New Scale Pinpoints Most Life-Friendly Alien Planets
Researchers at the University of Washington’s Virtual Planetary Laboratory have devised a new habitability index for judging how suitable alien planets might be for life. The point of the exercise is to help scientists prioritize future targets for close-ups from NASA’s yet-to-be-launched James Webb Space Telescope and other instruments. The top prospects on their list…
Wildlife Is Making a Comeback at Chernobyl — Now That People Have Left
The accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986 had a devastating impact on the local population and forced 116,000 people to permanently leave their homes. But now researchers have discovered that, while the people may not have returned, the contaminated area of Belarus is teeming with wild animals, including elk, wild boar, deer…
Here’s What That All-Nighter is Doing to Your Brain
Skipping a night of sleep to work on a project or study for an exam is something many of us have done at one time or another. But what does sleep deprivation actually do to the brain? A new study shows that all-nighters are not without neural consequences—some of them potentially longterm. As you put…