Science Advances suggests that the sizable shark was not only the apex predator of its day, but a “transoceanic super-predator” that could travel thousands of miles across oceans on long migrations, even faster than modern-day sharks. The research by Swansea University PhD student Jack Cooper, shark expert Catalina Pimiento from the Paleontological Institute and Museum at the University of Zurich, and John Hutchinson from the Royal Veterinary College shows the sharks may have eaten meals that were the size of an orca whale, consumed in an about five or more bites....

The scientists who’d made this bomb watched the Trinity test from a distance, welder’s goggles over their eyes and sunscreen on some cheeks. As part of the Manhattan Project, they had developed and built the so-called Gadget in just a couple calendar swaps, from a secret base in the New Mexico Mountains—a location named Los Alamos, which marks its 79th birthday this April, when the University of California signed a contract to operate the laboratory....

But sometimes you just can’t get to a toilet. Maybe you’re in the middle of a job interview, a traffic jam, or your own wedding. Whatever the case, we’ve all endured a situation where we’ve had to grit our teeth, tense up, and hold our poop. And during those excruciating minutes, there’s only one matter more important than the location of the nearest bathroom: How do I make this easier?...

The disease is deeply worrying for domestic rabbit owners and could also have consequences for wild rabbit, hare, and pika populations. An outbreak last year in northwestern Washington state had devastating impacts on both feral and pet rabbits. Now animal health officials are tracking its spread and trying to protect their most endangered rabbits from a disease that is very contagious and has a high mortality rate. “They both represent a longtime fear that has come true,” says Susan Kerr, an education and outreach specialist at the Washington State Department of Agriculture....

Twenty-some hours later, after an epic interstellar journey, this rippling wave will reach Earth. By the time the ping gets here, its strength has dramatically diminished—down to about 0.1 ­billion-billionth of a watt. The signal’s trip across our solar system is over, but its voyage has just begun. The challenge now is greater than crossing our corner of the galaxy; it is to hear and make sense of the information within the message, the most distant whisper of our own creation....

Within a week, the average global surface temperature would drop below 0°F. In a year, it would dip to –100°. The top layers of the oceans would freeze over, but in an apocalyptic irony, that ice would insulate the deep water below and prevent the oceans from freezing solid for hundreds of thousands of years. Millions of years after that, our planet would reach a stable –400°, the temperature at which the heat radiating from the planet’s core would equal the heat that the Earth radiates into space, explains David Stevenson, a professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology....

It’s the remnants of an exceptionally young supernova, only nobody recognized that fact when it was first discovered in 1985. It was only last year that researchers at NASA took another look and found that it had expanded its boundaries by 16%, making it the fastest moving supernova remnant ever seen. That speed could be the key to why supernovas in our galaxy are so scarce; the wavelengths at which its energy is being expelled are not usually looked for by astronomers....

The report, which collected its data from 3.79 million birth certificates, found the average birth rate dropped two percent since 2017—highlighting a steady decline since the Great Recession in 2007. Total fertility rate is the expected number of children a woman would have over her entire child-bearing lifetime—calculated as the ages between 15 and 44. In 2018, the fertility rate in the US was 1,729.5 births per 1,000 women. According to the CDC, replacement fertility rates are 2,100 births per 1,000 women....

Maine is moose country. Outside of Alaska, it has the country’s largest population of the world’s largest cervid. But the Pine Tree State’s iconic animal is under threat from a far smaller creature. Since winter, in a corner of the state with the highest concentration of moose, encompassing parts of Piscataquis and Somerset counties, 86 percent of calves tracked by scientists have died. The culprit in most cases: winter ticks....

Soothing scenes You’ll find few traces of civilization in the master’s canon, which is a big reason his work is so relaxing. Not only do landscapes inspire chill, but admiring them can reduce cortisol levels and boost dopamine. People, who inhabit just a handful of Ross’ works, scarcely have the same impact. Calming colors Ross favored bright hues and earth tones. You’ll often see white, red, and brown on his palette alongside smatterings of yellow, blue, and green....

Jupiter, in theory, should have big rings. It’s the largest planet in our solar system—Saturn comes in at a close second—and it stands to reason the gas giant could pull even more space debris to create bigger and more vivid rings. “If Jupiter did have them, they’d appear even brighter to us, because the planet is so much closer than Saturn,” Stephen Kane, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Riverside and lead author of the study, said in a university press release....

Getting a rover to Mars is one thing—but bringing samples of it back to Earth represents a new challenge altogether. A return mission will require multiple complex pieces working together to ferry the precious cargo back to Earth. Earlier this month, NASA announced that defense contractor Lockheed Martin would be building the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), the rocket that will someday take off from the surface of Mars to start the return journey with samples of the planet’s dirt, rocks, and atmosphere....

While the finding might not be a total shock to snack aficionados, it sheds light on the next generation of 3D printed manufacturing. Crystal Owens, the lead author on the study, and a PhD student in fluid dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, usually focuses on using ink-containing carbon nanotubes to 3D print electronics, not the texture of food. Oreos are a way of putting those concepts in the hands of the general public....

It can identify plants and animals, give you information about a building you’re standing in front of, translate text, and even tell you the popular dishes on a menu. The app is available on Android on its own and as part of the Google Camera (tap More, then Lens on the shutter screen). If you’re using an iPhone, you’ll find Lens in the Google app for iOS: Tap the Lens button (which looks like a camera lens) in the search box to launch it....